NEWFOUNDLAND. 



541 



painted themselves with red ochre against the 

 bites of mosquitoes, whence they were called 

 Red Indians by the settlers, are supposed to 

 have become extinct, or, should any exist, have 

 retired into the remotest parts of Labrador. 

 There are a few Micmac Indians from New 

 Brunswick in the island. 



The population by districts, according to the 

 censuses of 1869 and 1874, except one section 

 of the district of Twillingate and Togo, for 

 which no return was made in 1874, is as follows : 



Adding the estimated population of the mis- 

 sing section (1,469), the entire population of 

 the colony in 1874 becomes 161,455, Of the 

 inhabitants enumerated in 1874, 59,057 be- 

 longed to the Church of England ; 64,018 to 

 the Church of Rome; 35,099 to the Wesleyan 

 Church ; 470 to the Scotch Ktrk ; 697 to the 

 Free Kirk ; 480 were Congregationalists, and 

 165 Baptists and of other denominations. In 

 1869 there were 78,547 males, and 70,989 fe- 

 males. The places having more than 1,000 in- 

 habitants, according to the census of 1869, are 

 as follows : St. John's, 22,553 ; Harbor Grace, 

 6,770 ; Carbonear, 4,556 ; Twillingate, 2,786 ; 

 Bonavista, 2,617; Bay Roberts, 2,459; Burin, 

 2,077 ; Brigus, 1,876 ; Torbay, 1,281 ; Greens- 

 pond and Pondhead, 1,07?. The island is rug- 

 ged, and for the most part barren. The in- 

 terior is an undulating plateau, interspersed at 

 intervals of a few miles with low hills or ridges, 

 marshes, and lakes. The coast is for the most 

 part precipitous and lofty, and is broken into 

 numerous headlands and peninsulas by deep 

 bays, which in turn are indented by innumer- 

 able smaller inlets. The sinuosities measure 

 several thousand miles. The west coast is the 

 most regular. The interior of the island is so 

 thickly strewed with lakes and ponds that it is 

 estimated that a third of the surface is covered 

 with water. Building-stones, including granite, 

 sandstone, and limestone, are abundant in the 



island. Marble of various kinds occurs on Bay of 

 Islands, and the fossiliferous limestone of Top- 

 sail Head on Conception Bay takes a high polish, 

 and furnishes a handsome variegated marble. 

 Gypsum is profusely distributed in the vicinity 

 of the Codroy Rivers, and elsewhere in the 

 southwest part of the island, and bituminous 

 coal is found in the carboniferous formation, 

 where also brine-springs frequently occur. 

 Iron, copper, lead, and nickel ores have been 

 found. A lead-mine was for some time worked 

 at La Manche, at the head of Placentia Bay, 

 but with little success, although the lode is a 

 most promising one. Copper-mines have been 

 opened at several points ; but, with the excep- 

 tion of that at Tilt Cove on Notre-Dame Bay, 

 they have nearly all been discontinued. The 

 Tilt Cove mine has been in successful operation 

 since 1865, and, in the five years from 1869 to 

 1873 inclusive, 22,404 tons of ore were export- 

 ed. A vein of nickel has been discovered here, 

 and a small quantity of ore has been extracted. 



In the interior, so far as known, the summits, 

 and sometimes the sides of the hills and ridges, 

 are thinly covered with a stunted vegetation, 

 consisting of berry-plants and dwarf bushes of 

 various species, and are called the " Barrens." 

 The sides of those hills that afford natural 

 drainage, and the borders of the lakes and 

 rivers, are clothed with forests, consisting chief- 

 ly of fir, birch, pine, juniper, larch, witch- 

 hazel, mountain-ash, alder, aspen, and spruce. 

 These trees are generally small and stunted, 

 though the fir and birch sometimes attain con- 

 siderable size. The largest and finest timber 

 is in the valleys of the Humber, the Exploits, 

 the Gander, and the Gambo, where the pine 

 and spruce are of the finest description. All the 

 best timber and best land is back from the 

 coast. The ground is often covered with a 

 creeping bush, a species of yew, called in Cana- 

 da the ground-hemlock. The frequent peat 

 marshes are covered with grasses, rushes, etc., 

 while the other valleys and level tracts pro- 

 duce abundant pasturage. Much of the coun- 

 try is covered with lichens and reindeer-moss. 



The climate, tempered on the one hand by 

 the Gulf Stream, and on the other by the arctic 

 current, is neither so hot in summer nor so cold 

 in winter as on the adjacent portions of the 

 continent. The weather is extremely variable, 

 being often very mild in midwinter, and on the 

 other hand raw and cold in midsummer. Dense 

 fogs are prevalent, principally in summer, along 

 the south and southwest shores of the island 

 and the coast of the peninsula of Avalon, but 

 they do not extend far inland. The north por- 

 tion of the island is said to be quite free from 

 them. 



The mean temperature at St. John's, for the 

 eight years from 1857 to 1864 inclusive, was 

 41^, the highest annual mean being 44 in 

 1863, and the lowest 37 in 1864; average an- 

 nual fall of rain and melted snow, 59.94 inches, 

 the greatest fall being 82.4 inches in I860, and 

 the least 42 in 1857. The highest temperature 



