The Canadas in 1841

Front matter

' WamerTiiH,, Ttih „ . _ . Jjcu/drMagfu /■t8i.t'Tp ~&u Quee* THE PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS TORONTO, U C. THE CANADAS IN 1841. HY SIR RICHARD H. BONNYCASTLE, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ROYAL ENGINEERS, AND LIEUTENANT-COLONEL IN THE MILITIA OF UPPER CANADA. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. FALLS OF NIAGARA. LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1842. PRINTED BY WILLIAM WILCOCKSON, ROLLS BUILDINGS, FETTRR LANK. Brt.icatj& in THE BRAVE MILITIA op THE MIDLAND, PRINCE EDWARD, VICTORIA, AND EASTERN DISTRICTS op UPPER CANADA, BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, COMPANION IN ARMS, AND FORMER COMMANDER, R. H. BONNYCASTLE.

Preface

. The British Colonies in North America have advanced so rapidly during the last ten years, that those who have not had the advantage of viewing their progress, can scarcely credit the extent of their present power and importance ; the British public will, therefore, naturally look with a favourable eye upon any work treating of their actual condition. A long residence in Canada ; several voy ages across the Atlantic ; the nature of the duties I had to perform, and the advantage of my official station, which obliged me at different times to visit nearly every part of the country, from the lonely shores of La brador, Anticosti, and the Bay of Chaleurs, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the far off solitudes of Lake Huron, of course afforded me opportunities, seldom to be otherwise

PREFACE.

. VI gained, of obtaining a knowledge of the immense territory embraced in these limits. In the course of such extensive travels, I became acquainted with the people inhabit ing that territory, from the resident of the city to the hard-working pioneers in the vast forests, and to the wandering and savage Indian. Leisure to embody all the information thus gleaned has not, however, hitherto been afforded me ; and even in undertaking to place before the public the present volumes, other avocations scarcely allow me time to prepare them for the press with that care which is so desirable in a work seeking to blend information with amusement. I have not attempted any very methodical arrangement, but have divided the work into such chapters as the reader may take up separately, according as his taste and objects may dictate.

I am not without hope, however, that the local as well as national connexion between the several subjects may give a continuous interest to the whole. It. H. B. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Chapter I. The Voyage

Choice of a Vessel — Necessary Precautions — Period of Embarkation — A Contrast — Monotony — Curious Shell-fish — A Gale of Wind — A Messenger from the Gulph Stream — A Dolphin captured — Its Extraordinary Beauty — Vulgar Error concerning the dying Dolphin — Detailed Description of one — Squalls — The Banks of Newfoundland — Cod-fishing — Mother Carey's Chickens — A Shark — A narrow Escape — A Covey of young Whales — Aurora Borealis — Land Birds — First Sight of America — Tremendous Gale — Hawking at Sea — Extraordinary Phenomenon — Nearing Land — Pilot Boats — Estuary of the St. Lawrence — A Canadian Pilot — Singular Sunset — Milk-white Porpoises — Preserved Meats — The Falls of Montmorency — Indian Encampment — Quebec from the St. Lawrence . Page contents. VIII

Chapter II. Quebec

French Character of the Lower Town— Tin Spires and Roofs — Peculiar Situation of Quebec — The Scene of Wolfe's Glory The Spot where he fell — The Fortifications — The Citadel — The Garrison — Public Buildings — Remarkable Localities — Provisions — Geological Character of the Rock of Quebec — Cape Diamond — Primitive Mountains of the St. Charles 44

Chapter III. Voyage Up The St

LAWRENCE TO MONTREAL. Steaming on the St. Lawrence — English Character of the Scenery — Continuous Village from Quebec to Montreal — The Richelieu Rapids — Military Post of Three Rivers — Lake St. Pierre — Sorel — Its present State and future Frospects — The Rideau Canal — The Rapid of St. Marie — Improvements in Steam Power — Art triumphant over Nature . 60

Chapter IV. Montreal

First View of Montreal — Enchanting River Scenery — Character of the Great American Rivers — The Great Rapids — Montreal as a Place of Residence — The Harbour — Commercial Prospects of Montreal — Its Climate — Its Public Buildings — Its Inhabitants— Its Hotels — Mr. Molson, Projector of Steam-boat Navigation on the St. Lawrence — Literary and Philosophical Societies of Montreal — Monastic Character of the French Public Seminaries — Schools for the Lower Orders — Mischiefs of Party-spirit 69

