Morning journal and courier., 1889-08-03

cemeteries your eyes ever beheld, trading houses, salmon fish stations, and soraggy village alone enlivened by these spiritless In dians, the summer time salmon cursrs and traders, and the triaing official life, as the Canadian government compels all sailing craft trading along the Labrador shore to take out their olearances at this point. It is 1 a dreary, lifeless, dirty spot, where nothing
 less alert and pugnacious than soul saving and trade could brave the wretched sodden-
 ness and desolation. The mouth of the Moisie has special interest for speYtsmen, 1t being the haunt of myriads of salmon; and fish of from thirty to forty pounds weight
 have frequently been taken. The river it. self winds through an unbroken wilderness from the central, treeless stone and ice table, lands of Labrador; while part way along it's valley runs the centuries-old wide Indian trail to the great lake of St. John, three hundred miles to the southwest.
 The ooast-line from Seven Islands and Bay would doubtless measure one hundred and fifty miles to the next trading post and village behind the noble group of Mingan Islands which stud the Labrador coast for a distance of fortysfve miles; but the sailing distance is not half so much. In delicious weather and without trace of fog we sped eastward past huge ocean steamers, govern- ment cutters and scores of fshipg-smacks, changing our course somewhat to the south,
 
 most grewsome of all spots within these northern seas, the Island of Antioosti, the North Point and the lighthouse of which are about fourteen miles distant from the Labra- dor shore. The name of this endless terror to all northern mariners and fisher folk was originally Assomption. This was changed to Ascension; this again to Natisaotee; and finally the latter was transformed by the hy-
 drographers and geographers Into Anticosti.
 ia Ia in Sc rI fo~ S,,
 the island itself save horror and desolation.
 It lies diagonally across the northern portion
 of the Gulf, it's northwestern extremity set squarely into the ninety miles wide mouth
 of the St. Lawrence river, and its extreme
 southeastern point lies about one hundred
 miles directly north of the center of the Gulf. It Is one hundred and twenty.two miles long, thirty broad, has circumference
 of two hundred and seventy miles, and con-
 tains about two million acres of land, or
 more properly speaking, surface; for land it
 has not. It's northern shores are lofty and
 present to the eye noble terraces of moun-
 tainous rock with spruce covered escarp-
 ments of green, blending into purple, mist
 covered indentations, or black and forbid ding crags. No one can describe, or justly
 conceive, the desolation and dangerous char
 acter of this great Gulf island. Canadian geologic and geographic surveys have been repeatedly used to foist 1t into notice and in- vits population. But it's history is one of death to mariners, ruin to capital and starva- tion and death to emigrsnts, who, to further some destardly stock scheme of plumber, have from time to time been left to die alone upon 1t. Its entire interior is one vast ut- terly irreclaimsble wilderness of rock, swamp and bog. The stunted spruce is in many places 80 matted, dense and storm-broksn that wild animals cannot penetrate 1t, and shipwrecked men have walked on top of the murderous mass for miles. There are no safe harbors. In every direction extend into the Gulf limestone reefs to entrap and wreck. The only humans existing upon it are the keepers of the lighthouses and wrecking stations, warily supplied with sup plies in fair weather; a half dozen trappers and hunters who are set down on its shores from venturesome sloops; an occasional "sg- ger" who here pursues his contraband voca- ton unmolested through fear of approaching | his haunts; or downright outlaws who con ! sign themselves to an inconoeivably more | wretohed prisonment than any known gov ! ernment can provide. Pufsns and sea-gulls | shriek around 1t; few wild animals devour each other upon it. It's deadly shores are ! strewn with ever bleaching wrecks; every hoarse song of the sea beating against it's crsgs Is dirge for the dead whose skeletons
 rot beneath; but curiously enough, as if in keeping with that seeming law of oompensa- tion which holds danger and sacrifice as the | price of all attainment of value, its cruel | coves and It's impenetrabls bays swarm with ! mackerel, cod, seals and whales in a profu-
 sion not elsewhere known of men.
 ! But 1t is more pleasant thing to turn | one's sight from such acoursed shores to the ! beauteous Mingan Islands to the north. Elm | erald, amethyst and onyx, set in feathery 1 surf, they are, and all day the sunlight and l the vagrant mists play over their winsoms ! sea face wondrously indeed. All the way ! eastward towards the Atlantic the great | Laursntian range of mountains gradually
 lessens in altitude, breaking into rounded
 and softened elevations, with here and there a lowering cliff to hint of the Sahara oi
 atone behind. But there splendid old peal
 leaps upright like fierce outpost towards \ the sea. Over and above the Mingan Isles il lifts It's cloudy head midway between thu Magpie and St. John rivers. This is grin ! old mount St. John, and the river of tha
 name, in which countless salmon play, ii oat
 of the noblest of the northern coast. But l there is no escaping tale and sight of wreck. | The western-most islets of the Mingans are
 called the Perroquets. They are the highest and scenically the most admirable of the group. Here Captain Deschamps pointed out the spots where the great steamers, the Clyde and the North Briton, were totally
 wrecked in September, 1857, and November
 1881; while on the shore of every one o
 these great outliers of the Silurian basin marking the boundaries of the old-time Si
 lurisn seas, is half embedded wreck, or shor ! strewn Hotsam of vessels nevermore to sail
 In and out of Mingan harbor, aroant
 whose shores cling remnant of the ban
 ished Acsdians of Nova Scotia, intermin gled with Frenck half-breeds and Nasaua ! pee Indians, all of whom receive ministra
 tions from the Oblate Fathers at 8 auain l old mission; before the more modern fish
 ing village of Long Point behind the Per ! roe uets; and between and about most 0 | these splendid islands; we sailed at will flo
 three idyllic days-idyllic at least to th
 English tourist and myself, and our captai
 bold chatted away merrily of the man
 things he knew, which all men so love tell. But our Yankee timber explorer coul sec no place for mills, no trees for cutting l no money to make, and legend and tale wei . barren of interest to him. So were c . 1 things his eye might rest upon; the wol
 drous triple mirages which the magic of u , mists and sun displayed; the countless fish l I sails at anchor, or going and coming vii the fruitsge of the deep, on whose decl ? brewn-faced, hairy breasted men sang hah :. songs in the language of Gaspe and Acad l. of old; the rolling porpoises tumbling aboI '. us; the phosphorescent sparkle of the su ,. along the shore; the spouting of whales Ia i. board and port, and here and theye the exc t ! LlQS chdSe, tuo spIeuu1u ysoato ut nAoA near some island shore where roysterir ss children, fair women, and often g lai # millionaire himself, merrily returned o' d signals of recognition; the ancient beach e outlined high above the highest tides; Il | lazy seals like hairy pickaninnies dispe-tir e in surfs or lolling upon half disclosed res d l the water-worn rocks standing beside us lii a half-ruined Egyptian pillars nodded al q | carved in wondrous fashion; nor in any al ,e all of the marvellous charm of these nort i. ern seas where there is no swelte,ing hou ,s and the ozone that lengthens life thrills ,e every breeze that comes. We told him { if He merely uprose and mournfully changi 1s his eud into the other cheek, quietly Q ,- served: "Squaws, rocks and ten nontl
 winter may do some people surprisin' we h But kin tell you this. When a Mass'ch t sits man gifts where they aint no money v make, he's a. dodretted long ways fz< ''o hum!" EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN. E
 D. ENTERTAINING.
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 The amount of brandy taken by some m ly is out of all proportion to tho size of { yrf