26 PHYSIOGRAPHY. 



best fishing grounds, Avalon is the most thickly populated and 

 commercially important pai't of the island. The northern pen- 

 insula — called Petite Nord by the French — runs up long and 

 narrow, almost to Labrador, like the arm of a huge frying 

 jiau. The smallest peninsula of the three projects southerly be- 

 tween the bays of Placentia and Fortune. The little peninsula 

 of Port-au-Port, off the west coast, may also be named. It is 

 joined to the mainland by the Gravels, an isthmus not more than 

 a quarter of a mile in width. 



COAST SCENEKY. 



The first sight of the coasts of Newfoundland impresses the 

 traveller unfavourably. They are what is usually termed " iron- 

 bound." To say that they are rocky describes them tamely. 

 They might rather be designated one great wall of rock, now 

 shooting up into peaks, now breaking into wild fissures, now pre- 

 senting dark frowning cliffs, bold promontories and headlands 

 sculptured into grim fantastic forms by the blows of Atlantic 

 billows. Then come miles on miles of rocky ramparts from two 

 to four hundred feet higli, grim, massive, awe-inspiring. Such 

 is the aspect from the sea. But let the traveller enter one of the 

 deej) fioids which at intervals cleave the rocky walls, and, if the 

 season be summer, he will ere long, find himself amid varied 

 scenes of beauty such as are rarely surpassed in the world's most 

 favoured lands. The fiords of Newfoundland strikingly resemble 

 those of Norway, to which tourists resort from all countries, and 

 when known and made accessible to travellers, will prove not less 

 attractive. Verdant islands, of all shapes an<l sizes, stud the 

 bosom of the larger estuaries. Dark-green forests often sweep 

 down to the water's edge. Fishing hamlets line the shore with 

 their rough stages and " flakes" for drying the cod. The little 

 fishing boats are dancing in groups on the bi-ight watci-s. The 

 sky overhead is Idue as that of Italy, and the air lialmy and 

 exhilerating. 



THE ISLAND AS A FISHING-CENTKE. 



The hand of nature lias marked the island as (me of the woidd's 

 great fishing-centres. Not only do the arms of the Atlantic, 



