orman, the northern point, is 317 miles, and its greatest breadth,
from west to east, 316 miles from Cape Spear to Cape Anguille. Its
dependency, Labrador, an undefined strip of maritime territory,
extends from Cape Chidley, where the Hudson's Straits begin in the
north, to Blanc Sablon in the south, and includes the most easterly
point of the mainland. The boundaries between Quebec and Labrador have
been a matter of keen dispute. The inhabitants are for the most part
Eskimos, engaged in fishing and hunting. There are no towns, but there
are a few Moravian mission stations.

The ruggedness of the coast of Newfoundland, and the occasional
inclemency of the climate in winter, led to unfavourable reports,
against which at least one early traveller raised his voice in
protest. Captain Hayes, who accompanied Gilbert to Newfoundland in
1583, wrote on his return:

"The common opinion that is had of intemperation and extreme cold that
should be in this country, as of some part it may be verified, namely
the north, where I grant it is more colde than in countries of Europe,
which are under the same elevation; even so it cannot stand with
reason, and nature of the clime, that the south parts should be so
intemperate as the bruit has gone."

Notwithstanding the chill seas in which it lies, Newfoundland is not
in fact a cold country. The Arctic current lowers the temperature of
the east coast, but the Gulf Stream, whilst producing fogs, moderates
the cold. The thermometer seldom or never sinks below zero in winter,
and in summer extreme heat is unknown. Nor is its northerly detachment
without compensation, for at times the _Aurora borealis_ illumines the
sky with a brilliancy unknown further south. A misconception appears
to prevail that the island is in summer wrapped in fog, and its shores
in winter engirt by ice. In the interior the climate is very much like
that of Canada, but is not so severe as that of western Canada or even
of Ontario and Quebec. The sky is bright and the weather clear, and
the salubrity is shown by the healthy appearance of the population.

The natural advantages of the country are very great, though for
centuries many of them were strangely overlooked. Whitbourne, it is
true, wrote with quaint enthusiasm, in the early sixteenth century: "I
am loth to weary thee (good reader) in acquainting thee thus to those
famous, faire, and profitable rivers, and likewise to those delightful
large and inestimable wo