APPENDIX, NO. I. 23 



There are various opinions as to the origin of the New- 

 foundland Indians ; some conceiving them to have come 

 from the continent of America, others that they are the 

 descendants of the old Norwegian navigators, who are 

 supposed to have discovered this island near a thousand 

 years ago. I had persons with me that could speak the 

 Norwegian and most of the dialects known in the north of 

 Europe, but they could in no wise understand them ; to 

 me their speech appeared as a complete jargon, uttered with 

 great rapidity and vehemence, and differed from all the 

 other Indian tribes that I had heard, whose language 

 generally flows in soft melodious sounds, 



The general face of the country in the interior exhibits a 

 mountainous appearance, with rivers, ponds, and marshes 

 in the intermediate levels or valleys ; the timber, which is 

 mostly white and red spruce, fine birch and ash, is much 

 stunted in its growth, and those trees which have arrived at 

 any considerable dimensions are generally decayed at the 

 heart, in advancing into the interior, the birch diminishes 

 both in size and quantity till it almost wholly disappears. 

 Jn many places the woods are burnt down for a considerable 

 extent, and in others young woods have sprung up, and 

 their several growths evidently shew the fires to have been 

 made at different periods, but none had been burnt for 

 thirty miles below the lake ; this general remark is made 

 from observation on the banks of the river. The pond on 

 which the natives were found does not appear to have been 

 discovered from any excursion from the north side of the 

 island ; but there is no question of its having been seen in 

 some route from the Bay of Islands along by the H umber 

 River, or from St. George's Bay by a communication of 

 waters ; for in Cook and Lane's chart, published by Laurie 

 and Whittle in May 1794, there is a pond delineated, which, 

 from relative distances and appearances, I have no doubt to 

 be the same on which our unfortunate companions lost their 

 lives. 



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