( e 9 ) 



but, according to the moil exact fea- charts, the' be- 

 ginning of it on the fouth-fide is in 41 deg. north 

 lat. and its northern extremity is in 49 deg. 2 5 min* 



It is indeed true, that both its extremities are fo' 

 narrow, that it is very difficult to fix its boundaries 

 with any exactnefs. Its greater! breadth from eaft 

 to weft is about 90 fea leagues of England and 

 France, between 40 and 49 deg. of long, weft from 

 the meridian of Paris. I have heard failors fay* 

 that they have anchored upon it in five fathom wa- 

 ter % which is likewiie contrary to what the Sieur 

 Denys advances, who pretends he never found lefs 

 than five and twenty. But it is certain, that in fe- 

 veral places there is upwards of fixty. Towards 

 the middle, on the fide next Europe, it forms a bay- 

 called La Fcffe, or the ditch ; and this is the reafon, 

 why of two fhips under the fame meridian, and 

 within fight of one another, the one mall find 

 ground, and the other no foundings at all. 



Before you arrive at the great bank, you find a 

 lefier one called the Banc Jacquet, fituated oppofite 

 to the middle of the great one. Some mention a 

 third bank before this, to which they give a coni- 

 cal figure but I hav£ feen pilots who make no 

 more than one of all the three, and anfwer fuch ob- 

 jections as are made to them, by aflerting, that 

 there are cavities in the great bank, and ol fuch a 

 depth as to deceive thofe who are led into the falfe 

 fuppofition of three different banks, by not happen- 

 ing to run out a fufficient length of cable when they 

 caft anchor. However, let the fize and fhape of 

 this mountain be as they will, fince it is impofiible 

 to afcertain them to any degree of exactnefs \ you 

 find on it a prodigious quantity of fheil-fifh, with 

 fevcral forts of other fillies of all fizes, moft part 

 F 3 of 



