OCR Text |
Show IDEAL PLACE FOR SOLITUDE Bird Island, In Gulf of St. Lawrence, One of World's Most Desolate Spots. Bird Island, most northerly of tho ilagdalen islands, holds the world's: record for wrecks. The whole group, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is exceedingly exceed-ingly dangerous, but Bird island stands first. More like a huge rock than an: island its walls rise grim and gray in the path of the mariner. The island lias no bench or const, only a steep irregular ir-regular clilf rising abruptly from the! water. The top is a barren plateau of! bout five acres. The principal inhabitants are birds. "Gulls, gannets and murres come in thousands to nest and rear their young. The roar of their thousands of wings drowns the noise of the waters. The Indians say that they are the souls of shipwrecked sailors. The human tenants of the plateau are the lighthouse keeper and his wife, doomed to solitary existence except about once or twice a year when a ship brings provisions. Sometimes, perhaps in about every three or four years, an -enterprising naturalist comes to study -the bird life on the island. ' Ships can approach Bird island only In the calmest weather. The slight-, est ripple and the craft keeps a respectful re-spectful distance. The lighthouse is reached by a rope and windlass. The Jiardlest mountain climber would hesi tate before attempting to scale its Tough gray walls. The keepers of the light have been singularly unfortunate. The first went Insane and had to be kept confined by Ills wife and assistant until the provision pro-vision boat arrived. The second was borne away by a floating piece of Ice -when seal hunting in the early spring. His wife maintained the lighthouse -alone until help came from p. neighboring neigh-boring island. |