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Les diagrammes suivants iilustrent le mAthode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 i\ lit IS fdAkJjdj L ■''k AM 1/Uw3 Hi. U'crnRi; on Mr.i,i; island, r.v J. iir,i;N'Ai:ji (IIiMin b.a,, M.b., m.im.s. WlTir TTJJJST]{.\'ri()\<, WHT:CK of TPIK *AI^N<>." ,'gl |0tin, 1)1] fj)tr. losrpl; ^lolue. i !f SABLE ISLAND : ITH PAST IlLSTORY, PJIESENT APPEAIIANCK. NATURAL IIISTOIIY, &c., &c., 'oi Q < A LECTURE, BT J. BERNARD GILPIN, B.A., M.D., M.U.C.S. AtBO, A DKSCRIWION OV THE SHIPWRECK OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOXEH ARNO, LOST ON THE ISLAND SEPIEMBEU ID, 1846. BT , JOSEril DARBY, Esq., 8UPERINTENDKNT OF THE ISLAND. ^ fam m i\t same ^ubjctt, BT - THE HONORABLE JOSEPH HOWE, M.P.P. All Delirored before the Atbenaam Society, Fe1>niar7, 183a ''^., ,1 HALIFAX: PRINTED AT THE WKSLEV.VN CONFERENCE STEAM PBESS, .?-' 1858. 'it- 1 I . .. j.j. ,- ,.. .. V "'( I M ' ' t' , •*;- fe ,< 1- I I d I. SABLE ISLAISTD. A ROMANTIC interest has always invested the subject of this evening's lecture, — Sable Island. Its position, jutting far out into the Western Atlantic, — its wind-swept desolate sand-hills, — its perpetual fringe of everlasting surf, — with its sad story of many a drowned man or sea-wrecked ship, min- gled with ghostly fable or truer tale of murderous plunder, — are full warrant for the deopest interest. I^et the interest of the story, then, bespeak your attention for an hour, whilst I endeavour to give, — I. Its Early History ; II. Its Present Appearance ; III. Its Natural History : being a description of the various quadrupeds, birds and fish found about it, with the vegetable productions affording them food; IV. Some Interesting Particulars of Ancient Shipwrecks and their Relics ; and to conclude with a General Summary of the whole. I. Its Early History. — We read in those wondrous stories of Northern adventure which the Sagas of Iceland have handed down from the 9th century, that the bold Biom Hkri- AF80N, after making the coast of Newfoundland and sailing towards the setting Sun, came upon a sandy land, wliich, from its position, must have been Sable Island. In his meagre chart of a new world its sands have but scant mention ; but it must have been that this hardy Dane from the undecked poop of his miserable shallop was the first European that sighted this terror of all future navigators That when A the rest of the world wnrco darod to crocp out of sight of land, those bold men, without compoHS, or chart, or reckoning;, looking only to the stars, ventured the great Athintic, and in undu(;ked vessels wrote re(!ords that have Kurvivtid them a tliousand years, is perhaps a greater triumph in nautical adventuro than the huge LerinfhdH of tlio IDth century. Our next mention of the Island is connected with Hir llrsi- piiuKY (JiLDKUT. This pious and accomplished gallant of the court of the virgin Queen Klizabeth, and a half-brother to Sir Walter Ilalcigh, hearing when in Newfoundland of cattle being on the island, sailed thither to victual. Confused in a thick fog, and pressed by a south-east storm, ho lost his second in connnand on the North-cast Bar, and barely escajKid with his remaining two vessels, soon after to founder himself in a terri- ble gale on tlie Great Banks. His solo remaining consort carried homo the unwelcome news that the heroic Admiral liailed them during the raging storm, " That heaven was as near by sea as by land," and shortly, standing at the holm, Korely wounded in his foot, and Bible in hand, went down. By the kindness of my friend, Thos. B. Akins, Esq., T am enabled to (juote a graphic description of this untoward event,, clothed in tiuit quaint piety and racy stylo so peculiar to the time : — " Sabla lieth to tlio sea-ward of Cape Britton," (I quote from a black-letter edition of Hackluyt's Voyages 158H, taken from the above gentleman's library) •' about 45 leagues, whither we were determined to go upon intelligence we had of a Portingall, during our abode in St. John's, wlio was himself present when the Portingals about 80 years past did put into the same island both neat and swine to breed, which were since exceedingly multiplied. The distance between Cape Race and Cape Britton is 100 leagues, in which navi- gation we spent 8 days, having the wind many times indif- ferent good, but could never attain sight or any land all that time, seeing we were hindered by the current. At last we % fdll bto Buoh flats and dangers that hardly any of as escaped, whore novertholoss wo lost the Admiral with all the men and provision, not knowing certainly the place. Yet for inducing men of skill to mako conjecture by our course and way from Capo Race thither, and thereby the flats and dangers may bo inserted in sea charts for warning to others, I have sot down the best reckonings that were kept by export men, William Coxo, master of the Hind, and Joim Paul, his mate, both of liimehouse." Here follow the courses and reckonings of each day, starting from Capo Race and ending sadly, " Here we lost our Admiral." It is worth mention that those courses wore marked out by my friend James Daly, Esq. (whoso practical knowledge of those coasts is exceeded only by his personal worth,) on his own chart, and that where they lost their Admiral ooiacidcs exactly with the N. E. dry bur, — so ir where doors there were none. The historian of Noya Scotia has seized upon these iaci- dents as the foundation of a ghost story, to which is added a foot note widi the names of the parties, who must have been known to parties still alive in this city — Mrs. Oopbland and Lieut. ToRRKNS. Many and many a winter's storm has swept the sand over the hut where the pale lady with her bloody fingers walked, but tradition still marks the Bpot» and Smoky Hut Gang is the name of » herd of wild ponies who toss their savage manes and crop the wild beach grass now mantling the pale ghost's walk. For this story I refer you to Mr. Haliburton's book entitled, "Wise saws and Modern Instances." The shadows of hidf a century have already darkened the tale, yet these facts remam. He who told it never recurred to it voluntarily, and was a man of the world and of high reck- less spirit, and an antique £unily ring was obtained in a diop in Water Street, and returned, not to the poor lady's severed finger, aui to her friends at home» Suffice it to say the wreck- ers were deported fix>m the Island, and the first humane estab- lishment formed about the year 1802 ; and this brings us to the second part of our lecture, — ^its pbxsbnt appbaranox. Should any one be vbiting the Island now, he might see about ton miles ^stanoO) looking seaward, half a dozen low .