12 
NEWFOUNDLAND, 
The climate is fevere ; and the foil, at lead on the fea- 
coaft, which is all that we know of it, is poor and barren. 
A few kitchen-vegetables, with ftrawberries and rafp- 
berries, are all its produce. The country within-land is 
mountainous, and abounds with timber; there are feve- 
ra! rivers which are plentifully ftored with various forts 
of fifh, abundance of deep bays, and many good ports. 
St. John’s and Placentia are the two principal fettlements, 
and at each of thefe there is a fort; the number of people 
who remain here in the winter hath been computed at 
4000. The French, by the treaty of Utrecht, were per¬ 
mitted to fifh “ from Cape Bonavilta on the eaft fide, round 
the north of the ifiand, to Point Rich on the weft ;” and 
by the treaty of Paris, 1763, they are allowed the ifles of 
St. Pierre and Miquelon, “ upon which they are to dry 
their fifh, but not to ereft fortifications of any kind.” By 
the treatyof 1783, the French were to enjoy their fifheries 
on the northern and weftern coafts, the inhabitants of the 
United States having the fame privileges as before their 
independence; and the peace of Amiens confirmed the 
privileges-granted to the French. 
The great importance of this place arifes from its fifh- 
ery, which is in part carried on by the inhabitants at the 
feveral harbours, which are about twenty in number, who 
take vaft quantities of cod near the coaft, which they 
bring in and clire at their leifure, in orderto have it ready 
for the {hips when they arrive. But the great and exten- 
five fifhery is on the banks at fome diftance from the ifiand. 
The great bank lies twenty leagues from the neareft point 
of land, from north latitude 41 0 to 49 0 , ftretching 300 
miles in length and 75 in breadth. To the eaft of 
this lies the Falfe Bank ; the next is ftyled Vert, or the 
Green Bank, about 240 miles long, and 120 over; then 
Banquero, about the fame fize; the fhoals of Sand Ifiand, 
Whale Bank, and the Bank of St. Peter’s, with feveral 
others of lefs note, all abounding with fifh. 
The cod are caught only by a hook ; an expert fifher 
will take from 250 to 300 and upwards in a day ; for the 
fifh never bite in the night: the labour is very great. The 
feafon is from May to Oftober, in the height of which 
there are from 500 to 700 fail upon the banks at a time. 
The fifh caught in the 1'pring-months are beft; they are 
cured in very different w'ays. Some are ftyled ivliite-fijh, 
others mud-fifh, which are flowed and falted in the hold, 
and wall not keep long; but the beft and mod valuable 
are the dried cod. The quantity taken is prodigious : yet 
in fome feafons and in different places varies confiderabiy, 
as the fifh frequently change their llations. The fijhing- 
Jhips, as they are called, lie upon the banks, with the help 
of their boats take and cure their own fifh, and as foon as 
they are full fail for a market. The fackjhips proceed 
directly to the ifiand, where they purchafe fifh from the 
inhabitants either by barter or bills of exchange. The 
principal markets for cod are Spain, Portugal, Italy, and 
the Weft Indies. The value of this fifhery is computed 
at fome hundred thoufand pounds annually; employing, 
befides feveral hundred fhips, many thoufands of leamen, 
and affording a maintenance to a number of tradel’men of 
different occupations, by which many large towns on the 
weft fide of England accumulate much wealth, and at the 
fame time contribute in many refpefts to the benefit of 
the public. 
The great utility of this fifhery was very early feen, and 
very vigoroufly purfued; for in the beginning of the 
reign of king James I. we had 250 fail employed therein. 
It is computed that three quintals of wet fifh make one 
quintal of dried cod. Befides, the livers of every hundred 
quintals make a hogfhead of oil; and, exclufive of thefe, 
there are many other advantages that go in diminution of 
the expenfe. The.fifhery, as we have laid above, produces 
differently in different feafons; but it is judged to be a 
very good one when it produces 300,000 quintals of fifh 
and 3000 barrels of oil, both equally faleable and valuable 
commodities. As every fliip carries twelve, and each of 
their'boats eight men, and as thefe return home in fix 
months, there cannot be a more noble nurfery for flamers. 
