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concavcd towards the North, is 130 miles long, and from 2 to 34 miles wide, and contains an area of 2,133 square miles or 1,365,120 acres.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

Wrapped up in the mists of the cloudy past, the exact date of the discovery of Prince Edward Island is a matter of conjecture. A commonly accepted belief is that it was first sighted by John Cabot in 1497, who named it Saint John in honor of the day, June 24th, the anniversary of the death of Saint John the Baptist. Many writers contend that it was dis- covered by Cabot’s son Sebastian in 1498, while other author- ities state that to Champlain is to be accorded the honor of naming the Island and of} planting thereon the F/eur—a’e-lis. Unfortunately no details of the early voyages have been pre- served, and it is doubtful what navigator first viewed this Island.

The history of the Island of St. John may be divided into two distinct periods, namely, from its discovery until it passed into the hands of the British in 1763; and from that time to the present. The Island long remained in its primeval state. Neglected by the English Government, the French appropriated it as part of the discoveries made by Verrazzani, a native of Florence, in 1523. In 1534, Jacques Cartier, the intrepid mariner of St. Malo, made his first voyage to the new world. He first trod Canadian soil at Brest in Esquimaux Bay; thence touching at Newfoundland and the Magdalen Islands, he after- wards reached St. John’s shore. There are extant several quaint descriptions of the country as he saw it, and from one. the “ Relation Originale,” we quote as follows :—

“All this land is low and the most beautiful it is possible to see, and full of beautiful trees and meadows; but in it we were not able to find a harbor, because it is a low land, very shallow and all ranged with sands. We went ashore in several places in our boats, and among others into a beautiful but very shallow river, where we saw boats of savages, which were crossing this river, which, on this account, we named the River of Boats.

That day we coasted along the said land nine or ten leagues, trying to find some harbor, which we could not; for as I have said before, it is a land low and shallow. We went ashore in four places to see the trees, which