ods, and also with those fruitful and enticing
lulls and delightful vallies." In fact, in the interior the valleys
are almost as numerous as Whitbourne's adjectives, and their fertility
promises a great future for agriculture when the railway has done its
work.

The rivers, though "famous, faire, and profitable," are not
overpoweringly majestic. The largest are the Exploits River, 200 miles
long and navigable for some 30 miles, and the Gander, 100 miles long,
which--owing to the contour of the island--flows to the eastern bays.
The deficiency, however, if it amounts to one, is little felt, for
Newfoundland excels other lands in the splendour of its bays, which
not uncommonly pierce the land as far as sixty miles. The length of
the coast-line has been calculated at about 6000 miles--one of the
longest of all countries of the world relatively to the area. Another
noteworthy physical feature is the great number of lakes and ponds;
more than a third of the area is occupied by water. The largest lake
is Grand Lake, 56 miles long, 5 broad, with an area of nearly 200
square miles. The longest mountain range in the island is about the
same length as the longest river, 200 miles; and the highest peaks do
not very greatly exceed 2000 feet.

The cliffs, which form a brown, bleak and rugged barrier round the
coasts of Newfoundland, varying in height from 300 to 400 feet, must
have seemed grim enough to the first discoverers; in fact, they give
little indication of the charming natural beauties which lie behind
them. The island is exuberantly rich in woodland, and its long
penetrating bays, running in some cases eighty to ninety miles inland,
and fringed to the water's edge, vividly recall the more familiar
attractiveness of Norwegian scenery. Nor has any custom staled its
infinite variety, for as a place of resort it has been singularly free
from vogue. This is a little hard to understand, for the summer
climate is by common consent delightful, and the interior still
retains much of the glamour of the imperfectly explored. The cascades
of Rocky River, of the Exploits River, and, in particular, the Grand
Falls, might in themselves be considered a sufficient excuse for a
voyage which barely exceeds a week.

Newfoundland is rich in mineral promise. Its history in this respect
goes back only about sixty years: in 1857 a copper deposit was
discovered at Tilt Cove, a small fishing village in Notre Dame Bay,
where seven years later th