Fleur de Lys

When I left, it was still cloudy with a bit of rain.

I had a long drive today because I wanted to see the Dorset Inuit soapstone mines. The Inuit make most of their pots from soapstone, whereas other native groups don’t, so if an archeologist finds some at a site, they can be fairly confident that Inuits were at the site - that’s how Dr Fitzhugh knew that Inuits were working with the Basques at St Paul’s River. 

This site is the biggest soapstone mine in Newfoundland, and one of the earliest. Quite a number of the blocks have been left partly extracted, so the entire technique can be seen. Unfortunately the museum was closed. However, it was a beautiful sunny day, and I walked to the lookout over the town, and on a separate path to the ocean.

Part of the trip was on the Trans Canadian Highway which goes along the middle of Newfoundland, and wasn’t scenic, but the drive to Fleur de Lys was very nice, and the Road to the Isles was even better.