Chapter V. Journey From The Lower To The Upper Province

Departure from Montreal— French Diligence — Nature of the Scenery— La Chine— Bad Specimen of Steaming— The Cascades—Government Canal— Dangerous Night Journey Sal- CONTENTS. IX mon-spearing by Torch-light— Lake St. Francis— Boundaries of the United States — A Tribe of Indians — The Long-leap Rapids — A Passage down them in a Canoe — Grandeur of the Scenery — Canadian Boatmen — Floating Population of the St. Lawrence — Tbe Lumberers — Prescott— Ogdensburg Horrors committed during tbe late Troubles— Battle with Brigands 84

Chapter VI. The Thousand Islands

Probable Origin of the Thousand Islands — Extraordinary Character of the Scenery— Sporting among the Islands — An Accident — Exploits of the celebrated Bill Johnson — The Mills of Gananoqui — Iron Ore — Marble Quarry — Approach to Kingston — Long Island — Fortification — The Garrison Hospital — Aspect of Kingston from the River — Tom Moore at Kingston — The Lover's Tree — Noble View from the Fortress 102

Chapter VII. Kingston

Origin of Kingston — Magnificent View from the Upper Town — Stockade and Block-houses — American Hatred of Trees — Government Works — Commercial Prospects of Kingston — Principal Streets — Curious Wooden Bridge — Commanding Commercial Position of Kingston — Mistake of Emigrants — The new Fortifications — The Key of the St. Lawrence — The Penitentiary — The Silent System — Crime in Canada — Temperance Societies — Their Origin and Results — Popular Mistakes on this point 115

Chapter VIII. Voyage To Toronto On Lake Ontario

Mistaken Notion of the American Lakes — Ontario unfathomable — Dr. Daubeny — Dangers of Lake Navigation — The Great Britain Steamer nearly lost — Singular Clay Bank — Toronto — Moore, the Poet — Charges and Arrangements of X CONTENTS. the Steamers — American and English after-dinner Customs — Gentlemen the same all over the World — Mischief of Abusing the Americans — Mrs. Trollope's Misrepresentations — Yankee Dialect — Summer Travellers on Lake Ontario — Blunder of Miss Martineau 131

Chapter IX. Toronto

Approach to Toronto — First Impressions on Landing — Inconvenience and Danger of the Pier — Improvements suggested — Singular History of Toronto — The Iroquois Indians — The Red Men of the Forest — Fatal Effects of Spirituous Liquors on the Indian — Origin of the Name of Toronto — French Fort — Description of the City — Immense Value of Land — Public Buildings — Residences of the Gentry — Houses of Parliament — The Roads — Brine Springs — Characteristic Anecdotes of the late War — Prices of Provisions in 1824, and in 1840 — Frozen Provisions — Fishery — Game — Public Amusements — Society at Toronto — The Aristocracy — Servants — Wages of Labourers and Artizans — New Mode of heating Houses 145

Chapter X. Toronto, As The Late Capital Of Upper Canada

Toronto before the Union — The Court of Chancery and other Courts of Justice — Government Officers — The Church, and various Religious Sects — Local Courts The College of Upper Canada — Public Schools — Banks and Banking Companies — Commercial System — Price of Provisions and Luxuries — Mischievous Ostentation in the Style of Living — Official Incomes — Astonishing Increase in the Value of Land — The Canada Land Company .... 178

Chapter XI. Niagara, Or Newark

An Excursion across Ontario— Splendid Steam-ships— Foam of the Falls— American and British Forts — The Town of Niagara— Welland Canal— A Blunder— Professional Pre- CONTENTS. XI judices— Civil Engineering in Canada— System of giving False Estimates — A Bridge projected across the Niagara A Board of Works necessary— The Docks and Maine Railway — Cheapness of Provisions at Niagara — Extraordinary Differ ence of Seasons at Niagara— Fruits and Vegetables of Upper Canada — Climate and Soil — Diary of a Winter at Kingston, Upper Canada— The Queenstown Falls of the St. Lawrence — The Hero, Brock — The Spot where he fell — Outrage committed on his Monument 192

Chapter XII. Falls Of Niagara

Mrs. Jameson at the Falls of Niagara — Do they run upwards ? — The German School — Its inordinate Expectations — The Falls from various points of view — How to approach them — Tbe Horse-shoe Fall — The Rainbow Rock — Tbe Cauldron — Freischutz Scene — The Great Fall — Projected Bridge across — an Eighth Wonder of the World — Descent of the Precipice — American Curiosity— Indescribable Grandeur of the View into the Cauldron — The Great Fall from the Sturgeon Rocks A Newfoundland Dog in the Falls — Singular Diving Bird — The Falls from above the Cauldron . . . .218

