1 76 THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 



painful solitude ; everywhere it appears a profound silence, for not a 

 house, nor a person is to be met with. 



The climate has been described as a cast-iron climate ; the fine 

 days are rare, even in the months of July and August, and the fog 

 seems to obscure everything. 



The character of the country harmonises with the heavens above 

 that illumine it, for the horizons are pale and severe, and the rays of 

 the sun are rarely felt or seen in Newfoundland. 



From October to April the ground is covered with snow, and the 

 bays are surrounded by ice. In February the ice-packs of the 

 BafHn Seas descend, and, following in the track of the Polar current, 

 they gather together on the coasts of Newfoundland, crush them- 

 selves into huge masses, and form around th-e island dangerous 

 breakers and rocks, that remain there far into the months of June 

 and July. 



Enormous blocks of ice, known under the name of icebergs, finish 

 the devastating work of the ice-packs. Some of them scatter them- 

 selves at the entrance of the harbours, and sometimes render them 

 unapproachable, and some remain in sight of the shores, as an ice- 

 bound rampart of defence, or are forced to the windward, by the 

 strong current of winds. 



At the present time, the population of Newfoundland is 200,000, 

 to be found principally upon the western and southern coasts, for 

 with the exception of St. John's, the seat of Government, the bays 

 and harbours present in reality but a concentration, more or less im- 

 portant, of traders and of fishers. 



Until very recent years, the inhabitants of Newfoundland have 

 known no other means of subsistence and no other industry than the 

 fisheries of the seal in the last days of winter upon the ice-packs ; 

 and during the summer season that of the codfish, the herring, the 

 capelin, and squid, in its adjacent waters. 



In 1859, however, a discovery was made of copper and lead mines, 

 which at one time promised an element of future prosperity for the 

 island, but the difficulties raised by French Treaty rights, have prac- 

 tically blocked the way for their development. 



ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON. 

 At the south of the island of Newfoundland, and separated from it 

 by a channel of 2 1 miles, are the small islands of St. Pierre, and 

 Miquelon, which are the possessions of France. 



