22 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATrHAI. HISTORY. 
At this time, 1851, Capt. H. W. Bayfield' made anotlier survey of 
Sable Island and the hank about it. He determinefl the position of 
the East and West Ends as 59° 45' 59" W. long., and G0°8'57"W. 
long. "The east extreme of the sand hills alone remains unehanged 
for comparison with the observations of Admiral Ogle's officers [in 
1828], and it is satisfactory to find, that there was not only no reason 
to find fault with their determination, but that their latitude and al- 
so the meridian distance from Halifax is the same as ours, within two 
or three seconds of space. About two miles of the west end of the 
Island have been washed away since they observed in 1828, and this 
reduction of the Island, and consecjuent addition to the western bar 
is reported to liave been in operation at least since 1811, and seems 
almost certain to continue. A comparison some years hence with the 
present survey, can alone show precisely the amount of waste in any 
given time, the correctness or otherwise of the reported shifting of the 
bars, and of the opinion that the Island is insensibly becoming nar- 
rower, &c. All agree that there has been no material change in the 
east end of the Island within the memory of anyone acquainted with 
ji * * * " 
For the next twenty years the island enjoyed a period of compara- 
tive stability and calm. 
The winter of 1881-82, was marked by a succession of severe gales 
in which great erosion took place. The winds wasted from the sur- 
face of the dunes and the waves chopped off whole sections from the 
end of the island. During one gale an area of 70 feet by one-quarter 
mile vanished, as a month later in a few hours did 33 feet of the whole 
breadth of the island. Early in February occurred another violent 
gale, this time coincident with a high run of tides. The sea had worn 
away the embankment of dunes to within forty feet of a bluff on 
which stood the light-keeper's barn. All hands stood by. The cat- 
tle were removed to the porch of the lighthouse. As the staff were 
watching the force of the waves that were undermining the embank- 
ment, suddenly they saw a depression in the margin of the cliff, and 
the next instant an area equal to 48 feet wide and one-quarter mile 
long vanished into the breakers on the north side. During the night 
the forty feet in front of the barn vanished, and the next morning the 
barn itself went crashing down into the weaves. 
' Bayfield, Capt. H. W.: Append, to Journ. of House of Assembly, Prov. 
of N. S. no. 24, 167-168 (1851). 
