Evening star., 1922-09-17
(Second Mstdllment)
THROUGH BELLE ISLE TO
THE LABRADOR.


Nl fair but hazy. shutting
" out view of ST. Pauls
Island in the gulf and Cape
Anguille on the Newfoundland shore.
Next morning we ran into rough
weather.; and after three hours
Whitehouse, from high up in the
weather rigging, announced that land
was ahead of the fog banks.
1t was the Newfoundland coast. be-
tween the Bay of Islands and Bonne
bay, where Mt. St Gregory lifts its
head above the white surf-ridden
shore to a height of 2,240 feet. We
were soon at anchor in the bay.
Beautiful as it is, Bonne bay is a
treacherous stretch of water. for the
Winds howl and whistle and the av-
rage depth of water ten miles off
the entrance is twenty-five fathoms,
or 13S feet. while the average depth
Of all soundings in the ford. for such
il truly is, is forty mine fathoms or
294 feet-more than twice as deep.
If the figures of eminent geologlsts
are correct, Bonne bay was long in
lhe making and glaciers contributed
40 its formation.
/ At pm. the weather looked so
good that at o'clock we set sail
We encountered a bad cross sea.
with not enough wind to fill the sails.
We finally crotched the boom to pre-
vent it being broken from the violent
sagging and jerking of the mainsail
and mainsheet and proceeded north
ward under power.
The Northern Lights playing
across the sky beckoned US on to the
arctic regions. The twilight of the
morning of July 80, 1921, etched into
relief against the clear northern
horizon the Bradore hills of southern
Labrador, a part of the coast desig-
mated by the French fishermen of a
century ago as LIE Petit Nord.
From the sixteenth century up to
p most recent treaty the southern
and northern shores of Newfound-
land and also southern Labrador
were largely resorted to by fisher
men from Breton and Norman ports:
induced to come hither by Sebastian
Cabot. who vowed that Goldfish were
so numerous that they sometimes
stayed his shippes." Here was also
the tabled city of Brent. large and
strongly fortified, peopled by $4,000
men and furnished with all that is
necessary to enrich good-sized
town." for which persistent search
: was made for more than half CEN
Jury.
TT didn't seem possible that we
i were to have clear weather In the
straits,of Belle Isle, for such is quite
unusual Late in the afternoon the
fog rolled in from the sea in a thick
loud, blotting out the shore. The
water is so deep close to shore from
Red bay to. Chateau that I had hopes
by following the land that we might
make Chateay before dark. 1t needed
one man in the rigging and the eyes
Of every one on deck to follow the
line of surf bordering the line Of
rock. 1t was almost one Continuous
"Starboardr' Port" and getting
moro exciting every moment as the
darkness increased.
When almost at the very entrance
of the harbor a breaker was seen al
most under the bow. AS the Bowdoin
swung on her keel, away from
the danger, two large icebergs
doomed up in the darkness. Quick
action piloted her between them and
away we went out to sea, deciding
that the danger of the ice-strewn
strait was not to be compared with
that of the coast.
Stopping the engine, we lay to
under jumbo and foresail in drizzling
rain until daylight, when it breezed
up hard from the southeast, with
heavy sea with thick fog. a sea
plainly not due to wind which We
had had. but one which preceded a
SXle. Uncertain as to our position.
for the tides in the straits are strong
and we had drifted throughout the
night. 1 let the Bowdofn go to the
southward,> watching under the lee