Chapter XIII. The Whirlpool Of The Niagara

The Whirlpool— The Devil's Cavern— The Rattlesnake's Den — Sir John Colborne — American Cupidity — Projected Pleasure City at Niagara — Influence versus Law — Timber in the Whirlpool — A Soldier sucked into the Vortex — Rattlesnakes — Angling in the Whirlpool — Singular overhanging Rock — The most splendid View of the Falls . . . .241

Chapter XIV. The Voyage To Amhurstburgh On Lake Erie

Inferiority of the American Falls— Immense Importance of the Welland Canal— A rival Plan— Chippewa, the Site of famous Battles— The cutting out of the Caroline by Captain Drew and bis Companions— The Rebel Mackenzie — His Exploits CONTENTS. on Navy Island — Rout of the Rebels — Admirable Conduct of the Canadian Militia — Policy of Sir Francis Head — Rallying of the Farmers— Sir Allan M'Nabb — Village of Waterloo — Lake Erie — The Erie Canal — Its unparalleled Length — Fort Erie — -Graves of Colonel Drummond and his Companions — Amhurstburgh — The Detroit — Beauty and Richness of the Country — Profusion of Game — Introduction of the British Pheasant — Colonel Prince — Settlement of the Huron Indians —The Great Huron ....... 255

Chapter XV. Lake Huron

— GODERICH. The Huron Lake — Its Dimensions — Proceedings of the Canada Land Company — Goderich— Mr. Gait and Dr. Dunlop — Guelph — Roads through the Wilderness — The Progress of Colonization — Sir Francis Head and the Indians — The Islands of the Great Spirit — Excellent Results of colonizing this District — The Georgian Gulph — Singular Indian Vase Proofs of a more civilized Race, now extinct. . . . 275

Chapter XVI. Penetangueshene, The Indians, And The

giant's tomb. Naval Establishment on the Huron — Increase of Military Settlements—Romantic Story of two Brothers — Meeting with an Indian Tribe— Appropriate Scene of the Conference— The oid Chief— Prowess of the young Warriors— Their Reverence for the British Flag — Grotesque Ornaments— Indian Mourning — A War Drama— Surprise of an American Officer by the Savages— A Chippewa Chief— Eastern Origin of the Indians — Sad Change in their Condition— The Giant's Tomb— Christian Islands— Sir John Colborne and the Indians— The Victims of Civilization 289 ArpENDix 3J3 ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. Page The Parliament Buildings, Toronto . . Frontispiece. Sketch Map of Upper and Lower Canada, to illustrate the Author's Route . . End of the volume. VIGNETTES. The Falls of Niagara Vignette Title. Beautiful Sunset 33 View of Kingston 115 VOL. II.

White Trout River, Trinity Cove, Labrador Coast Frontispiece. VIGNETTES. Mission of Restigouche Vignette Title. The Flies at Toronto 53 Indian Mission at Pointe-a-la- Croix 147 The Pierced Rock, in the Bay of Chaleurs . . . 190 Janvrin's Fishing Station, Gaspe Bay 206 Cape Gaspe and the Old Woman 237 Entrance of Jupiter River, in the Island of Anticosti 243 The Seven Islands CANADA.

Chapter I. The Voyage

Choice of a Vessel — Necessary Precautions — Period of Embarkation — A Contrast — Monotony — Curious Shell-fish — A Gale of Wind — A Messenger from the Gulph Stream — A Dolphin captured — Its extraordinary Beauty — Vulgar Error concerning the dying Dolphin — Detailed Description of one — Squalls — The Banks of Newfoundland — Cod-fishing — Mother Carey's Chickens — A Shark — A narrow Escape — A Covey of young Whales — Aurora Borealis — Land Birds — First Sight of America — Tremendous Gale — Hawking at Sea — Extraordinary Phenomenon — Nearing Land— Pilot Boats — Estuary of the St. Lawrence — A Canadian Pilot — Singular Sunset — Milk-white Porpoises — Preserved Meats — The Falls of Montmorency — Indian Encampment — Quebec from the St. Lawrence. Although voyages across the Atlantic present in general few incidents the relation of which can interest the general reader, yet, when it is remembered that the tide of VOL. i. b HINTS TO TRAVELLERS. emigration flows again with increased vigour towards the Canadian shores, amusement, as well as information, may perhaps be afforded to those about to undertake the painful task of quitting the home of their fathers, by my offering some faint sketches of such an un dertaking.

