GUT or CANSEAL‘. 395

The island of Madame is about sixteen miles long, and from six to eight broad. Its soil is thin and rocky, yet the inhabitants derive essential advantage from what it produces. There are several small harbours, besides Arichat, along its shores, which afford shelter and convenience to the fishing vessels. A road crosses this island from Arichat to Grand Digne, at which place there is a ferry, less than a mile over, to the mainland, from roads communicating with St Peter’s, Bras d’Or, and River Inhabitants.

The Gut of Canseau, generally spelt Canso, and called by the French the Strait of Fronsac, is a nar- row strait which detaches Cape Breton from the continent of America. The passage from the Atlantic to its southern entrance, leads between Cape Canseau and Green Island, across Chedabucto Bay. Its length from Sandy Point to Cape Jack is about twenty- one miles, and its breadth about a mile. There are several coves and places within it, where ships may anchor with safety, and be sheltered from all winds : of these, Ship Harbour is the best.

The features of the scenery, on each side of this extraordinary strait, are unusually grand and moun- tainous, and stretch and rise to the utmost extent of romantic boldness. As it is considered the most con- venient, as well as safest passage to and from the Gulf of St Lawrence, ships, brigs, and a variety of small vessels, under sail, mingle incessantly, during summer and autumn, with the wildness of its pic- turesque sublimity. The mountains are covered with trees to their summits ; rocks jut out from the banks ;