-*-' davk hummocks on the horrizon. As ho approaches they gradually resolve themselves into hills fringed by breakers, and by and by the white sea beach with its continued surf — the sand hUls part naked, part waving in grass of the deepest green, unfold themselves, — a house and a barn dot the West- ern extremity — here and there along the wild lieach lie the ribs of unlucky traders half buried in the shifting sand. By this time a Eed Ensign is waving at his peak, and from a tall flag-staff and crow's nest erected upon the highest hill mid- way of the Island, an answering flag is waving to the wind. Uofore the anchor is let go, and the cutter is rounding to in five fathoms of water, men and horses begin to dot the beach, a life-boat is drawn rapidly on a boat cart to the Iwach, man- ned, and fairly breasting the breakers upon the bar. It may have been three long winter's montlis that this boat's crew have liad no tidings of the world, or they may have three hundred emigrants and wrecked crews, waiting to be carri«ea-wrecked men. Skreened by the sand hills, here is a well stocked barn and bara yard, filled with its ordinary inhabitants, sleek milch cows and heady bulls, lazy swine, a horse grazmg at a tether, with geese and ducks and fowls around. Two or three large stores and boat houses, quarters for the men, the Superintendant'3 house, blacksmith shop, sailor's home, for soa-wrecked men, and oil house, stand around an irregular square, and surmounted by the tall flag- staff and crow's nest on the neighbouring hill. So abrupt the contrast, so snug the scene, if the roar of the ocean were out of his ears, one might fancy himself twenty miles inland. Nearly the first thing the visitor does is to mount the flag- staif, and climbing into the crow's nest scf.n the scene. The ocean bounds him everywhere. Spread East and West he views the narrow Island in form of a bow, as if the great Atlantic waves had beat it around, no where much above a mile wide, twenty-six miles long including the dry bars, and holding a shallow lake thirteen miles long in its centre. There it all lies spread like a map at his feet, — grassy hill and sandy valley fading away into the distance. On the foreground the outpost men galloping their rough pouiee into 11 licad-quarters, recalled by the flag flying abore his head ; the West-end house of refuge, with bread and matches, firewood and kettle, and directions to find water, and head-quarters with flag-staff on the at^iomg hill. Every sandy peak or grassy knoll with a dead man's name or old ship's tradition — Baker's Hill, Trott's Cove, Scotchman's Head, Freaoh Gardens — traditionary spot where the poor convicts expiated their social crimes — the little Burial-ground nestling in the long grass of a high hill, and consecrated to the repose of many a sea-tossed limb; and two or three miles down the shallow lake, the South side house and bam, and staff and boats lying on the lake beside the door. Nine miles fui-ther down, by the help of a glass, he may view the flag-staff at the foot of the lake, and five miles further the East-end look-out, with its staff and watch-house. Herds of wild ponies dot the hills, and black duck and shell-drakus are heading their young broods on the mirror-like ponds. Seals innumerable are bask- ing on the warm sands, or piled like ledges of ix)ck along the shores. The Glcucow^s bow, the Maskonemet\ stem, the Eoat Boilou^i hulk, and the grinning ribs of the well-fastened Guide are spotting the sands, each with its tale of last adven- ture, hardships passed, and toil endured. The whole picture is set in a silver frosted frame of rolling surf and sea-ribbe«.^ aand. Far dUferent a scene awaits him in heavy weather. From his tottering perch, rocking to the blast, he sees nothuig sea- ward but white and broken waters, and nothing inland but drifib- ing sand and mist closing in his narrow horizon of long grass, wildly t'^ssed on (me or two wind-swept hills. The establishment as now constituted consists of a Superin- tendent and family at head-quarters, with a boat's^rew, cow- herd, and teamster and oook for the men's mess ; an outpost man and family at the South side ; another family at the foot of the lake, nine miles distant ; and another at the Eastern n JiVi' m ll • -s: oitromity of the Island, — all told, with wometi and children, thirty-five or forty souls. Thek duty is to be perpetually on the look out. for wrecks, and to render them every assistanco in saving life and property. In fine weather the look-out m6n from the various stations can see the entire circuit of the islahd. After storms, and during thick weather they are ropposed to patrole the entire island once a day. Mounted upon his hardy poney, the solitary path)le starts upon his Id^^y way. He rides up the centre vallies, ever and anon mo^inting a gnujsy hill to look sea-Ward, reaches the West-end htit, s|)eculates upon perchance a broken spar, an empty bottle, (k a c&sk of )beef struggling in the land-Wash, — ^now fotds the ^bft^oW lake, looking well for his land-range, to escape the h(Ae Where Baker