8 IIISTOltlCAL SKETCH. 



away later fonuatious ami s|(iva(liiig tlie wrecks over the floor of 

 ocean ; of volcanic operations that lironght to tlie sui'face the- 

 mineral-bearing rock.s, placing the precious ores M-ithin tlie reach 

 of man. Aliove all, geology lias much to say aliout an ice-age^ 

 (towards the close of the Tertian), when Newfoundland, in 

 common with many nciglibouring lamls, was luide]' a liuge 

 ice-cap many hundreds of feet thick, just as Greenland now is, 

 and during which glaciers foi- Imndreds of centuries were shap- 

 ing its valleys and scooping out its hays ami lakes and (>overing 

 much of its surface with hoidders of Archaean rocks. Tliesc 

 glaciers have left their grooves on the rocks, hy which tlieir 

 course can still be traced. This ice-co\cring ;it lengtli l>egan lo' 

 shrink as the climate grew milder, and finally disappeared. 

 Plants and animals, different from any now I'xisfing, lived and 

 died. Sj)ecies followed species, of whicli we can trace some 

 faint outlines in the rocks. Whether any Jiuman eyes looked 

 on them we know not ; lait, if so, they, too, passed away leaving 

 no memorials of themsehes. And when those daring voyagers 

 crossed the stormy Atlantic and reached this sea-girt isle they 

 found it inhalnted by a race in all resj^ects resendiling the 

 savage tribes of the neighbouring North American continent, 

 and evidently belonging to the same stock. These early ex- 

 plorers from Europe for a long time believed that the coiintry 

 they had discovered was not a new continent, but the eastern 

 £ihores of Asia, or India, as it was named, and hence they called 

 the whole inhabitants, both in North and Soiith America,. 

 "Indians." From their complexion the northern tribes were 

 afterwards designated "Red Indians," and the whole tribes 

 "American Indians." 



THK IJEOTHIKS. 



The Indian race found in NeAvfoundland called themselves 

 Bcothiks. This Avas their tribal name. Their features resembled 

 those of the continental Indians. They had high cheek bones, 

 email black eyes, straight black haii', and were of a copjun-color. 

 Their weapons, canoes, tents or wigwams and domestic utensils 

 resembled those of neighbouring tribes on the continent. Their 