I have embarked at different times from different ports, but shall select for description my last voyage out from the London Docks. Those going out to Canada, or any of the British American colonies, should always attend to the following circumstances, where their means do not permit them to make the voyage either by New York or Halifax, in steam or packet-vessels. First of all, inquire what class the vessel is rated in upon Lloyd's books, and take care not to be deceived by having AE. 1, printed or written on her placard in such a manner as to make the second letter E almost invisi ble ; a trick frequently performed. A, 1, is a first class vessel, as to security in insurance lists. AE. 1, is an old ship, which may, HINTS TO TRAVELLERS. 3 however, be perfectly seaworthy ; and by making minute inquiries, this is easily ascer tained.

Timber ships go to Quebec usually in ballast, and are not always either the pleasantest or the safest description of trans port : in fact, the laws require great amend ment respecting the character, capabilities, and stowage of ships taking out passengers and emigrants. After ascertaining the state and condition of the vessel you propose to embark in, inquire the character of the master who is to navigate her, as to sobriety, most particularly, and as to seamanship ; whether he uses his passengers well, and whether he is provided by his owners with proper and wholesome sea-stores. Be also very careful, in making your bargain for the voyage, that he lays in a sufficient stock of fresh provision, poultry, pigs and sheep. If it is a large vessel, see how she is manned ; for most of the traders are deficient in this particular, as well as in useful instruments : few use a chronometer • still fewer attend to the b TIME OF EMBARKATION. advantages to be derived from the barometer • but a careful and experienced sea man, who has received a proper nautical education, will never neglect the latter.

Embark, if possible, in April or May, and not later than June ; thus arriving in fine weather at your destination, by which you will be able to perform the inland voyage or journey, if going westward, and get settled before the severity of the winter's frosts commence. Those who have never been at sea, or who have only made pleasure trips in vessels abounding with comforts and luxuries, can form very inadequate notions on the subject ; whilst, on the other hand, an old traveller, accustomed to view the world as his home, however much he may dislike the dangers and discomforts of a long voyage, looks on things with a balanced mind, and weighing in equal scale delight and dole, suffers himself to be transported to his desti nation without morbidly fancying that New gate, according to Dr. Johnson's notion, is FINAL ADIEUS. 5 an infinitely preferable dwelling-place to the cabin of a vessel.

To an Englishman, however frequent may have been the calls of duty or of pleasure, which may have estranged him from his na tive land, when the actual certainty arrives of being about again to leave it for an uncertain and an indefinite period, there is some thing which calls forth most potently the natural melancholy of his temperament. To me, the song of the sailors, particularly the lengthened cadences of " top the boom," and " ho cheerly," appeared unusually affecting, following as it did, the adieus of dear and levins' friends and relatives. Whilst sailing through the dangerous channels of the Es tuarv of the Thames, these thoughts had ample food for rumination. Here we passed within the ship's length of the solitary mast of a vessel buried beneath the waters ; the sole visible testimonial of what had lately been a scene of agony and woe.

The final adieus of all parties on board were now made, as the ship lay to, off Deal, LAST SIGHT OF ENGLAND. on a spot where, many years before, I had made my first essay of the pleasures and penalties of a sailor's life. At that time I had, with a young and buoyant spirit, beheld its bosom covered with one of the mightiest navies that England, the mistress of the ocean, had ever gathered together to assert her rights. It was the expedition to the Scheldt. What a different scene was now presented to my observation ! With the ex ception of our light vessel, and two or three outward bound merchantmen, the vast road of the Downs was one tract of tenantless water. With a fine steady breeze and fair weather we continued our progress down the chan nel. Soon the lofty white cliffs of England and the pale shores of France faded from our sight : Dover, Calais, Plymouth, the Land's End, the Scilly Isles, all passed in distant view, and each in turn was the object of the most intense interest.