Was drowned ; and coming on the breeding ground of the countless birds, his poney's hoof with a reck- leite Bniash goes orunching through a dozen eggs or callow yotihg. He fairly puts his poney to her mettle to escape the eloftd of angry birds which, arising in countless numbers, d^nt his Weather-beaten tarpaulin with their sharp bills, and shi^ his poney's ears, ani concise him with their sharp shrill ^fries. Ten minutes more, and he is holding hard to coutit the seals. There they lie, old ocean flocks, resting their Wave-tossed limbs, — ^great ocean bulls, and cows, and calves. He marks them all. The wary old male turns his broad itttfmstached nostrite to the tainted gale of man and horse i^e^ng down upon them, and the whole herd are EdmBHati- eously lumbering a retreait. And now he goes, plying his little short whip, ohargmg the whde herd to out off their retreat for the pleasure and fun of galloping in and over and UiMMgst fifty great bodies, rolling and tumbling and tosmng, aaad {flashing the surf in their awkward endeavours to escape. Let no man envy his fun, tn^d of well-fed man and high- eonditioned nag ; many and many a bitter ride amply atones tor it- His well-practised eye ^w discerns in the spot on the / 1 V . \'- ■" **^ 13 « H on the horizon tho Soutli-sldo patrolc advancing. Tlie two solitary figures draw bit, cliat a while, and slowly turn tail homewards, and an hour afterwards ho makes his report : "An empty bottle—old spar covered with barnacles— 20 head of seal— mot Solomon on the Soutli side "—(generally received by the worthy Sv;)erintendent with the usual gramble, "When lie first came on the Island he did not know a horse, and now he rides as if they were steam-engines. I did not expect him for an hour. He shan't have old Smiler again in a hurry.") Perchance at this very moment the look-out man at the East end 'm strainuig his very eyes to pierce the thick fog of the N. E. Bar, stretching away with its high narrow back, bristr ling with ancient wrecks for five miles sea-ward, the sea break- ing across it, fc ning little ponds in the centre with their miniature rivulets rolling back into the ocean. As the blasts come down from the broad Atlantic he scarce keeps his saddle or the poney her feet on the drifting sand and plashing pools. Perchance a gun comes down heavily from windward or the rack lifts, and he sees the high blaok hull and flappmg sails of some mistaken trader grinding on the outer bar. An hour or so afterward the look out at head quarters descries a boy at the top of speed galloping along the sandy ridge of the nearest hill. Before he has dismounted from his blown pony to hand his report, '* a wreck ! a wreck !" resounds all around, up goes the flag, the horse, always in stall or feeding at tether, is mounted, and the working horses driven in boats mounted in their carts, and all in eager haste seek the scene. Here is work for man and horse for a month, — to rescue the crew, strip the wreck, land and store the cargo, and haul it for re- shipment will cost many an hour of toil. The ordinary work of the Island is to cut and haul firewood, oure hay for the stock, to repair or rebuild the main buildings, attend to the monthly visits of the cutter, and land supplies ; and to gather in the season the annual crop of cranberries, 2 u I' >« I: ' V . ''ii At either extremity of the iHland are houseg of refuge, wiicre shelter and fire-wood, match-box and bread, and direc- tions to find water and houses are always awaiting the sea- wrecked man. Again and again have they sought this refuge, and on the morrow with renewed hearts found that assistance which but for it would have been of no avail. The boats built upon the Island have always been admired for their fine beam, great floor, and picturesque high stem rnd stern, and have weathered many rolling seas ; but, owing to the philanthropic Miss Dix, who visited the Island in per- son, they have now at the three stations a life-boat with all the lines and proper appurtenances which the most modem skill has added to those praiseworthy inventions. The worthy lady, who left behind her the character of an intrepid horseman, must have been amply repaid by Mr. Superintendant McKkn- na's Report, which reached her in her retreat in Switzerland, in which he attributes the safety of several hundred souls entirely to a Francis* Metallic Life-boat of her gift, which l)oarded a ship through a sea no Island boat could stand, and endured shocks when flung upon the beach that would have rent in pieces any wood-built boat. Such is the life of thi3 little self-exiled brotherhood in the great cause of benevo- lence ; and how worthily they have been ruled over by the various Superintendents, who are both Notaries and Magis- trates of the County of Halifax ; and how kindly each sea wrecked man has been received and fostered, the many corn, plements and presents of all nations received by the Province in their honor is the best proof. The royal gift of a silver cup filled with golden crowns and a medal struck for the occa- sion attested the gratitude of Louis XVIII. to the late Mr. Super- intendent Darby for saving the crew oiLeAfricane frigate, and silver medals for the boat's crew, with a golden one for Mr. Super- intendent McKenna, attest how the British public viewed their exertions in rescuing the passengers and crew of the Arcadia. 