32 pHYsioaRArnv 



shores are forests of fine timber indicative oC a I'ertile soil. Gander 

 Lake is 33 miles in length, and covers an area of 44 square miles. 

 Its hanks, and those of the Gander Elver -whicli flows througli it, 

 present immense tracts of the finest agricultural and timber lands 

 in the island. Deer Lake, through ^vhich the Humber Hows, is 

 15 miles in length, and has an area of 24 square miles. The land 

 around it is fertile in the highest degree. Sandy Lake, Victoria, 

 Hind's, Terra Nova and George Fouith Lakes range next in size. 



SOLITUDES INVADED. 



Tlie shores of these great lakes, and the valleys through which 

 these large rivers flow, are still absolute solitudes, except where 

 recently the lumbermen's camps have invaded them. Their 

 pine forests have been left to rot or perish by fire, and the fertile 

 soil, Mdiich might sustain thousands of people in comfort, is un- 

 touched by plough or spade. All is primitive wilderness. This 

 is, to some extent, accounted for by the fact that, until a com- 

 paratively recent date, the very existence of fertile lands in the 

 interior, or of forest-growths of any value or extent, or of metallic 

 or non-metallic minerals in the rocks, was unknown, and by many 

 was questioned or vehemently denied. Xow that the great re- 

 volutionist, the railway, has obtained an entrance, all this will be 

 gradually changed ; the wastes will be occupied, and human 

 industry will make them " blossom like the rose." 



GEOLOGY OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 



The Geological Survey of the island, which was commenced in 

 1864 under the late Alexander Murray, C. M. G., F. G. S., and is 

 still continued by Mr. James Howley, F. G. S., constituted a new 

 epoch in tiie history of the country. To it we are largely in- 

 debted for trustworthy information regarding the agricultural 

 and mineral resources and the forest wealth of the island, wliich 

 is slowly but surely revolutionizing people's views on these j^oints 

 and has led to the introduction of the railway system, and the 

 application of capital and enterprise to a moderate extent, to the 

 development of its great natural cajmbilities. While the survey 

 has been conducted on strictly scientific principles in working 