The fleet of fishing-boats near Plymouth and along the Cornish shores, the numerous SEARCH FOR NOVELTY. 7 merchant vessels wending their way to and from all parts of the world, moving monu ments of the national feature and industry, were now to be suddenly exchanged for the pathless tracks of the silent ocean. And now commenced that earnest search for novelty which invariably succeeds the first week of a landsman's voyage, when every eye is strained to find the sail that the seaman descries in the distant horizon ; every ripple in the wave is marked to see if it is formed by some unknown monster of the deep. Now we become certain that we are really embarked on the wild sea, and that nothing but time and patience can ex tricate us from our prison. Now we begin to know each sailor's face ; we visit the caboose, the cook, the carpenter, the mate ; we descend into the hold ; we listen to the sailor's song of an evening, as he sits sur rounded by his comrades on the forecastle ; and now we begin to ask the master and his mate the news of the voyage, the situation of the ship, and the state of the weather.

FLYING FISH. Day succeeds day, and night succeeds nio-ht, with the like occupations ; and time seems to hang heavier and heavier in pro portion as its load is in reality lessening. In 16° of longitude, we observed masses of a jelly-like substance floating on the waters ; and during the calms which pre vailed, I obtained a portion of it, to. which a beautiful purple shell of the helix tribe was attached : on its upper spiral two or three living small shells of the barnacle species, but much furrowed, were firmly fastened. In 45° 30' north latitude, and about 29° of west longitude, we first observed, during this voyage, the beautiful flying-fish. They were as large as a herring, and very numerous ; which I think is uncommon in so high a latitude. During a high sea on the 17th August they came to us frequently.

We had until now fair and moderate weather ; but on the night of the same day we were to experience some of the alarms and uneasinesses of an atlantic voyage. A A DOLPHIN CAUGHT. strong and heavy gale from the north came on, and carried away the bulwarks of the waist, split three sails, and caused us to ship a sea, which came down the companion ladder, and fairly washed a passenger out of his berth in the state-room. This gale, however, did not last very long ; and as the damages to the vessel were not serious, it left us laughing at the wetting our companion had received. On the 20th of August, in latitude 45° 10', and longitude 33° 53', I sent overboard a sealed bottle, to which a white flag was attached, with a weight below to make it float upright. It contained a brief state ment of our situation in four languages, — English, French, Spanish, and Italian.

This day we caught a dolphin at the bow of the vessel with the grains. Its stomach was full of small and singularly-shaped fishes, as well as of the flying-fish, which appears to be its chief food, and amongst these was one of a beautiful bright blue colour. Nothing on a fine day can exceed b A DYING DOLPHIN. the beauty of the dolphin, as he plays and gambols about the ship. The green tinge of the transparent medium through which he is seen gives him the most gorgeous appearance, and the brilliancy of his colours, as reflected in the sunshine, it is impossible to describe. On the 21st, we saw a number of these lively and beautiful fishes about the vessel, and caught another with a hook and line trailed astern. I witnessed the actual death on board the vessel of both these dolphins ; and must observe, that the common notion of the beauty exhibited by the play of colours on the fish, when in the agonies of death, appears to be nearly as false as the mis-shapen monstrous form under which the ancients depicted it.

There is certainly a great display of the swift passage of the different primitive colours into the secondary ones whilst the creature is struggling and heaving; but all this is perfectly natural, considering the variety of glorious tints with which its body is painted — the vividness of A DYING DOLPHIN. 11 which no pencil or human art could pour tray. The following faint description is made from a drawing of the dolphin, carefully exe cuted at the time I have just referred to. The body of it was two feet nine inches long, and perfectly straight ; the back very slightly curved, and the upper jaw and nose coming down on the lower in a blunt sweep ; the under jaw was projected a little (say two inches) beyond the upper, and was much sharper. From the pectoral fin, which is very small, to the caudal fin, the body of the fish gradually tapers away by a beautiful swelling curve, and the tail then branches out vertically into a long and pointed semi lune, eleven inches in span.

The dorsal fin reaches from the back of the head, above the eye, to very near the insertion of the tail, and is nearly as broad as half the vertical measure of the fish : it contained fifty-four spines, or ribs, which were about half an inch distant from each other. The ventral and thoracic fins are two in number ; the COLOURS OF THE DOLPHIN. former, twelve inches in length, by one inch and a quarter of breadth, at the smaller end, has twenty-three small spines, or rays, and two large ones, and commences near the tail, and proceeds for nearly half the length of the belly, much dentated, when it suddenly drops away, by a backward curve, in two long spines. The thoracic fin is four inches and three-quarters long, and bends also back. The dolphin's eye is placed at about two thirds of the distance from the termination of the dorsal fin on the head, and very for ward near the lips : it is large, and has a red iris.