15 Wc take next Tub Natural History of tlio Island. For* Various rea^ns this narrow strip of sand, guarded by ever'- l-olling surf, has been a favourite resort for various of the Animal kingdom. Formerly the walrus, or sea lion, repaired to it in numbers. Wo read of as many as three hundred pairs of teeth collected. They have long ago all disappeared, yet oven now the waves wash out from the sand the massive skull and long teeth of some old frequenter of the bars. It is said, black foxes once abounded upon the Island, and so many accounts concurring we must credit it. It is difficult to imagine how they lived in winter, but when we consider that in the various changes wrought by tune or circumstances, horses, th6 natives of sttltry Arabia, nnd rabbits from sunny Spain have taken their places, we may well make some allow- ance for the change of food in two hundred years. During January the great Greenland seal (^Phaca Bar- batd) leaves his frozen seas and seeks the more genial tem^ perature of the N. E. Bar to rear his little ones. As early as January their whelps are found upon the sand. If undis- turbed, they remain till Spring ; but if molested they seek the farther extremity of the Island and sooil disappear. The old males are frequently dght or nine hundred weight, and t^adily recognized by their bristling moustache. Many are the stories told of conflicts waged with the old ocean bulls, as they not inaptly call them. The common Harbour Seal (Phoca Vittvlina of Godraan) is an inhabitant of the Island the whole year round. Though sporting in the rotigh sea, he loves the retirement of the tran- quil lake, and quickly avails hunself of any opening by the storms into its shallow bars. About the middle of May the new-bom whelps are found sleeping on the sand, — lumps of helpless fat in the smoothest velvet coats, with large black plaintive eyes. These little sea-babes do little upon land but snarl and flap from side to side, but the moment they reach I -7'5r 16 tho Water they dive and directly re-appcai', holding hard with their tiny flippers upon tlieir mother's back, who goes off rejoicing in her load after swunming up and down in restless circles, whilst you tease her buby on the beach. In two or tlirec months they have attained to throe or four feet and Hfty or sixty pounds weight, and now frequent the dry Bar, and sleep and snorQ the live-long day, and are overtaken and mcr* cilossly clubbed for their skins and oil. These animals remain the whole year about the Island, often roaming solitary, and more frequently in herds sporting in the roughest weather and angriest seas. When the present breed of wild Ponies was introduced, there is no record. In an old print seemingly a hundred years old they are depicted as being lassoed by men in cocked hats and antique habiliments. At present three or four hun- dred are their utmost numbers, and it is curious to observe how in their figures and habits they approach the wild races of Mexico or the Ukraine. They are divided into herds or gangs, each having a separate pasture, and each presided over by on old male, conspicuous by the length of his mane rolling in tangled masses over eye and ear down to his fore arm. Half his time seems taken up in tossing it from his eyes as he collects his out-lying mares and foals on the approach of strangers, and keeping them well up in a pack boldly faces the enemy whilst they retreat at a gallop. If pressed, how- over, he too retreats on their rear. He brooks no undivided allegiance, and many a fierce battle is waged by the contend- ing chieftains for the honor of the herd. In form they resem- ble the wild horses of all lands : the large head, thick shaggy neck of the male, low withers, paddling gait, and sloping quarters, have all their counterparts in the Mustang and the horse of the Ukraine. There seems a lemarkable tendency in these horses to assume the Isabella colours, the light chest- nuts, and even the pie-balds or paint horses of the Indian 1? i^rainoH or tho Mexican Savannah. The annual drive or herd- ing usually resulting in tho whole iwland iK'ing swept from eiivl to end, and a kicking, snorting, half-terrified mmn driven into a large pound, from which two or three dozen are solocted, lassoed, and exported to town, affords fine sport, wiM riding, and plenty of falls. Tho Brown or Norway rat has become very prolific <»n tlio Inland, as this traditionary deserter of sinking ships, (l(Mibt« loss finds many opportunities for his acute instincts. A few of the old Black rats wore seen making their esc:ipo from the Bella Maria, Spanish brig, but were soon lost si;^ht of; probably devoured by their brown inveterate foes. The Island owes tho introduction of the common or Hpani.^h rabl)it, to the Hon. Michael Wallace. He finds tho loo^e f^anda very fit for his long burrows, and rears his prolific brood :ind frisks among the high grass, and affords many a fresh diimtr when salt junk is plenty and fresh beef scarce, as well .is exciting that love for sport natural to all : for I have known sailors just landing with their lives, and hanlly dry, yet unaMe to resist the running down a rabbit ! They seem to be losing their spotted colors, and beconiinij; silver grey or black, with a white collar ; thus approxiuuiting to the wild, grey species of New England. It is probable all the sea duck of the American coast visit the Island during their semi-annual flight, but the only species I found breeding wore the Black Duck (Anas obscuro), and tlie Shell Drake, (Merganser.) Both these breed in num- bers ; the Black Duck on the grassy tufts about the ponds, and the Shell Drake on the high sand cliffs or about old wrecks. Ring Nock (Gharadrius Torticollis), and Peeps (Trinya minuta) were breeding in numbers, and towards the end of May the Terns or mackerel Gulls of several species arrived and the bars were soon covered by their eggs, and presently by their creeping young. Their eggs were collected by the bucket n m 4 if:i Mi full, and though small were well-flaTored. A little brown Sparrow, {Frinffilla ), also summered and wintered there. These are the constant inhabitants. About the year 1827 the White Owl, {Strix nictea), by Mr. Superin- tendant Darby's Journal, was first seen on the Island, and, since that period visits the Island periodically, and it is curious to watch this powerful bird, furred and feathered for a polar campaign, yet standing