"My father is away fishing with Guillaumy." "What do you do in the island in the winter?" "We make nets; we fish in the lakes by breaking the ice; on Sundays we go to Mass and Vespers or we sing hymns; and then we play in the snow and watch the boys hunting the polar bears." "Will your father be back soon?" "Oh no: the skipper is taking the ship to Genoa with Guillaumy." "But Guillaumy will come home again?" "Oh yes, next season, when the fishermen return. He is going to bring me a striped silk bodice in his stock, a muslin skirt, and a black necklace." "And you will be decked out for the wind, the mountains, and the sea. Would you like me to send you a bodice, a skirt, and a necklace?" "Oh no!" She rose, took up her basket, and ran down a steep path, along a fir-grove. In a loud voice she sang a Mission hymn: Tout brillant d'une ardeur immortelle, C'est vers Dieu que tendent mes désirs[460]. She scattered to flight, as she went, those pretty birds called egrets, from the tuft on their heads; she looked as though she were one of their number. When she reached the sea, she leapt into a boat, unfurled the sail, and seated herself at the rudder; one might have taken her for Fortune; she sailed away from me. "Oh yes; oh no; Guillaumy:" the picture of the young sailor seated on a yard among the winds changed the hideous rock of Saint-Pierre into a land of delights: L'isole di Fortuna, ora vedete[461]. We spent a fortnight in the island. From its desolate shores one discerns the yet more desolate coasts of Newfoundland. The hills in the interior put out diverging chains of which the highest extends towards Rodriguez Creek. In the dales, the granite rock, mixed with red and green mica, is covered with a thick cushion of sphagnum, lichens, and dicranum. Small lakes are nourished by the tribute brought by the streams from the _Vigie_, or Look-Out; the Courval; the _Pain-de-Sucre_, or Sugarloaf; the Kergariou; the _Tête-Galante_, or Gallant Head. These pools are known by the names of the _Étangs-du-Savoyard_, or Savoyard's Ponds; the _Cap-Noir_, or Black Head; the Ravenel; the _Colombier_, or Dove-cot; the _Cap-à-l'Aigle_, or Eagle Head. When the whirlwinds strike upon these pools, they rend the shallow waters, laying bare, in places, portions of submarine meadows, which are as suddenly covered over by the newly-woven veil of the waters.