NEW BRITAIN. 



391 



with an area of 36,000 square miles, and is on all sides indented with spacious bays, for ning h. 

 great number of harbors. Its interior is little known, having been but recently traversed, and 

 a great proportion has never been visited by the whites. The surface is described as generall}' 

 level, or moderately uneven, with a good soil, and a mild climate, the winter being less severe 

 than in the same latitude on the continent. The inhabitants are entirely occupied in trade and 

 fishing ; the cod fishery is prosecuted on the coasts and on the Labrador shores, and the seal 

 fishery has been lately undertaken and carried on with great boldness and activity, on the ice- 

 bergs or floating mountains of ice, which are brought down from the north by the ocean currents. 

 About 500 vessels and 10,000 men are engaged in the seal fishery, and 25,000 men in the cod 

 fishery. The island has a separate government, with a provincial legislature, like the other 

 British provinces. Population, 85,000. The western coast and the interior are uninhabited. 



2. Towns. St. Jo/in's, the capital, lies on a bay of the same name, and has a fine harbor. 

 The streets are narrow and dirty, and the houses mean. It contains a Government House, 4 

 churches, and 12,000 inhabitants. Harbor Grace, on Conception Bay, is a fishing-village, 

 with about 4,000 inhabitants, and contains 4 churches. 



The uninhabited island of Anlicosti in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Labrador coast, are 

 dependencies of the government of Newfoundland. St. Pierre or Peter'' s and JMiquelon are two 

 small islands near the southern coast, belonging to France. 



3. Grand Banks. The Great Bank of Newfoundland, to the southeast of Newfoundland, 

 is the most extensive submarine elevation known. It is 600 miles in length, and 200 in some 

 parts in breadth, and appears to be a solid mass of rock. The soundings vary from 4 to 10, 

 30, and 100 fathoms. The Outer Bank, or Flemish Cape, appears to be a continuation of the 

 Grand Bank. These banks form a well-known fishing ground. The perpetual fogs which hover 

 over them, and which also cover the coasts of Newfoundland and Cape Breton, are produced 

 by the meeting of the cold waters of the north with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. 



CHAPTER XLVIIL NEW BRITAIN, OR HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S 



TERRITORIES. 



1. Boundaries and Extent. To the north of the provinces already described, and stretch 

 ing from the Rocky Mountains or the Pacific Ocean on the west, to the Atlantic Ocean on the 

 east, lies a vast tract, belonging to Great Britain, and sometimes called New Britain. Hudson's 

 Bay makes up far inland from the north, forming a large peninsula, of which the eastern coast 

 is called Labrador, and the western. East Main, from its position in regard to the bay An 

 extensive tract, west of the bay, has received the name of New South Wales, or Western Main. 

 A great part of New Britain consists of immense forests, while the western portion is com- 

 posed of wide, desolate plains, destitute of wood, except on the borders of the rivers. 



2. Rivers and Lakes. The Saskackawan, rising in the Rocky Mountains, flows easterly 

 through Lake Winnipeg, and, taking the name o{ JVelson, runs into Hudson's Bay. The Jllac- 

 kenzie or Peace River, also rises in the Rocky Mountains, and, pursuing a norllierly course, 

 passes through Lake Alhapesco and Great Slave Lake, into the Arctic Ocean. It is 2,500 

 miles in length, and much of the country on its banks is covered with a rich vegetation. Cop- 

 permine River uses near Slave Lake, and flows through a barren region into the Arctic Ocean. 

 Thleweechoo or Great Fish River flows northeast into an unexplored gulf. The lakes are among 

 the largest in the world, and seem to be innumerable. The Winnipeg, Jlthapesco, Great Slave 

 Lake, and Great Bear Lake, are the principal. 



3. Inhabitants. This region is thinly peopled by small tribes of Indians, who rather roam 

 from district to district, than occupy any fixed tract. They live by hunting and fishing, and 

 present a degraded picture of humanity. The northern coasts are inhabited by Esquimaux 

 tribes. On the coast of Labrador, there are several Moravian missions, the principal of which 

 is Nain. The Hudson's Bay Fur Company has factories and posts scattered at great distances 

 through the fur countries. 



4. Islands. The whole of the coast on the Arctic Ocean has not been examined by whites. 

 The northeastern termination of the continent is in 74° N. latitude. The name of Boothia has 

 recently been given to an extensive tract here. West from Baffin's Bay, stretches Barrow's 

 Strait, to an unknown extent, bordered on the north by the JVorth Georgian Islands, and to the 

 south by a range of islands separated from the northern coasts of the continent by a wide sea. 



