Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1870-05-05
FACTS FROM F0G-lAND
The Island and its Inhabitants.
Correspondence OF she Evening Po-tl
ST. JouN's NEWFOUNDLAND,
March %.
Tf,H AND FOG LAND.

Not many Of your readers. l venture
To affirm. know much more of New
foundland than the name. Ii is true.
the two cables that now link England
and France with America touch at
Ncwfoundland-thco one emerging from
1.-THE yasty deep" at Hearts Content,
in Trinity Bay the other at st. Pierre,
small island at the entrance of For
tune Bay. on the southern coast, which
by the treaty of Utrecht was ccdcd to
France as shelter for her fishermen,
who carry on the Great Bank fishery.
But though Newfoundland has gained
some notoricty in connection with these
great nerves OF intercommunicai ion
between the Old World and the New.
it has gained nothing more, and still
remains one Of the least known portions
of the British possessions in America.
And yet there is great deal to inter-
est the minds Of intelligent people, in
connection with this fine island. Look
first At its noble commanding position
lNing rlgnI aCIus, tIiC 5tc.as Srtus.., Va
the ST. Lawrence, and, hastionlike.
guarding the entrance to the gulf and
Canada. Suppose hostile power 70
gain possession Of the island and 10
tortity such an impregnabe harbor as
that Of st. Johns could easily be rem
dcrcd, a fleet having such Sebastopool
for shelter could sweep British and Ca
nalian commerce from the North Allan
tic and control those gigantic fisheries
on the Banks and along the shores.
Besides, it is the portion of American
land that stretches out farthest towards
the shores Of Europe; the distance be-
tween st. Johns, the capital, and Val
encia. in Ireland. is but little over
| 800 miles. or four and a half days
steamlng. Were there a railroad
across the island from st. Johns to
st. Georges Bay, and a steam ferry
thence to the Bay OF Chalep where a
branch Of the Intercolonial Railway is
TO he constructed, passengers and
mails would reach that point in five and
a half days from Nalentia, and be III
New York in sixteen or twenty hours
more thus securing the shortest sea
route, and avoiding the fogs, rocks and
storms of the American coast, on which
all the perils of an Atlantic voyage are
To be encountered. In regard 10 size,
Newfoundland holds a respectable
position, having an area of $4,000
square miles, and being 400 miles in
length and $50 in breadth-or not far
short of the area Of England proper.
The wealth of the country is derived
mainly from its ineXhaustible sea-har-
vests, to which there is nothing else
where to be compared. About forty
! thousand Newfoundland fishermen
sweep the seas around the island, catch
ing Goldfish and seals in enormous
quantities. as well as salmon. herring,
halibut, &c. On the Banks, ut some
distance from the shore, some twenty
thousand French and American fisher
men are at work, during the summer
months. The total value Of the fish
taken in this way from the seas around
Newfoundland is $4,000 900 per an.
mum. Although these fisheries have
been carried ON for more than three
hundred years, there is no falling OF
in the supply, and the great cod colon
les appear to have suffered no diminu
ton by the immense drafts that are
annually taken from them. In multi
plving its species the cod is the mos1
prolific of all animals eight millions
of eggs have been found in singl'
cod roe.
INHABITANTS AND RESOURCES.
All around the thousand miles o
coast are fishing settlements, every bay
cove, creek and harbor having its vii
lage or villages. The interior of tn
island is unexplored, and is left to the
deer, Of which vast herds wander
through its savannahs, undisturbed b
man, and, with the wolves and beaver
r share those solitudes ON which huma
eve has never looked. The inhabitant
are of British and Irish descent, two
, thirds Of the former and one-third {
the latter. These are a stalwart race
their lives being passed mostly in tn
open air, in healthy, bracing climate
, and their habits of life simple; Will
in battling with the billows, amid thos
stormy and oftenice-covered seas, the
/ acquire that bodily vigor, that Dor
and muscle which only the hardy Sc
4 rangers can boast of. No pale, stun
ed gin-and-rum-sodden dwellers
great cities, or degenerate factory-wol
era, are these fearless cod and Sc
: catchers, but rutldy, broad-shouldere
} race; their women, too, in bodily d
y velopement and nreedom from the enc