i8 



and even tlicsc arc less known in the interior than on the 

 coast. From a record kept by a gentleman who spent 

 some time in the country, many years ago, on an ad- 

 venturous mission, we find forty-one bright days, eight 

 rainy, and four foggy, and this might be assumed as the 

 probable experience of our inland life. June, July, August, 

 and September, arc our summer months, when we have a 

 temperature of 65^ to 80° Eahrenheit, and during which 

 vegetation proceeds rapidly. The season would be longer 

 in the interior, and where east winds have less effect. 

 Winter really begins in December and ends in May. The 

 temperature rarely goes below zero, the normal state being 

 from twenty to ten above that point, The climate is 

 specially healthy, and the appearance of the people is an 

 eloquent testimony to this fact. 



Such is a short review of the economic and social con- 

 dition with which the Government had to deal, and it met 

 them with wisdom and effect. The construction of a railroad 

 to open up the means of conveyance for new industries was 

 the manifest work to be undertaken, and it was entered 

 on, in the year 1S81, by contract with a company, who 

 agreed to build and operate three hundred and fifty miles 

 road for a subsidy of ^^40,000 per annum, together with 

 five thousand acres of land for every mile of road con- 

 structed. Considering the cogent reasons that sustain the 

 wisdom of this measure, it will seem strange to learn that 

 it met with bitter resistance from some of the merchants, 

 from whose minds the traditional idea of Newfound- 

 land as a purely fishing station had not been wholly 

 removed. But a general election having come on in 1882, 

 the policy of the Government was endorsed by the return 

 of twenty-seven against six members, and this pronounce- 

 ment showed what the people felt and intended. So 



