riiYsioonAPiiY. 27 



penetrating far inland, carry the tinny tribes almost to the doors 

 of the iishernien, but at the distance of a degree from the shores 

 is the greatest submarine island of the globe — the Grand Bank 

 of Newfoundland, — which extends for a length of six hundred 

 miles with a lireadlh of two hundred. This is the great capital 

 of the cod-kingdoms, and its sub-marine valleys and hills are 

 alive with countless colonies of this noble fish. Since the days 

 of Cabot thousands of fishermen have been mining the silvery 

 quarries of these inexhaustible seas. Then all around the shores 

 of the island and of the great bays are countless smaller sub- 

 marine elevations to which the cod-colonies resort, and which 

 constitute the finest fishing grounds in the world. Vast shoals 

 of the bait-fishes — caplin, squid, herring — follow each other in 

 succession throughout the summer, furnishing food for the cod and 

 drawing them shoreward. Winter and spring witness the migra- 

 toiy visits of enormous shoals of the finest herrings to their fav- 

 ourite resorts around the shores ; and salmon crowd the estuaries 

 preparatory to their ascent of the rivers to " I'epeat the story of 

 their Ijirth." This is not all. Labrador with its eleven hundred 

 miles of coast fronting the Atlantic, is included in the jurisdic- 

 tion of Newfoundland, and is the summer-resort of 20,000 of its 

 fishermen. The climate of the island, with its cool winds and 

 the absence of a liurning sun in summer, is most favourable for 

 the cure and drying of fish ; while the land supplies abundant 

 materials for shij) and boat-building, cooperage and all other 

 fishery purposes. The harbours of the Avalon peninsula present 

 the most favoural.>le points from which to carry on the seal fish- 

 ery in spring, the value of which approaches at times a million 

 dollars annually. 



MOUNTAIN AND HILI. RANGES. 



Passing now from the rugged coast-line to the outer interior 

 of the island, we find a country whose general cliaracter is hilly, 

 Init the eminences do not reach any great elevation. Further 

 inlaml, the interior x>i'oper is found to be an elevated undulating 

 plateau, traversed by ranges of low hills, the surface being diver- 

 sified by valleys, woods, ponds and marshes. All the great hill- 



