All hands are on watch for a first glimpse of the Labrador coast, which will probably be Cape Armours with the light on it.

I wrote last time from Hawkesbury in the Gut of Canso.  We laid there all day Monday, July 6th, as the wind, southeast in the harbor, was judged by everybody to be northeast out in George’s Bay, and consequently dead ahead for us.  Monday evening, at the invitation of the purser, we all went down aboard the “State of Indiana,” the regular steamer of the “State Line” between Charlottetown, P.E.I., and Boston, touching at Halifax, and in the Gut.

After going ashore we stayed on the wharf till she left, singing college songs, giving an impromptu athletic exhibition, etc., to the intense delight of about fifty small boys (I can’t conceive where they all came from), and the two or three hundred servant girls going home to P.E.I. for a summer vacation.

I would put in here parenthetically, that since writing the above I have been on deck helping jibe the mainsail, as we have changed our course to about east by north, having rounded a couple of small low, sandy islands off the Bay of St. John, and now point straight into the strait of Belle Isle.

In the afternoon we examined some of the old red sandstone which underlies all that part of Cape Breton Island, found some good specimens, and some very plain and deep glacial scratches.  There is also some coal and a good deal of shale in with the sandstone.

We had a good opportunity to see this, since the railroad connecting Port Hawkesbury with Sidney is new, having started running only last March, and hence the cuts furnished admirable fields in which to examine the geology.  The road is surveyed and bed made along the Cape Breton shore of the Gut nearly to the northern end, and when completed will be a delightful ride.  I think the Gut for 10 miles north of Port Hawkesbury resembles the Hudson just by the Palisades.  It is grander than Eggemoggin Reach and on a far larger scale than Somes’ Sound.  At the northern end it broadens and becomes just a magnificent waterway, without the grand scenery.  We were becalmed nearly all day in George’s Bay, at one time getting pretty near Antigonish, but got a breeze towards evening.  We tried fishing several times but could not get a bite though several fishermen were in sight and trawls innumerable.  We passed one fisherman, a fine three-master, just as we were coming out of the Gut from Frenchman’s Bay, going home, but with very little fish.

I got the captain to call me about 4, Wednesday morning, to fish, but got none.  We were then off North Cape, having had a good breeze all night.  The wind was light all day, but towards the latter part of the afternoon commenced to blow from the southeast, kicking up a nasty sea very soon.  We double reefed the mainsail reefed the foresail and hauled the flying jib down.  About 8 P.M. we laid to with the jib hauled down, on the starboard tack.  The wind had backed to the east about four points and was blowing a gale.  About 12 M. it suddenly dropped, a flat calm, leaving a tremendous sea running from the southeast, combined with a smaller one from the east.  Our motions, jumps, rolls and pitches, can be better imagined than described.  It seemed at times that our bow and our stern were where the mastheads usually are, and our rails were frequently rolled under.