358 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



" In the yeere of our Lord 1497 lohn Cabot, a Vene- 

 tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set 

 out from Bristoll) discouered that which no man before 

 that time had attempted, on the 24th of lune, about five 

 of the clock early in the morning. This land he called 

 Prima vista, that is to say, First scene, because as I sup- 

 pose it was that point whereof they had the first sight 

 from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land, 

 he called the island of S. John vpon this occasion, as I 

 thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of lohn 

 the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to weare 

 beast skinnes, and have them in as great estimation as 

 we have our finest garments. In their vvarres they vse 

 bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, wooden clubs and slings. 

 The soil is barren in some places, andyieldeth litle fruit, 

 but it is full of wrhite beares, and stagges far greater than 

 ours." 



This account shows quite conclusively that John 

 Cabot's Prima Vista was some point of land in eastern or 

 northern Newfoundland. The eminent geographer, Dr, 

 J. G. Kohl, in his History of the Discovery of Maine, 

 seems fully persuaded that the landfall of John Cabot 

 was Labrador. But if the inscription and map are gen- 

 uine, the description of the inhabitants of the island, both 

 men and beasts, would better apply to those of the east- 

 ern or southern Newfoundland. The human beings 

 were more probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the 

 Labrador coast the soil is "barren" in all places, while 

 the " stagges far greater than ours" may have been the 

 moose, which does not inhabit the Labrador coast. 

 Whether the "white beares" were the polar bears or a pale 

 variety of the barren-ground bear of Sir John Richard- 



