SABLE ISLAND. 419

vibrates, as the mighty ocean strikes and breaks along its whole length. The sand is whirled and swept round the hills, the bars shift, and the island seems prepared to separate, and retreat from before the fury of the winds, and the thunders of the Atlantic.

It appears, however, that although some have con- sidered that the island is decreasing, it in reality gains in one place what it loses in another The site of

the residence of the first superintendent 1s now three 1; miles out in the sea, and cove1ed with two fathomsif < water. The sto1ms frequently expose to View humanii‘!‘ skeletons, and pieces of wrecks that have been buried many years.

Notwithstanding the unstable and barren nature of this ridge of sandy downs, for it is nothing more, it was thought worthy of settlement by the French before they attempted to plant any part of the con- tinent of America. The Marquis de la Roche landed forty malefactors on it, in 1598, to establish a colony. He then proceeded to the coast of Nova Scotia, but effecting nothing, and, being unable to deliver the wretches left on Sable Island, he returned to France, where he is said to have died soon after of a broken heart.

These people would have perished for want of food, had not a number of sheep escaped from a vessel that was wrecked soon after; and Henry IV. sent a vesg sel to take them ofl“, seven years afterwards, when he was so moved with their haggard appearance, dressed rudely in skins, that he not only pardoned them, but

gave each fifty crowns to begin the world with.