('HAKACTERISTICS OK TlIK I'EorLE. 197) 



toil timl UiriMMi. l-Jcareil iu one ol' llie most saliiln-ioiis cliniatt-s 

 ill tlu' wiiiM. liicatliiug an invigorating atniosplifiv, ciigageil 

 largely iu (i]ieii-aii- I'liqiloviiu'iits, — many of them constantly 

 iiattling with the hillows, — a lianly, energetic race ha- growu^ 

 nji, in whom the red corpuscles ol' the lilooil predominate ami 

 who are well titteil for the world's rough work. In the historical 

 sketch the early settler- were dejiicled and the hardships they 

 liad to euconntei', — Hghting cold and hunger in their "tilts,"' 

 battling with the ice-tloes, drawing a scanty subsistence from the 

 stormy dceau, and pursuing their ill-ieiiiunerated lahnurs amid 

 sore discouragements of all kinds, llut in the struggle with 

 ditticulties they gained energy, courage, self-reliance, all that 

 constitutes true manliood ; and they transmitted these as an in- 

 lieritauce to their jiosterity who lia\'e now "entered into their 

 labours," and find their lot cast amid happier surroundings. — 

 They and their fathei's have buti'eted the lullows and drunk in 

 ■the health-giving sea-breezes, and now we find the present gene- 

 ration of Newfoundlanders, in their general physicjue, a ]>ower- 

 fuUy built, loliust and hardy race. The noblest nations of the 

 earth, past and present, were not nurtured amid the flowers of 

 the South, but in tlie cold and stern North, where nature had to 

 be coiKpiered liy sweat of brow, and where the barren wilder- 

 jiess had to be transformed liy hard toil into the fruitful tichl. 



3IKNTAL KNDOW>IKXTS. 



It is (juite true that the intellectual develo[)meut of the people 

 in the past was not cared for as, under happier au.spices, it miglit 

 have been. When men are "living from hand to mouth," ami 

 sti'Uggling for the daily bread, mental jiursuits are imj)ossible 

 ami education is little considered. A great change for the better, 

 liowever, has taken place within the last quarter of a century. 

 The people are learning to appreciate the value and imi)ortance 

 of education, for which State pirovision is now made and in 

 which great imjiroveiuenls have been elfected. Many have now 

 attaineil a position of comfort ami even wealth ; so that leisure 

 is secured for the cultivation of the miml an:l attention to re- 



