6 HISTORY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

was so extremely violent that all the fishing vessels at Saint Peter’s and Morell River, in Saint Peter’s Bay, were burned. In many parts round the island is a rough, steep coast, from forty to fifty feet high, in some places a hundred, composed of strata of soft red stone, which, when exposed to the air for some time, becomes harder, and is not unfit for building. \Vherever this sort of coast is, it diminishes con- siderably every year upon the breaking up of the frost, Which moulders away a great part of it. It may probably be owing to this cause that the sea betwixt the island and the Continent. is frequently of a red hue, and for that reason by many people called the red sea. The rivers are properly sea creeks, the tide flowing up to the heads, where, gen- erally, streams of fresh water empty themselves. In most parts of the island the Sarsaparilla Root is in great abund- ance, and very good. The Mountain Shrub and Maiden Hair are also pretty common, of whose leaves and berries the Acadian settlers frequently make a kind of tea. The ground is in general covered with strawberries and cran- berries, in their different seasons, which are very good. In those places which have 'been settled, and are still tolerably cleared, is very good grass, but a great part of the land formerly cleared is so much overgrown with brush and small wood that it would be extremely difficult to make it fit for the plough. It may be proper to observe that very few houses mentioned in the explanation of the Townships are good for anything, and by no means tenantable, except one or two at Saint Peter’s, kept in repair by the officers, and one kept by myself at Observation Cove.”

After describing the kinds of Timber to be found on the island, Captain Holland proceeds to say: “Port la Joie (Charlottetown), Cardigan and Richmond Bays are without dispute the only places where ships of burthen can safely