In its characters, this dolphin did not at all agree as to form of the head, colours, or disposition of the tail, with the species de scribed in the Regne Animate. Its colours, generalized, were a dark but lively blue on the back, interspersed with magnificent spots of ultra-marine ; next came a band, joining by imperceptible gradations with the former, of a dark, but clear sea-green, covered with the same eye-like spots ; then another band, COLOURS OF THE DOLPHIN. 13 or shade, of light and vivid sea-green, also similarly, but less frequently, spotted. The centres of the sides were painted with orange, red, and golden colours, intimately blended, and the belly passed into a cerulean blue and a brilliant white. Few maculae occupy these last shades. The tail was a subdued white, with golden shades.

The head was similarly coloured as the body, the bands continuing along it ; but the beauty of the dorsal fin exceeds any attempt at de scription • the blue with which it was coloured was dark, and, at the same time, transparent. The other fins were of a lighter, but less lively blue ; the mouth and lips of a pale white. I have been particular in this description, because it appears to me that this beautiful fish has been hitherto inadequately exa mined. What could cause the ancients to transform its back into a chariot, is difficult to conceive. The dolphin certainly swims very swiftly ; but Arion must have had a patent pair of wire breeches, if he could HEAVY SQUALLS. stick on its spiny and straight back. As to the common story of the dolphin sometimes springing out of the sea so high as to fall on the deck, I entirely disbelieve it.

We saw many in all kinds of weather, and none of them appeared to be inclined to pay the upper air a visit. The dolphin is not inserted amongst the fishes usually reckoned as edible, in works treating of aliment • but it is sometimes eaten, though, according to the accounts of old seamen, not always with impunity. In 34° west longitude, we began to ob serve great quantities of sea-weed, of singu larly beautiful varieties ; we also saw a live crab, about the size of the palm of the hand, float past on a mass of weed. On the 23rd and 26th of August, we experienced heavy squalls, both during the day and the night, and accompanied by a deluge of rain. During the latter day, we saw a sail ; and, as it seemed bearing down for us, we lay to and spoke the United States ship, Alexander, from the Havannah, bound MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS. 15 to Marseilles and Gibraltar.

How this ves sel came from such a southern port into so high a latitude, we could not discover. For the last three or four days, we had fallen in with large quantities of sea-weed, on which I caught several small nondescript fish. On the 27th, we observed many flying fishes ; and now the sea-weed came in long lines, or masses, laying north and south. These lines were generally at equal dis tances from each other. This day we saw a large bird, with a long tail, flying very high. On the 28th, we got into 44° 28' north latitude, and supposed ourselves near the southern edge of the banks of Newfound land. Soon after daylight, we observed a large shoal of albicores and flying-fish, with many of Mother Carey's chickens. Towards the evening, the colour of the water ap peared so much altered, that the line was let down ; but at one hundred and thirty fathoms there was no ground.

We afterwards crossed a strong and noisy current, and CAPE FLYAWAY. saw many boatswain-birds, and an immense shoal of small fish. There was now a heavy swell ; and after sunset two large grampuses came and played about under the bows of the vessel ; and one afterwards visited us astern. There now appeared every indication of the banks, par ticularly as the birds were very numerous, and busily employed in fishing and crying about the ship. Cape Flyaway was distinct at sunset. At night a strong rippling passed the vessel, which was supposed to be either a current or one of those immense shoals of fish common in these latitudes. A grampus was again seen during the night. On the 29th there was a pleasant breeze, but still an unpleasant swell, which, how ever, was a convincing proof that we were among the banks ; and to confirm our con jectures, we discovered in the evening a schooner lying to, and engaged busily in the fishing.

WTe now again sounded, and, to our great joy, had bottom at thirty-six fa thoms, coarse gravel and broken shells. MONSTER FLAT-FISH. On the 30th, at daylight, a scene oc curred which is one of great interest during this transit. All hands turned out to fish, and before twelve o'clock we had hauled up by the deep lines twenty-one fine large cod and one enormous halibut (ipleuronectes hippoglossus). The appearance of this monstrous flat-fish, as he rose up with the line, was singular. We caught two cod on one line ; but altogether our fishery was not reckoned very successful. A rudder-fish followed us for some time, but we could not get it. There were now many of Mother Carey's chickens; but they were difficult to shoot or catch. The vulgar notion of their appearance portending stormy weather seems to be erroneous, as in my recent voyage from New York to England and back again, I saw them almost every day, in a lower latitude.