The artificers and traders employed in building, viftual- 
ling, and repairing, thefe veffels, are very numerous in the 
refpeclive ports from which they fail. Thefe circumftances 
juftify the particular attention paid by government to this 
branch of the public fervice ; in refpeft to which that they 
may be W'ell informed, an annual and very diftinft account, 
by which the whole is feen at one view', is delivered by the 
proper officer to the governor of Newfoundland. 
In the year 1775, during the heat of the American war, 
an aft was paffed for depriving the inhabitants of New 
England of the benefits of the Newfoundland fifheries. 
This meafure it was expefted would redound greatly to 
the intereft of Great Britain, by throwing into her hands 
alone the profits which were formerly divided with the co¬ 
lonies. This expeftation, however, proved totally void 
of foundation. The number of fhips fitted out that year 
was fcarcely greater than ufual. The congrefs had alfo 
prohibited them from being fupplied with provifions ; fo 
that not only thofe on-board the fhips, but even the inha¬ 
bitants on the ifiand of New'foundland itfelf, w'ere in 
danger of perifhing. Many of the fhips w'ere therefore 
obliged to go in queftof provifions, inftead of profecuting 
the bufinefs on which they came. On the whole, therefore, 
inftead_of any increafe, the profits of the fifhery fuffered 
this year a diminution of near 500,000!. Along with this, 
fame natural caufes co-operated, which, by the more fu- 
perftitious, w'ere confidered as the effefts of divine wrath. 
A raoft violent and uncommon ftorm took place in thefe 
latitudes during the fifhing-feafon. The fea rofe full 
thirty feet above its ordinary level; and that with fuch 
rapidity, that no time was allowed for avoiding its fury. 
Upwards of feven hundred fifhing-boats periflied, with all 
the people in them ; and fome fhips foundered, with their 
whole crews. Nor w'as the devaftation much lefs on fhore, 
as the waters broke in upon the land, occafioning vaft lofs 
and deftruftion. 
Mr. Pennant, in the appendix to his Arftic Zoology, 
gives us, from what appears to be very good authority, 
the following account of this ifiand. “Within the circuit 
of fixty miles of the fouthern part, the country is hilly, 
but not mountainous. The hills increafe in height as 
they recede from the fea; their courfe is irregular, not 
forming a chain of hills, but rifing and falling abruptly. 
The coafts are high, and the fhores moft remarkably bold. 
The fame may be laid of almoft every part of this vaft 
ifiand. The country is much wooded, and the hills 
(fuch as have not flat tops to admit the rain to ftagnate 
on them) are clothed with birch, with hazel, fpruce, fir, 
and pine, all fmall ; which is chiefly owing to the inha¬ 
bitants taking off the bark to cover the fifli-ftages. This 
peninfula is fo indented by the fine and deep bays of Pla¬ 
centia, St. Mary, Conception, and Trinity, that it may 
be penetrated in all parts, which is done for the fake of 
fowling, or the procuring of fpars for mails, oars, &c. 
The ifiand is on all fides pierced with deep bays, which 
peninfulate it in many places by ifthmufes moft remarkably 
narrow. The mountains on the fouth-weft fide, near the 
fea, are very high, and terminate in lofty headlands; fuch 
are Chapeau Rouge, a moft remarkably high promontory, 
Cape St. Mary’s, and Cape le Hune. Such in general is 
the formation of the ifiand ; on the north-eaft, moft of the 
hills in the interior part of the country terminate pyra- 
midically, but form no chain. The interior parts of the 
country ccnfift chiefly of moraffes, or dry barren ham¬ 
mocks, or level land, with frequent lakes or ponds, and 
in fome places covered with Hunted black fpruce. The 
rivers of Newfoundland are unfit for navigation, but 
they are of ufe in floating down the wood with the fum- 
mer floods. Still the rivers and the brooks are excel¬ 
lent guides for the hunters of beavers and other animals, 
to penetrate up the country, which as yet has never been 
done deeper than thirty miles. Near the brooks it is that 
timber is commonly met with, but feldom above three or 
four miles inland, and in valleys; the hills in the northern. 
diftrift 
