Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/440

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372
THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

headland, is approximately the same distance on the other side of the Port of the Basques.

Bonavista Bay.

The rail journey from Shoal Harbour (133 miles northwest of St. John's) to the town of Bonavista is fraught with inconveniences. Three days in the week the "Accommodation" leaves at 1:22 in the morning, and on the remaining week-days, if the express is on time and the stars are propitious it departs five hours later. Six hours are consumed in making the journey of 88 miles. A less strenuous and more picturesque route is via the Dundee which leaves Port Blandford (18 miles beyond Shoal Harbour) on Mondays and Fridays for a three days' tour of twenty ports in the isle-fretted bay. At Bonavista, the chief town, connection can be made with the Reid and Bowring Labrador steamers.

Looking on the fearsome reefs of Cape Bonavista one wonders how Cabot and Cartier had courage to approach so inhospitable a land. The harbour of Catalina to the south is believed to be the one the Norman voyager named St. Katherine. There his ships remained ten days until the weather was favourable for a continuance of his first and most memorable journey in the New World.

Between Port Blandford and Notre Dame Junction (94 m.) the main line of the railway crosses