C 85 ) 



is much broader ; but our fails were fet to take the 

 other when the wind fhifted ; accordingly we took 

 advantage of it The gulph of St. Laurence is 

 fourfcore leagues in. length, which a good wind at 

 fouth-eaft, with the affiftance of the currents, car- 

 ried us through in twenty-four hours. About half- 

 way you meet the IJles aux Oifeaux, or Bird IOands, 

 which we failed along at the diftance of a fmall 

 cannon mot, and which muft not be confounded 

 with thofe which were difcovered by James Cartier, 

 near the Ifland of Newfoundland. Thefe of which 

 we are now fpeaking, are two rocks which appeared 

 to me to rife up tapering to a fharp point about fixty 

 feet above thefurface of the water, the larger! of which 

 was between two and three hundred feet in circum- 

 ference. They are very near one another, and I do 

 not believe there is water enough between them for 

 a large fhallop. It is hard to fay what colour they 

 are of, the mute, or dung of fea-fowl, covering 

 entirely both the fnrface and banks. There are to 

 be feen, however, in fome places veins of a reddifh 

 colour. 



They have been vifited feveral times •, and whole 

 fhalops have been loaded with eggs of all forts, and 

 the flench is affirmed to be utterly infupportable. 

 And fome add, that befides the fea-gulls and the 

 cormorants, which come thither , from all the 

 neighbouring lands, there are found a number of 

 other fowl that cannot fly. What is wonderful, is, 

 that in fo prodigious a multitude of nefts everyone 

 finds his own. We fired one c nnon-fhot, which 

 fpread the alarm over all this feathered common- 

 wealth, when there arofe over the two iflands a 

 thick cloud of thofe fowl of at lean: two or three 

 leagues in circuit. On the morrow, about day- 

 break the wind fell all at once : Two hours after that 

 we doubled Cape Rofe, and entered the river St. 



G 3 Lau r 



/ 