the sultry heat and blinding glare of an August sun, as he watches by the side of a rabbit burrow : his fondness for game being too strong for his northern instinct. A few Hawks, a Bobin or two, a wild Pidgeon Plover, and some large, black-backed Gulls, make up the scanty list. Shear-Waters and Mother Carey's Chickens arc flung ashore in dozens after every gale. The usual varieties of the Cod species are found about the soundings, and the enormous shore Mackerel, or double No. I's, are plentiful in their season. A species of Flat Fish and Eels are found in the lake, and the remains of monstrous Skate, destroyed by the Seal, prove its abundance around. I am not Conchologist enough to classify the various Shells and Shell Fish. The large Scallop, beach O^m, and Razor- shells thrown up after storms, are the most strikmg varieties. Lobsters and Crabs abound, and some parts of the lake are almost floored by large and pleasant flavored clams. A Botanist would give a scientific list of thirty or forty varieties of shrubs and plants. Trees there are none, and the usual shrubs are dwarft to a few inches ; a little ground juni- per and low with-wood would not afford a riding-cane. Tall coaise grasses cover the surface of the ground, alternating with sandy barrens and snowy peaks of blown sand. The wild rose, blue lily, and wild pea enamel the valleys. Straw- berries, blueberries and cranberries are in abundance. They are measured by bucket-fulls ; and as Autumn heats yellow \i ' 19 the luxuriant green, the tall, mallow, gny golden rods «ind wild China-asters are swept by the heaving gales. The Island, by Capt. Bayfield's Report in lat. 43° 59' N., Ion. 59° 45' W., at the East end by some is said to be wear- ing away. More exactly, it is changing its form, for it is hardly probable that an atom of sand, once heaved up from the ocean's bed, is ever swept away. The causes that have formed it still exist ; yet it is true that there are those still alive who once filled a happy home where now the sea breaks five miles from dry land. The abrupt sand-clifF rocks to a fall from the unceasing beat of the waves at its feet till a more than ordinary hurricane sweeps it into the lake or spreads it into a shallow bar. By this process five or six miles have gone at the West end, and changes the same are still going ca. The wmds, too, are perpetually sweeping the naked sand-hills into the lake, or forming fantastic cones frcm the loose and shifting sand. Some fences about the hou.ses are covered up, others blown out of the sand. Thus many a sad relic of ancient ship-wreck is to living men disclosed. Old timber, carved stem ways, mixed witli a skull or an arm bone, — sad alphabet to read many an untold tale, — intermixed with coins of gold. Mr. Miller, Inspec- tor of Lighthouses, discovered at the West end after a hard gale spars and canvass huts, and all the marks of an old encampment, on which record and tradition are both silent. The sea now breaks in five fathoms over this spot, and about fifteen or twenty years ago at the N. B, end, called ever after " old houses," were discovered marks of a permanent encamp- ment, — ammunition, shoes, Gorget's arms, dog-collars, and many bor s of cattle, as if many men had there long remained. An interesting account was published by Mr. Superintendent Darby, and the collar, which had "43d" marked upon it, forwarded to the head-quarters of that Regiment. Referring 20 ri hi . if- ii to the records of the Beglment, it wae found that the right wing of that Regiment, returning to Halifax after the sii^ge of Quebec, was there wrecked, but was successfully ayaisted and brought with no loss of life to town. The winds which thus opened for a while to living man the eaene and the strange-formed relics of men long passed from among them, soon restored them, perhaps tor ever, to the Island's sandy bosom. Not long ago, the East-end look-out, returning from the Bar, saw half-way up a sand-clifT whose steep side the wintry gales were cutting, long dark lines drawn along the white sand. Climbing to the spot, to his amazement he found marks of a long and permanent abode. The dark lines were a hardened surface beat by men passing in and out over ashes, charcoal and all the usual accompaniments of a lengthy bivouac. Strong men had here held stout battle with famine and cold. Here lay bayonets rusting beside useless guns,—- rough bullets, moulded in the sand,— knives made of iron hoops, — a tattered ensign, knotted perchance, or seized for its last signal of distress ; and broken glass, sleeve buttons, and bits of coin lay strewed with bones of cattle, of seals, and alas ! too, of men. I hold in my hand keys of perhaps unknown treasure, — antique ink-horn from which the last dregs of ink may have been drained to pen a useless tale, — sleeve buttons that per- chance adorned a strong right arm, — bits of silver, valueless coin, — shoes worn by many a fruitless step to where these tattered rags waved long in vain for the rescue which never came. Beside all these were rotting these bones of men. Certainly fifty and more — probably one hundred — ^wintry storms had swept thirty feet of sand over the scene of this ''iismal tale. To add a name or affix a date adds really nothing ; yet it seems incomplete without it ; so we gathered bushels of these rusty relics, and toiled amid the loose sand. 21 till nodding firom its shifdng summit it threatened to engulph us in its fall. Trusting to that interest that men at home and at ease have for their fellow-men in wild and perilous scenes abroad, — for men, perchance at this moment walking the wild beach, or stiff with frozen spray, — I have somewhat taxed your patience. You will bear with me a little longer for a short rapid 8um> mary of the whole. We have found this Island, which most of you have con- sidered a miserable strip of sand, to have attracted the North* man's