could scarcely fly because of their small wings and their
exceeding fatness. The modern enquirer will recognize,
perhaps, the great auk which once abounded on the coast,
but which is now extinct. The sailors killed large numbers
of the birds, and filled two boats with them. Then the
ships sailed on rejoicing from the Island of Birds with
six barrels full of salted provisions added to their
stores. Cartier's Island of Birds is the Funk Island of
our present maps.

The ships now headed west and north to come into touch
with land again. To the great surprise of the company
they presently met a huge polar bear swimming in the open
sea, and evidently heading for the tempting shores of
the Island of Birds. The bear was 'as great as any cow
and as white as a swan.' The sailors lowered boats in
pursuit, and captured 'by main force' the bear, which
supplied a noble supper for the captors. 'Its flesh,'
wrote Cartier, 'was as good to eat as any heifer of two
years.'

The explorers sailed on westward, changing their course
gradually to the north to follow the broad curve of the
Atlantic coast of Newfoundland. Jutting headlands and
outlying capes must have alternately appeared and
disappeared on the western horizon. May 24, found the
navigators off the entrance of Belle Isle. After four
hundred years of maritime progress, the passage of the
narrow strait that separates Newfoundland from Labrador
remains still rough and dangerous, even for the great