204 NEWFOUNDLAND.

Fortune Bay and St George’s Bay has been already generally described.

The islands of St Pierre and Mequelon, ceded in 1814 to France, lie off the mouth of Fortune Bay. Langley, although laid down on the maps as a sepa~ rate island, and appears as such from the sea, is, however, connected to Mequelon by a sand beach.*6 St Peter’s has the only harbour which is the rendez- vous of the French ships, and Where they have built a town since the peace. Here the French governor resides, and it is the head-quarters of the French fisheries. These islands are rugged, and produce nothing but shrubs, moss, and grass. Ptarmigan, or g white partridges, abound on them; and the most} plentiful cod-fishing surrounds their shores.

* In 1825, on my homeward passage from America, we were nearly driven ashore, in a gale of wind, on the west side of Meque- Ian. I asked the captain if we could not run through the passage, which appeared by the chart to separate Langley and Mequelon. He replied, that he had formerly landed on those islands, and walked several times across the beach from Mequelon to Langley;

but that, during stormy weather and high tides, the sea flowed between them.