152 
MINEllALOGY OF ST JOHN-S, 
the latest formation, must have been very low, and m con- 
quence much exposed to the action of the sea. By degrees 
the whole may have been inundated and entirely swept 
away, leaving the harder debris, the flint and green sand^ 
to form the gravel at the bottom. 
The coast round St Johxi's is bleak, bare^ and rocky, 
and almost everywhere precipitous. On both sides of 
St John's harbour, perpendicular cliffs of trap-tuff rise to 
the height of three or four hundred feet. The interior of 
the country is hilly, but does not rise to a great elevation, 
few of the hills being more than five or six hundred feet 
above the level of the sea. They are generally round- 
backed, and frequently wooded to the top. The whole 
uninhabited part of the country is one immense forest, con-^ 
sisting chiefly of fir and birch. No extensive valleys or 
plains occur, but hill succeeds hill in almost unvarying 
succession. The physiognomy of the country is an elegant 
outline of hill and dale ; the scenery, however, wants va- 
riety. Lakes are numerous over the whole island, as far 
as it is known, and many of them, near the coast, are large 
and beautiful. They occur even on the tops of the hills, 
and are said to be often of great depth. The soil is in ge- 
neral light. Oats and barley thrive ; and potatoes, turnips, 
and other kitchen vegetables, grow fully as well as in Erg- 
land. Summer weather, in Newfoundland, is short, but 
warm, and very favourable to vegetation. The winter is 
uncommonly severe, the spring and autumn* very change- 
able. There is good pasture for cattle in ground that is 
cleared. 
The passage into St John's harbour, which in shape 
very much resembles a man's foot, is by a narrow entrance, 
called The Narrows, which extends nearly east and west 
about half a mile. Both sides of this entrance are high, 
abrupt, and rocky. The rocks are the same on each side, 
