Southwestern End of Ciboux Island

A long low “prow”, a part of which is seen at the left of photo #1, the “conning tower”, and another low “stern”, gave the southwestern end of Ciboux Island the appearance of a submarine lying just off the island. The distance between Hertford and Ciboux Islands on the topographical map is somewhat less than a kilometre (about half a mile), but it seemed like we were almost instantly there, since the strange shapes instantly caught our eyes and seized our attention. The roll of the seas continued to accentuate, as the breaking waves in this photo attest.

Photo #2 gives a better idea of the actual distance between the “conning tower” and the start of the island proper, which appear tele­scoped into adjacency by the angle of the shot in photo #1. The “anvil” between is yet one more strange shape!

These amazing shapes are not confined to the rocks: consider the grassy mounds in photo #1. My best guess is that they result from the subsidence of rocks be­neath the indented por­tions, though there may be some other factor at play.

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The force of erosion is hard to miss in these photos: it seems apparent that it has wiped away the grassy surface area that once must have covered the “submarine” as it does the rest of the island, leaving only a small residual piece on top of the “conning tower”. And the caves seen at the right of photo #2, not to mention the already pre­car­i­ous state of the “prow” in photo #3, show that it is only a matter of time before yet more of this island will be brought down!

The cormorants seen in photo #3 were all perched on the “bow” of the “submarine”; many others were found on the “prow”, some of which can be seen in photo #1. Gulls, also seen in photo #1, were likewise in abundance, both on the “prow” and in the air (and less frequently in the water).

I am certainly no expert on birds and will not venture a guess as to whether the cormorants seen here are great cormorants or double-crested cor­mo­rants or both; they seem to me to have some­what fatter bodies than the great cormorants that have become abundant on the St Lawrence River during my lifetime.