notice ; and that it had attractions tx) lure a gallant from, the Court of the Virgin Queen, a French Marquis, and a New England Puritan Pivine, who fancied he saw in it« green savannahs the site of busy marts or peopled towns. Nor would he think these summer voyagers far from wrong who has witnessed its leap to life in genial spring, or seen how the wild grass sprouted on its bleak hills, or the air ring'^ ing with its myriads of tenants,— the sandy bars speckled with the tern's wild egg, and every grassy cliff and sleeping pool thick with the wild duck brooding o'er her ivory trea- sure or callow young. Doubtless those hardy men, escaping scurvy-rusted from the two or three months voyage and ill- found shallop of the time, revelled in its wavy valleys, then as now enamelled by the rose and wild pea-vine, gathered the luscious strawberry fruit, and held rollic pic-nic on fresh laid egg and juicy clam. We have seen, too, how the victims of their mistaken cal- culation carried the piteous story of the relentless storms to their great king,— -how the Island was then left to desperate men who alternately dipped their hands in the blood of the sea-lion or seal, and that of defenceless drowning men, — and how this all has passed away, and an Establishment generous and humane has been supported from the then scanty revenues 1^2 bf the poorest Province on the main. Chanjges, too, we haf o noticed in the animal life. The Morse (another name for walrus,) and black fox have given way to the herds of wild battle, and the wild horse in his turn has taken the place of the still wilder kine. Tales of sad misfortune, too, have deepened our interest, to which there WHls neither wanting rusty relic or rotting bones of unknown men. "We need not. speculate on what would have been the change if solid rock had anchored this floating island, — how, advanced w) far seaward, it would have hung like a curb upon the whole New England coast, and formidable batteries bristling with cannon would have made secure retreat for king's ships, prizes, and privateers. Nor need we lose ourselves in vain speculations how it Would have been if held id the old world's hand. How some old ftiidaeeval pile would have held a Governor, with barracks for a regiment, and surgeon to ctire the bodies sO often risked, and chaplain with church and bell for the souls at a moment's warning held; or how some old grey brotherhood like the venerated monks of St. Bernard would have held it for their souls, doing in grey hood and cowl on the N. E bar, in penance for their sifts, What no'iY is done in tarpaulin hat and pea-coat for £40 a year. I say we need not dress out story, for should any one ima- gine that from the hurried life We live, which steam-boat, rail- ear and telegraph both shorten and frightfully hurry incident upon that hard man in ceaseless contention with his harder fellow-man, has wasted all the precious oil of romance or that its flickering flame lies dry rotted in its empty sconce, we can assure him that there is some of the precious ointment yet, and distant not twenty hour's sail. Let him give his poney her stride along that desolate shore and ever-heaving wreck- floored yeasty main j or, if he have nerve, let him give her 'her rein on the wind-swept height of Rigging Hill, with her 23 sure gallop breasting the ridge, the tall grass sweeping his right hand pommel, whilst his left stirrup goes dangling over the sandy precipice where the ocean roars some seventy feet below. Now let him seek shelter where nestling beneath these hills that advanced-guard of man the Eas^end look-out has secured his low-roofed home, whose every low porch and narrow gable is hung with carved stemway, gilt head-board, or sea-beaten image waifs of sea-wrecked men. Here repos- ing on sealskin-cushioned chairs before a hearth of glittering copper torn from a ship-wrecked keel, and where billets of old English oak, with many a tree-nailed hole, or Spanish mahogany are flickering over carved locker and binnacle, let him listen to the sad stories, rare and strange medley of odd assorted things gathered along the bar, or narrow escapes which flow out in so pleasant accents from this self-exiled man,: — how he watched the long long night the alternate windward and leeward guns to find no vessel in the morning ; or how he found a ship's bell ringing its own dirge as it was tossed in the land-wash ; or how he pulled the Frenchman with his shattered knee through the ground-swell ; or how he picked a Church Bible fipom r* wreck, and then anon the sands were spread with carved crucifix and voh^mes of St. Al- phonso de Liguorio. Thus, wanned by the flickering brands of one wreck, — soothed by a cigar from a^iother, — and steeped as it were in the briny dew of tempest-tost ship and rolling billow he is lighted to his repose by the rempant of a holy taper made by pious hand for some far-off shrine ; and seeing that all this is the result of long and far-seeing benevolence, he thanks God that man still remembers his fellow-man ; and, attended by great ocean's roar to dream-land, there is awaiting him in shadowy line the peopled past, — grim Vi-king and courtly gallant, — ^base galley-slave or rare Permanius, in cls^ssic J^c^tin ■H I n T 24 X mutely eloquent,— or drenched in shadowy brine, there flits the poet's high conception.-^ ——"That ancient man, The bright-eyed mariner"; or sweeping over that desolate sand,— each shifting hillock a dead man's grave, — the pale ladt seeks to fit her bloody finger to the severed ring. ;wi-y'- ) flits ock a lowly I ' ■ i 1 a: a ill r'l .1 mh of t|e i§t|oontr %xu. BI JOSEPH OARBT, ESQ. m mi ^ A < H ^ In ^ mo m^ 11 ^ H ^ C4 ^ n 1 <^' n r« w.