BRAS D’OR. 401

Dauphin and Boulardrie Island, is deep, and safely navigated by the largest ships. The latter, entering on the south side of the same island, is rendered im- passable, except to small vessels, by a dangerous bar.

Boulardrie Island, called after a French nobleman of that name,is about twenty miles in length, and from one to two in breadth ; and, lying longitudinally be- tween these entrances, protracts them into straits of the same extent. That of Great Bras d’Or, or the main entrance, is faced on the north-west by high lands, presenting cliffs and rocks, chiefly of gypsum, which frown wildly over its waters. The passage of Little Bras d’Or, to the south-west, is, for the first seven miles from the Atlantic, narrow, crooked, and of barren aspect. It then widens to more than double the breadth of the other strait, until both meet at the western end of Boulardrie, where they unite with Petit Bras d’Or.

Boulardrie Island is rather populously inhabited by Scotch Highlanders and numbers of Irish fisher- men, who were formerly employed at Newfoundland, and who now carry on a boat fishing near the great entrance.

From Petit Bras d’Or Lake, Bedeque Inlet parts off to the west, and passing through St Patrick’s chan- nel, branches into several creeks and coves, and then, contracting to a narrow strait, opens again into a capacious sheet of water, nearly twenty miles long, and from one to three broad, with scenery beautifully diversified by irregular coves, jutting points, and an undulated country. This branch still retains the Indian

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