his way at the island now known as Belle Isle is a
matter of doubt. He passed an island which he named St Catherine, and
which he warned all mariners to avoid because of dangerous shoals that
lay about it. We find his track again with certainty when he reaches
the shelter of the Port of Castles. The name was given to the anchorage
by reason of the striking cliffs of basaltic rock, which here give to
the shore something of the appearance of a fortress. The place still
bears the name of Castle Bay.

Sailing on to the west, Cartier noted the glittering expanse of Blanc
Sablon (White Sands), still known by the name received from these first
explorers. On June 10 the ships dropped anchor in the harbour of Brest,
which lies on the northern coast of the Gulf of St Lawrence among many
little islands lining the shore. This anchorage seems to have been
known already in Cartier's time, and it became afterwards a famous
place of gathering for the French fishermen. Later on in the sixteenth
century a fort was erected there, and the winter settlement about it is
said to have contained at one time as many as a thousand people. But
its prosperity vanished later, and the fort had been abandoned before
the great conflict had begun between France and Great Britain for the
possession of North America. Cartier secured wood and water at Brest.
Leaving his ships there for the time being, he continued his westward
exploration in his boats.

The careful pilot marked every striking feature of the coast, the
bearing of the headlands and the configuration of the many islands
which stud these rock-bound and inhospitable shores. He spent a night
on one of these islands, and the men found great quantities of ducks'
eggs. The next day, still sailing to the west, he reached so fine an
anchorage that he was induced to land and plant a cross there in honour
of St Servan. Beyond this again was an island 'round like an oven.'
Still farther on he found a great river, as he thought it, which came
sweeping down from the highlands of the interior.

As the boats lay in the mouth of the river, there came bearing down
upon them a great fishing ship which had sailed from the French port of
La Rochelle, and was now seeking vainly for the anchorage of Brest.
Cartier's careful observations now bore fruit. He and his men went in
their small boats to the fishing ship and gave the information needed
for the navigation of the coast. The explorers still pressed on towar