Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/352

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
294
THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

est grandfather of the lobster." The average length of specimens found in fossiliferous rock about Percé is from one to two inches. Mr. Briard, the agreeable and well-informed Jerseyman who keeps the store near the steamer landing in North Cove, frequently has small fossils and other geological curios in his show-case.

The grass-grown promontory of Mount Joli divides North from South Cove. On the brink at Cap à Canon is the villa of an American artist, the late Mr. Frederick James, who first came to Percé thirty years ago and returned each summer enticed by its lights, its colours and amazing outlines. Many individual tableaux were perpetuated by his master brush. Certain canvases have been excellently reproduced on post cards which are obtainable from Mr. Briard, or at the Percé Rock House of Mr. Bisson. A royalty of one cent a card is devoted by the widowed mistress of the villa, the beloved Lady of Percé, to a fund for the poor.

Immediately below Cannon Cape, whose name brings to mind Anglo-French and Anglo-American naval battles fought in sight of the Rock in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is South Cove where the Robin drying stage and houses are. The company store is elaborately stocked with commodities ranging from spices and spinning-wheels to hand-made laces. In this part of the world a wheel for twisting wool or linen thread is