Chapter II. The Island of Newfoundland, the Banks and the Cod 



The island of Newfoundland, roughly triangular in shape, covers an 

 area of 110, 670 square kilometers. Geologically, it is part of the Cana- 

 dian Shield extending from Labrador from which it is separated only by the 

 shallow Strait of Belle Isle. Glacial erosion has resulted in an extremely 

 broken coastline, especially to the north and southeast, as exemplified by 

 the Avalon peninsula which breaks off at the end of an isthmus 30 kilometers 

 long, 5 kilometers in width at its widest part. By reason of such broken 

 contour, the length of the coastline attains a figure, enormous for the area, 

 of 9, 000 kilometers. 



The interior, of which the greatest part was unexplored until the 19th 

 century, has a plateau from 100 to 200 meters in height, cut by slight paral- 

 lel ravines and isolated hills, the "tolts". The spongy soil is sprinkled with 

 lakes, marshes, and peat bogs, which occupy a third of the area of the is- 

 land, and which are surrounded by forests of pine, fir, and cedar, alternat- 

 ing with barren heaths. In certain places, especially along the coasts, the 

 pines attain enormous dimensions, as much as one and one-half meters in 

 diameter. 



At the time of discovery, the island was peopled by harmless natives 

 (described by the French by the generic term "savages" by which they des- 

 ignated the Indians of America) who were not the typical redskin. These 

 were the famous "Beothucks" with pale faces, of unknown origin, and who 

 colored their skin with iron oxide to protect themselves against the insects. 

 They lived on the shores, dwelling in wooden shelters covered with the skins 

 of fish and feeding themselves by their hunting and fishing. Surrounded by 

 the new occupants, they took refuge in the interior of the island where they 

 were lost from sight. The last of them had disappeared at the end of the 19th 

 century. 



Animals were very numerous in Newfoundland. One found there the car- 

 ibou, the wolf and the fox. The sable and the otter were equally very com- 

 mon. 



Fish are extremely abundant about the shores of the island. Aside from 

 the cod, the herring is found in abundance, as well as a number of other 

 species. Among the crustaceans, the lobster abounds there. The freshwater 

 streams are frequented with enormous quantities of salmon. Whales come in 

 fairly large numbers to the vicinity of Newfoundland. Here also are equally 

 frequent, in massive annual migrations, two species of seal: the Greenland 

 seal and the hooded seal, of which the hunting has been, especially during 

 the 18th and 19th centuries, the object of a very important local industry. 



