414 ST PAU L’s ISLA ND.

ous. When fogs prevail in the spring, and tempestu— ous long dark nights in the fall, many fine ships that we know of, and many more that we never heard of, otherwise than by the remnants of their wrecks, have, with their crews, perished on this inhospitable rock. So frequent have shipwrecks been upon this island, that the fishermen of Cheticalnp resort to it every spring for the purpose of collecting whatever may be found. The dangerous coast of Cape Breton, between Cape North and Cheticamp, having long been fatal to numberless ships and their crews, many leaving Quebec, and all parts within the gulf, in the fall, from the dread of striking the cliffs of that shore, and keep- ing too far off, have dashed against St Paul’s. Eight or; nine large ships, with their crews, have perished on it during the last six or seVen years. A few years ago, a transport, with two hundred lives, perished. Many of the bodies, Inen,women, and children, floated ashore along the coast of Cape Breton.

Among the rocks in the water, and on the surface of the island, human bones are thickly scattered. Not less than fourteen large anchors have very lately been counted lying at the bottom of the sea. This number must be small in proportion to those imbed- ded in the sand, 01' otherwise hid from sight. A good light-house, provided with a great gun, to be used in thick weather, might have prevented most of these wrecks, and saved the lives of the crews and pas- sengers.’*

* There is scarcely a more melancholy catastrophe than that of the ship Jessie, which occurred in 1823. This vessel, with Mr