KOAbS AND RAILWAYS. 47 



statements -wei'e thorouglily reliaMe. The le.-jiilt.s exceedeil the 

 ex])ectati'jns of the most hopeful. Mr. MiUTay'.s reports, puL- 

 lislied year after year, sliowed that thi- inlerioi' contained exten- 

 sive pine fore-'ts of exeelh'ut timber ; fertile valleys, in which 

 many thousands might lind a home ; a carhoniferons region con- 

 taining large coal-beds and mineral tracts, -which the labours of 

 many generations were not likely to exhaust. His survey 

 slioweil that on the "West Coast there were 1,320 stpuire miles ot 

 fertile lands admirably adapteil for settlement, and in the 

 valleys of the Exploits, ( Jambo, Terra Nova and Gaudier, 3,320 

 square miles fitted for agricultural operations or cattle-raising — 

 much of these regions being covered with valuable forests of 

 pine, birch, and other trees — in all, nearly three million acres 

 of land well fitted for settlement. He further found that the 

 Island presented large developments of the " (ihiebec GroujV' 

 which is the great nietaliferous formation of North America, and 

 therefore might be expected to be found ) ich in minerals — a pre- 

 diction which has been amply verified. It couhl no longer be 

 doubted that Newfoundland presented a promising field for 

 mining enterprises or for extensi\e lumltering operations, or 

 that its reclaimable land would sustain in comfort a very large 

 population. 



UISCOVIillY or anNEKALS. 



So far as the statements in the reports regarding the mineral 

 resources were concerned they were speedily continued by actual 

 discoveries. The first discovery of copper ore was made by Mr. 

 Smith McKay, an enteriuisiug explorer, at Tilt Cove, on the 

 North-eastern shore of the Islund, in 1857. It was not worked 

 till 1864. At the close of 1879 this mine had yielded 50,000 

 tons of coi)per ore, valued at 5'1,.')72,154, and nickel ore worth 

 <^32,740. At the present time the working of this valuable mine 

 continues and several hundred miners are employed. 

 PROGRESS OF MINING. 



In 1875 Belt's Cove mine, a dozen miles further south, was 

 opened, and up to 1879 had yiidded ore to the value of $•2,982,- 

 836. Little Bay mine followed in 1878, and proved to bu still 



