242 SCENERY. 



Englishman from Middlesex or Yorkshire, set down in Kew-- 

 foundland, wouhl, for the method of thought and the ^vay of 

 regarding things which he would discover in those aboiit him, be 

 conscious of little difference between the society he had left and 

 that on which he had been engrafted. It is to be regretted tliat 

 more from these shores do not make the experiment, at any rate 

 for a time. Newfoundlanders can doiibtless exist very comfortably 

 without the constant intercoui'se of Englishmen. But they not 

 unnaturally take a little umbrage at being set down, in ])ure 

 ignorance, through being left out of the track of British tourists, 

 as a po])ulation resembling, in locality and habits, the Esqui- 

 maux. Canada and the Cape and Natal, and even the seques- 

 tered Shetlands, have each, for its especial class of taste and 

 imagination, its traits of peculiar interest and fascination. They 

 have at all times had their delights and graces remarked. Xew-- 

 foundland alone has been left to the cliance of one or another of 

 its people caring to expatiate on its merits and being so impor- 

 tunate or skilliil as to gain an audience. Were but a single trial 

 given, to borrow the language of advertisers, the British public 

 is assured that Newfoundland would soon become a favoured 

 resort. It is guarded l\v as many terrors and obstructions as if 

 it Avere the cave of a dragon and his treasure. Yet behind the 

 barrier of cloud and ice lies a land of pleasant airs and I'adiant 

 sunshine. There are woods and meadows and flowers. There 

 are cathedrals, concert rooms and libraries, with all the luxury 

 attendant u^^on dwellers in villas. 



* -i'r * -5^ -H- -X- 



" Newfoundland as a Colony is dwarfed liy its relation to two 

 continents as a central fish-market. For itself it has promising 

 mines which would reward capital an;l enterprise, Avere not liotli 

 monopolized by tlie hereditary jtursuit. It has fertile belts 

 Avhicli Avill bear Avheat in i>rofusi()n. It has vast expanses of 

 practicable pastures. EaihA^ays Avould o])en up tracts of agri- 

 cultural territory Avhich are noAv presumed to be irreclaimalde 

 marshes and Avildernesses. In the meantime there is hunting a* 



