4io 



RECREATION 



The actual purchase of the French owner- 

 ship, as far as fishing stations are con- 

 cerned, is new in progress, and this sub- 

 vention may, it is hoped, put to rest a mis- 

 chievous and disquieting question. A 

 French fishing settlement with its fish 

 houses, piers, boats and cabins encircles a 

 curving arm of the bay (Fig. 8), and is 

 itself built upon and under an old beach 

 line. 



A delightful sail to the "gravels," where 

 a low sea wall divides the waters of Port- 

 au-Port Bay from St. George's Bay, 

 brought us to an interesting exposure of 

 Ordovician (calciferous, Sevis) rocks. The 

 flinty limestones here are full of fossils 

 (machnea, mirchisonia, orthoceras, nau- 

 tilus (?), but their siliceous embedment 

 most obdurately resists the collector's at- 

 tacks. At "Lead Cove,'' further along 

 this picturesque shore, some futile exca- 

 vations for lead were observed, and a drop 

 of carboniferous limestone encountered, 

 where the "soft rock" fossils of the upper 

 formation have been brought in contact 

 with the lower beds. This shore is carved 

 out into little coves, the limestone beds are 

 in places eroded and sculptured into 

 spheroidal prominences (Fig. 9), and the 

 clear green waters of Port-au-Port lazily 

 advanced and receded over broad rhom- 

 boidal blocks of limestone, dipping gently 

 to the north. At the "gravels," east of the 

 sea-wall, an admirable example of a raised 

 beach is seen, one of the few excellent 

 illustrations of the island's former de- 

 pression, and the bold escarpment north- 

 ward, along the east shores of Port-au- 

 Port Bay, terminates in the sheer headland 

 of Bluff Mountain, where the chrome iron 

 deposits are conspicuously present. 



At St. George's Bay, on the fascinating 

 strip of gravel and sand which enters the 

 waters of the bay near its head, and known 

 locally as Sandy Point, we had reason to 

 admire the resourceful industry of the New- 

 foundlander. This versatile adaptibility 

 enables him to make his boat, his oars, the 

 square sails that carry him to and fro over 

 these restless waters; his simple house, the 

 barrels in which he packs his salted her- 

 ring, his warehouses (Fig. 10), the fur- 

 niture, in part, of his home, and, in the 

 case of any forlorn extremity of bachelor- 



hood (something, however, unique in the 

 social phenomena of Newfoundland), his 

 clothes. 



Sandy Point reveals many pictorial 

 aspects, and none more weird and moving 

 than its evicted cemetery. The traveling 

 sands have buried one of the old grave- 

 yards, heaping up their yellow drifts about 

 the tombstones, and so effacing the in- 

 scriptions on the fallen ones, that the duti- 

 ful affection of some resident Old Mor- 

 tality seems desirable. At Sandy Point the 

 delighted tourist finds one of the profitable 

 and helpful institutions of the island — 

 the ferryman. This invaluable emblem of 

 governmental care is found throughout the 

 island, providing a free passage over arms 

 of the sea, rivers, between separated vil- 

 lages, and generally useful under all cir- 

 cumstances of wind and weather. 



Once more entrusted to the precarious 

 mercies of the railroad, we passed north- 

 ward to the Bay of Islands. Where the re- 

 turning train from St. John's meets the 

 eastward-bound express, a siding and a 

 contented mind mutually assist in the ser- 

 vice of the tourist (Fig. 11). 



Bay of Islands is one of the beauty spots 

 of Newfoundland. Adjectives and photo- 

 graphs have attested its surpassing love- 

 liness and, indeed, its scenic charm, under 

 varying influences of light and atmosphere, 

 is inestimably great. The most impressive 

 impressions are certainly made by coming 

 into the long Humber arm — a deep ancient 

 fjord — from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 The steamer threads the passages between 

 the many islands and the harmonious and 

 graded phases of the unfolding scenes 

 possess extreme effectiveness. 



Here we encountered the mining inter- 

 ests of the island and, at York Harbor, en- 

 joyed the hospitality of the Humber River 

 Mining and Manufacturing Company, 

 amidst scenery of surpassing boldness and 

 beauty. Blomidon reared its massive but- 

 tresses near at hand, intrepidly invaded by 

 climbing forests; wooded islands caught, 

 in the middle distance, the transfiguration 

 of the sunset, and far off serpentine moun- 

 tains glowed delicately rosy, like titanic 

 spinels. 



The serpentine of Newfoundland is 

 enormously developed, and the much-dis- 



