Julien Thoulet was born in Algiers in 1843 and after a life devoted to science died in Paris in 1936 at the age of ninety-three.¹ He finished his secondary schooling in Paris, where he received hisbaccalauréat ès sciencesand became interested in mineralogy and cartography. He worked in the United States, where he spent some time with the Northern Pacific Railroad near Lake Superior.² He returned to France and later worked as a laboratory assistant at the Collège de France under the mineralogist Charles Sainte-Claire-Deville. In 1867, he was proclaimed a member of the Société de géographie de Paris,...

I arrived in Lorient in late April 1886 to embark on a journey aboard theClorinde, bound for Newfoundland, in order to carry out certain oceanographic observations and learned that, instead of departing two days later, the frigate would not sail for another week. However, I was promptly consoled — for the next six months, I would be living aboard ship and was therefore not at all displeased to have the time to bid a leisurely goodbye to dry land. The best part of any kind of joy is the beginning or the end. A gourmet would probably argue that...

On Sunday, May 2nd, 1886, at eleven thirty o’clock in the morning, we sailed. Since we were simply made fast to a mooring, all that was needed was to let go the lines. The engine started and the frigate began to cut through the waves of the harbour. I could look through a scuttle in the gun deck near where I stood to avoid getting in the way of manoeuvres and see the trees, houses, ships at anchor pass slowly at first, then more quickly as we gained speed. When a man walks, he has the impression of remaining still...

What a delightful feeling it is to arrive on a fine morning, peaceful, alone, and carefree in a new place for the first time. Nothing makes you think of any memory; you are not at all preoccupied. You are concerned with enjoying this feast of novelty for the eyes and the mind. Everything is unexpected; at every step the view is a new one. This is the pleasure that comes from discovering the unknown, without the slightest fear. In a way, you are born anew to these things, to these people of whom only yesterday you knew absolutely nothing and...

Newfoundland is a large island with the Gulf of St Lawrence to the west and the Strait of Belle Isle separating it from Labrador and Canada. To the north, the east, and the south is the Atlantic Ocean. Its full length from Cape Ray to Cape Norman, exactly equal to its full width from Cape Spear to Cape Anguille, measures 511 kilometres. It has roughly the shape of a triangle whose peak looks toward Greenland. Countless bays and coves lined with mountains cut into its sides, especially from Cape St John to Cape Ray, and give it the characteristic appearance...

Our frigate left St-Pierre in beautiful weather, with every man at his station, the captain on the poop deck, nearly all the crew on the capstan, half on deck, the other half on the gun deck. The men are four or five abreast, pushing on long wooden poles, heaving in time with the bugle and drum. We are setting sail for Newfoundland, for a new land at last, since St-Pierre is still a little part of France.

We glide past the rock of Grand-Colombier, which is the capital, the refuge, the roost of the puffin, a black and white seabird...

From Bonne Bay to Ingornachoix Bay is not far; we sailed at four-thirty in the morning and dropped anchor at Port Saunders at four o’clock in the afternoon.

Our ship hugs the coastline, which at first continues to be equally as majestic, its tall mountains dropping straight into the sea. In places, the wall is broken by a fissure at the bottom of which flows a stream. The Martin fissure is the most remarkable of all; it is an opening that is about twice as high as it is wide at its widest point and whose base is so narrow...

We encounter our first iceberg on leaving St Margaret Bay. It is about twelve metres long and thirty metres wide, with a valley in between the two mounds, one pointed and the other shorter. No matter what side you examine it from, its outline is nearly always curved. At the highest point, it is a dull white, but nearer the bottom, it becomes transparent and takes on a glaucous green that a watercolour artist would try to render using light Prussian blue with a touch of ultramarine. The ice has a series of bluish or slightly grey layers, parallel to...

The north coast of Newfoundland stretches in the general direction of east to west from Cape Bauld to Cape Norman and has three indentations. The first is Jacques Cartier Bay and Mauve Bay,¹ the second Sacred Bay, the third Ha-Ha Bay. TheClorindewill visit this part of the coast.

Jacques Cartier Bay [Kirpon Harbour] extends to Kirpon to the east and is divided into uneven portions by Jacques Cartier Island. This island is barely one kilometre long and does not have a single tree, and the grass scarcely hides its nudity; it is a meagre tribute to the sailor...

Newfoundland, along with Iceland, is the land of cod. Without cod, I do not know whether Iceland would have been discovered as long ago as it was, because those hardy Norse sailors plied the vast ocean aboard theirdrakkars,¹ braving storms, to discover Greenland and Vinland, that mysterious part of the United States.² Fleeing from famine that brought the wolves out of the forest, they went to seek their fortune, but especially to find food.³ It is certain that without codfish, Newfoundland would have remained uninhabited for a long time.⁴ Its coasts are guarded by a belt of ice for...

TheClorindeheads south to map the waters of Cat Arm, at the mouth of White Bay, opposite Cape Partridge. We pass Pointe des Graux and the question is whether the captain will decide to enter Croque Harbour. While in port, we have a tendency to become sybarites, to prefer the quiet night at anchor; when we get up in the morning we push the porthole open and breathe fresh air as we wash. Moreover, there is a rumour that the vegetables that we planted during our last stop here are probably ripe; such serious news creates considerable emotion. The...

We depart Cat Arm; theClorindesails down the fjord, Passes the underwater moraine, and enters White Bay, of which the most easterly point, Cape Partridge, is visible on the horizon, and then we head north. For a few minutes, we see the fault line that indicates the entrance; soon however, it blends with the other lines and forms an uninterrupted row of cliffs. When a remarkable sight has struck our eyes or an event has moved us deeply, we go away feeling as if our heart is broken. But one day follows another, and if we have survived the...

We find the island just as we had left it; the season has advanced, autumn has arrived, the temperature has cooled, and the fog now covers the mountain with its grey folds almost every day. I return to the places I have already visited and bid adieu to Cap à l’ Aigle, the Iphigénie Monument, Savoyard, thebarachois, and the Galantry lighthouse, still atop its rock pedestal with the surf beating against it. The sailors go ashore and take advantage of their leave to pay their respects to all the bars. As we walk the streets, we hear the melancholy...