194 LABRADOR AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 



first roads were made from St. Johns, the capital, to the 

 neighboring settlements ! and yet the island was the earliest 

 discovered land in America. Biorn, an Icelandic sea-king, 

 sailed into its Harbor Grace in year 1001 ; and John Cabot, 

 the Venetian explorer, discovered Bonavista in 1497. And 

 within seven years from the latter date until now, it has 

 been noted for its fisheries of cod and salmon, and fre- 

 quented by vessels innumerable of many nations French, 

 Portuguese, Spaniards, English, and Americans. Its rivers 

 have always been fished without restriction, and without re- 

 gard to the consequences of wholesale slaughter, even to the 

 " barring" of the streams in the spawning season. Obstruc- 

 tions were so placed as to prevent the ascent of the salmon, 

 and they were speared and netted with wanton waste. 

 Nevertheless so much of the country is even to this day 

 unexplored, and the resources seem so inexhaustible, that 

 unsurpassed fishing is aiforded in many rivers. These, how- 

 ever, are scarcely accessible except to the most persistent 

 angler. From St. Johns, to which there is fortnightly com- 

 munication by steamer from Halifax, the only means of ac- 

 cess is by coastwise vessels. Of the several rivers the chief 

 are as follows : 



The Eiver of Exploits, on the east side of the island, con- 

 nects the Bay of that name with Eed Indian Lake. This 

 stream is seventy miles long, with long still reaches, beautiful 

 cascades, and one great waterfall eighty feet high. Its cur- 

 rent is very rapid. The shores are level, with rank grass 

 growing down to the water's edge, affording the most unlimited 

 play for fly-fishing. These shores recede to various distances, 

 from five hundred yards tt> several miles, to the foot of hills 

 wooded with tall and stately pines and spruces. It is navi- 

 gable for canoes ninety miles from its mouth. 



The Gander Kiver, ten miles to the southward, flows into 

 Gander Bay. 



Still further south, are rivers that flow into Catalina Bay. 



