1886.] NEWFOUNDLAND AS A TIMBER COUNTRY. 637 



they nibble nearly all kinds of wood, with perhaps the single 

 exception of the elder. For instance, all the more lighted oak 

 woods after a good acorn year carpet themselves with a close growth 

 of young oak seedlings. But the first herd of sheep which is 

 driven into such a wood in spring tramples this work of nature with 

 all its rich possibilities, and destroys it completely. 



NEWFOUNDLAND AS A TIMBER COUNTRY. 



NEWFOUNDLAND from the sea does not look an inviting 

 country. It has a bleak, cold, and barren appearance. This, 

 however, may l)e said of other countries that are known to have 

 fertile soils and temperate climates. The east face of the island is 

 washed hy the North Atlantic and the Arctic Stream. The west 

 coast is on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on account of the influence 

 of the Mexican Gulf Stream, and the humid warm winds which 

 blow from'°'it, the west coast is the most heavily timbered portion of 

 the countr}^ and the climate is the most temperate and equable. 

 The north side faces Labrador, whicli is divided from Newfoundland 

 by the Straits of Belle Isle, twelve miles wide, and open as a short 

 cut between Liverpool and Quebec for about four months in the 

 year. Newfoundland has an area of 36,000 square miles, exactly 

 tlie size of Lake Superior, and one-sixth larger than Ireland, the 

 two countries being warmed by the Mexican Gulf Stream, and both 

 receiving cold currents from the north, and having foggy, humid 

 climates, that are, however, through the large amount of sea ozone 

 in the air, exceedingly healthy. Newfoundland is the oldest of all 

 British colonies, and is now self-governed, the Legislature consisting 

 of a Eepresentative Chamber, with a Council and a Governor 

 appointed from England, the three forming the constitutional 

 authority. Eailways on the island have not yet made much 

 progress, but there is now a strong tendency to promote that class 

 of enterprise, and thus before long open up one of the finest islands 

 on the globe. It is said that more money was made by the fisheries 

 of Newfoundland than from the silver mines of Potosi, which 

 doubtless is true, because unquestionably those fisheries are the 

 most prolific in the world ; and here, again, the comparison between 

 Ireland and Newfoundland is strong. To a large extent the fisheries 

 are the cause of the backward state of the island, for up to a recent 

 period the object of many of the leading men was to keep every- 

 thing to themselves, and for this purpose, as far as possible, to 

 prevent colonization and settlement. Strange as it may seem, the 



