156 NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



me off at the river where my canoe awaits me. I say 

 good-bye to the stranger, and in the dim evening light, as 

 the train leaves me alone in the wilderness, I see him gazing 

 wistfully from the window as he sees me carry my outfit 

 down to the canoe, for he, too, would like to be going 

 into the woods to see the country in the way that man 

 likes best. 



Except where it crosses the base of the great northern 

 peninsula, the railroad keeps well toward the west and 

 north coast, for only near the sea has the island been 

 settled. The population of little over a quarter of a 

 million is composed largely of fishermen. Small farms 

 are only too few, except in the extreme east. But the 

 interior has so far scarcely been touched by man, except 

 by the Harmsworths, whose big pulp works are well 

 known. There are practically no roads, except near the 

 coast, and as horses cannot be used over most of the wild 

 country, owing to the amount of bogland and dense timber, 

 little has been done to open up the island. Where 

 farming is carried on it is highly successful. In 1901 

 there were perhaps eighty-six thousand acres of improved 

 land, which yielded about three-and-a-half million dollars, 

 nearly one-third of which was from cabbages, the other 

 two large items being hay and potatoes. I mention these 

 facts because they prove that the climate is not what 

 people, outside of the island, believe it to be. The 

 summer season is short, but, as is usually the case. Nature 

 makes up for that by causing vegetation to grow with 

 remarkable rapidity. The temperature during the winter 

 is cold in the north, where it is furthest from the influence 

 of the Gulf Stream, but in the southern and eastern parts, 

 especially near the coast, it is not nearly so severe. The 

 summer temperature is delightful, very hot days being 



