MONEY. 73 



their monthly supply of necessities. It takes a long while for them 

 to settle upon what they want, and they pick out the articles they 

 wish with the eagerness and apparent pleasure of a small child. 

 Nearly every article has to be handed over a number of times before 

 the one desired can be settled upon, and when it is very likely it will 

 be exchanged for something more pleasing to the eye. Finally, the 

 exchange is arranged and the parties start for home with their pur- 

 chases. The general medium of exchange all through this region is 

 trade. Money is seldom used, and its value still less seldom 

 known. Both the English and the Canadian, as well as some United 

 States money find their way into the Labrador markets. The Prov- 

 inces have each a money of their own, and nearly every piece has a 

 discount upon its real value. The general mode of reckoning is in 

 English pence, shillings, and pounds. A pound being twenty shil- 

 lings or four dollars (as it is in the majority if not all the Canadian 

 provinces) , the shilling is twenty cents or twelve pence ; the Eng- 

 lish sovereign is taken for four dollars and eighty-four or eighty-six 

 cents, and consists of twenty-four shillings twopence, or threepence 

 half-penny ; it is only in the Newfoundland province, northeast of 

 Blanc Sablon, or Labrador proper, that the English gold brings its 

 full value of twenty-five shillings. To complicate matters still more 

 both the English shilling of twenty-five cents, and the Canadian 

 twenty cent piece are freely used and equally abundant. New- 

 foundland silver is used as are all the other provincial pieces for 

 their full value. American silver is occasional, and usually heavily 

 discounted, while American gold is, I believe, the only gold taken 

 for full face value and without discount. In American money the 

 Canadian fifty cent piece is worth forty- eight cents, the twenty-five 

 cent piece twenty-four cents, the twenty cent nineteen cents, the ten 

 cent nine cents, and the five cent four cents ; on the other hand a 

 half-pence (pronounced hapence) is generally two-thirds of a cent 

 or one cent, a t^vo-pence (pronounced tuppence) three cents, 

 a three-pence (thrippence) five cents, a (four-pence (fopence) 

 seven cents, six-pence ten cents, nine-pence fifteen cents, twelve- 



