■NEWFOUNDLAND AS IT IS 

 IN 1894: 



A HAND-BOOK AND TOURISTS' GUIDE. 



CHAPTHi; r. 

 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



AltOKIGIXAI. XKWFOIXOLAXD. 



.Shovi.d it Ik- askfil : Wlio wciv llie very first liiiinau iiilia- 

 liitants (if ill is laigc island ; to uliat race oi- nation did they 

 belong ; and what \ww their appearance and haliits ; what 

 plane of civilizaliun had they reacdied :' ^Ve are unahle to 

 answer these (piestions. History enables us to go back only 

 to the arrival of the first European ex]ilorers, and to describe 

 the inhabitants found l)y them in possession of the island some 

 four hundred years ago. But it is (piitc jtossible and even likely 

 that other races may have preceded the Red Indians who were 

 occupants of the soil when the "palef>ices" first trod these shores-, 

 .and these may lia\-e disap])eared, leaving no trace behind, after 

 playing their ])art for many centuries on this narrow^ stage of 

 being. "We know something about the latest comers, but all is 

 .eloudland as regai'ds any earlier tribes. 



GEOr^OOICAl, CHAXGKS. 



AVe have more records in the rocks, regarding the earlier 

 • changes through which this ])ortion of the globe has passed, than 

 .of the evanescent human lieings who first trod its surface. — 

 •Geology has much to tell us of vast transibrmations during the 

 .aeons of the past ; of the seas flowing over much that is now 

 diy land ; of the bottoms of old Camln-ian and Silurian seas 

 now elevated inli) hill-ranges ; of vast denudations sweeping 