^ fli 4 Mb. Prbsidbnt, Ladies and Gentlemen, — Having been invited here this evening to give some explanatory statements of particular events that occurred on Sable Island during my Superintendence of that Establishment, and not previously hiving had sufficient notice to refresh my memory by reflect* ing back to the occurrences as they happened, I fear that my statements, although substantially correct in the outline, may have lost through &ilure of memory a great many incidents wor* thy of notice, and fully and le^timately connected with them. Hoping that you will make allowance for the lapse of time «nd the onxissionB that may have thus occurred, I will, at the request of the President, make some comments on the circumstances that occurred on the 19th and 20th of Septeqi- ber 1S46, as in their nature they are partly mised and blended together. On the 19th of September, 1846, the Government Schr. Darinff, commanded by my oldest son, came to the Island for the purpose of conveying to Halifax the crew and mater- ials of the wreck of the ship Detroit, lately stranded there with her crew and passengers ; also, the crew of the schooner Ladif Echo lately stranded there. We got the Schooner down the North side to the wi^eck of Detroit^ about ten miles to the Eastward of Head-quarters, and commenced shipping her materials, and the work went on with vigour and alacrity. The day was moderate, with light airs of wind from the East- 3 26 H 1 .' i t , ■ill r Ml I i|! r i > I- ward. It was a cloar and cloudloss day, but it had a certain dull and Icatlcn appoaranco about it, that seemed to portend a gathering of the elements together, as if for strife. The sea ran high although there was no wind, and gave us a good deal of trouble, by often filling our loaded boats in crossing the bars, where it often broke very bad, and rolled along the shore with a groaning, uneasy and very troubled sound. After the sun passed the Meridian, the gloom and dulness seemed to increase, the sea rose higher although but little wind, and the moaning sound of the waters as they broke along tlie strand seemed to give strong indications of a comjng storm. Our Work proceeded successfully, notwithstanding the diflSculties we had to contend with; — the property was all shipped, the vessel loaded and ready for sea, and at half an hour after sunset she got under weigh, with our boat and boat's crew to be towed up to head quarters and landed there. The wind was now a fresh breeze from East. I got oil my horse to keep abreast of the vessel, which I did until dark. I had ten miles to go to the landing place, I drave to that point as fast as I could, and then rushed on to the beach lo watch the arrival of my boat. It was now very dark, with a fresh breeze, and the sea rising very fast. The whole ocean appeared to be in a phosphoretic blaze of light ; and the very minute marine animalculae seemed each one to have its own light, and to increase the natural phenomena. I soon observed our boat coming directly towards me : I jumped off my horse, and as I always rode with six fathoms of light line on my horse's neck, one end I fastened there, and the other end I tied to my leg. I was then able to assist my people in the boat without loosing my hoi-se, as she filled and turned over just as she got within my reach. The people reported that the schooner hauled off to sea the moment that the boat left her. We hauled up and secured our boat for an approaching gale, then went to the house, changed our wet clothes., got 27 BUppor, and set a watch. At midnight the watch reported heavy gale of wind from E.N.E. ; at four o'clock the morn- ing of the 20th, a most terrific gale of wind with rain from the N.E. ; and at daylight the gale to be still increaHing, and the wind veering to the N.N.K. All hands out. The hull of the schooner Lady Echo, that had been wrecked near the landing, could bo seen fn)m the look-out house to be floating and knocking about on the beach, and we had to crawl on our hands and knees across the Island to where her cargo of bar- rels of mackerel was piled up, — the wind being so violent wc could not proceed against it in an upright position. We found the cargo in danger of being smashed to pi^es by the sea, and we commenced parbuckling it up the bank to a place of comparative safety, and were so occupied until about noon ; and it was this circumstance that brought us all out there in that terrific gale, as if Providence directed that we should all be out and all together so as to be the better prepared for what was going to follow. All of a sudden, we saw an object oflf the North side dead to windward which we first thought was a large bird, but shortly after discovered that it was a sail distant five or six miles, and that she was running down right before this tremendous gale dead on a lee-shore. Wc could work no more at the barrels. Our eyes were strained in the direction of tjie object that appeared to be running to inevitable destruction. My first impression was that it was the schooner Daring which had left the Island the evening before, and that they had met with some disaster so as to disable the vessel in the gale, and were going to run her on shore before night to save their lives. We could now see that she was a schooner with a close- reefed mainsail set, steering directly for our flag-staff. I was convinced that it was my son, who with two of his sisters on board, and a great number of other passengers, were taking this method to preserve their lives. I fell on my knees and «■ 28 ! I r|/ : prayed most earnestly and devoutly to the Almighty to have mercy on them, as I did not doubt but they were praying too, and that to a God vho they were taught to believe wai a hearer of prayer. TIio sea was breaking everywhere off the North side as far as the eye could see, and it appeared almost incredible that any vessel could live to come so great a dis- tance through such mountains of broken water. I got a rope prepared, to assist in preserving the people's lives should the vessel bo able to roach the beaoh through the roaring and boiling mountaias of water that surrounded her. When she approached within three miles of the land she appeared to be in the heaviest' breakers, and we could plainly perceive moun- tain waves on each side of her that would raise their curled heads as high as the tops of her masts and pitch over and fall with the weight of hundreds of tons, either of which would have been sufficient to have smashed that frail bark to atoms ; but, muraculous as it may appear, not one of them touched her. No— that heaven-favored vessel was under the proteo* tion of an Omnipotent God, and guided by a Master-hand, and neither winds nor waves were permitted to destroy the souls on board. At one moment you could just perceive the heads of her masts between the mountains of waters that were smashmg and breaking to pieces all around, but not permitted to hurt her ; at the next m<»nent you would see her on the top of a tremendous wave which appeared like certam destruc- tion to her ; at another, you vrould see a rtvauntfunous sea rising up before her and breaking all to fragments in her path, but when she arrived at the spot the surface was smooth as glass. When she arrived within one mile of the shore she had to pass over what we call the Outer Bar, where every sea broke ^m the bottom, and our greatest anxiety for the safety of the vessel was at this point. The sea was there breaking with tremendous violence, but that heaven-favored bark passed through untouched, —the sea became smooth 29 l)6foro her, and tihu luft u winning track behind. Now. here wuH the miracle. 1 lrM)kod on Uum with wonder, uwc und aduiirution, and not withgut hoiMJ. When who approached a little nearer, I (lonld hoc one man luNlied at the helm and two men forward lashed l»y each of the foro-Bhrouds, «nt exertions witU their armu, an if throwing something up in the wiiid. The veM.sel lutd now paired the most dangerouH place, anot to the high bank Wtt.s uljout fifty or aixty yards over a Hat lx»ach, which was always dry except in heavy gales, but was DOW covered over with water. A number of heavy seas would roll together over tho beach, and then recede, leaving it dry. Over this space myself and the men were extended with a rope leading from the bank down to the vosHel's l)ow, on which we hehl to keep the sea from wasliing us away ; and when the great Ixnly of water receded, we could approach as near as the jib-boom end, from which, one hy one, the crow lowered themselves by a rope into our arms, and we passed them in safety to tho bank. They were all entire strangers. The captain was a praying man, and indeed a clever man ; his first act after getting on shore was to go aside with me and return thanks to his Maker for their miraculous preservation. He then told me his story. The Schooner was the Arno, Capt. HiaoiNS, with twelve men, from tho Quero Bank, where they had been fishing. They left the Bank at the commencement of the gale. He had lost all his head sails when at daylight this morning he made the land dead \mder his lee, with the gale blowing right on shore. The vessel having no head-sail, he could do nothing with her on a wind. }•;:'' I' $ i'. • .10 FIc let go bis anchor in twenty fathoms of water, payed out three hundred fathora.s of hemp cable, and brought the vecscl head to wind. In that tremendous sea he held on until noon, when, seeing n.) prosjKJct of the galo abating, he cut his cable and put th# verfnel before the wind, preferring to run her on shore before night to riding there and foundering at her anchor. He lusheil himself to the helm, sent all his men below but two, and tiailed up the cabin-doors. He had two large casks placed near the fore-shrouds and lashed there. He then directed his two best men to station thenisel /es there and lash themselves firmly to the casks, which were partly tilled with blubW and oil from the fish. They had each a wooden ladle of about two feet long, and with those Iadlc^ they dipped up the blubber and oil and threw it up in the air an high as they could. The great violence of the wind carried it far to leeward, and, spreading over the water, made its sur face smooth before her and left a shining path behind ; and although the sea would rise very high, yet the top of it was smooth, und never broke where the oil was. It was raging, pitching and breaking close to hor on each side, but not a barrel of water fell upon her deck the whole dir^tance. The vessel was so old and tender ihatslic went all' to pieces in a very short time after the crew, with their clotliing and pro- visions, were saved. k I Thus was preserved iu u most miraculous manner this crew of gooe, yet it was brought about by natural moans. I had often heard of oil smoothing the face of turbid watei*s, but I could hardly have believed <^t under the pre- sent circumstances,— even had I known that the oil was used H8 ihe means to produce such an eflfect, — thafe it would have Iteen possible to subdue and amootheu so very rough and lK>'»terou» a surface . y g. |oem. BY THE HONORABLE JOSEPH HOWE. Dabk Isle of mourning !— aptly art thou named, ? For iliou hast been the cause of many a tear ; For deeds of treacherous strife too justly famed, The Atlantic's charnel — desolate and drear ; A thing none love, though wand'ring thousands fear,- If for a moment rests the Muse's wing Where through the waves thy sandy wastes appear, 'Tis that she may one strain of horror sing, Wild as tho dashing waves tliat tempests o'er thee fluig. The winds have been thy minstrels — the rent shrouds Of hapless barks, twanging at dead of night, Thy favorite harp-strings— the shriek of crowds. Clinging around them fiercely in their fright, The song in wliich thou long hast had deUght, Dark child of oceap, at thy feasts of blood ; When mangled forms, shown by heaven's lurid light, Kose to thy lip upoh the swelling flood, While Peatb, with hoirid front, beside tlice smiling »to