Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-10-04
NEWFOUNDLAND.
From ship and Rail Car.
For the Alma RECORD.

OlteH spcah VI ~ az A" %
which grows a peculiar species OF
dog, and where the people eat cod"
AT day-break on the cath of June,
1897, the welcome cry of"Land no"
from the masthead of the Smother"
of Bristol proclaimed the discovery
of what is to- day England's Oldest
colony. The warning of the look
out was responded to by round OF
British cheers from the deck below.
The tight little pioneer ship, one of
the small caravals of those days, was
manned by West county sailors
Her commander was John Cabot.
His first officer was his son Sebastian.
The Importance of Cabots' discovery
can hardly be overrated. 1t inspired
England's first impulse of colonial
ton. Let us just glance at this anci-
ent colony. Newfoundland is vast
triangular island with base OF 3l6
miles, and altitude of 81; an area OF
900 square miles, one sixth larg'
er than Ireland; two-thirds the size
of England and Wales together; and
with coast line of 1000 miles; hav-
ing in its whole extent only 100000
people scattered and grouped along
that coast line, and perhaps not five
thousand of them live more than
three miles from the sea. But how
could there be coast line of 2ooo
: miles on a triangle of the dimen'
sions given above? That line is
: gashed with great gaps, broader
than lake Ontario and half as long,
at places nearly cutting the island
r in twain, and embraced in huge pro
truding arms of rocky range that
: themselves with all the shore, are
riven and ploughed into a thousand
less BAYS and rough and rocky caves
around which the fisherman have
built their little houses, and into the
= largest of which the merchants ano
h. leaders have followed them and bull
up the villages and little towns. lie
= us stand on ship.deck and look at thu
I'd shore, and what we see in one place
we see in nearly all: Rock, tower
- ing rock, from so to 500 feet abov
= the restless sea, bare and barrel
mighty bulwarks against the north
49, ern main, battered and broken wit
&c: iceberg; ploughed and ground wit
tempest and wave. What less tina
such ramparts and citadels, who's
- massive masonry was laid deep l
G. subterranean chambers, and who's
- walls were lifted and piled by th
ct twin giants, earthquake and volcan
could ever withstand the rush of ii
. tremendous phalanxes of iceberg an
avalanches poured upon these rugge
eet shores by the ice king of the Arct
f. domain, and the dash of the tier'
$500 tempest upon the storm Sacre
lgs towers? And these grand harbor
}. of which the island has its score
- how utterly indispensable they ar
how wonderfully they are forme
/. Unquestionably they are planned
o. infinite wisdom and excavated
lice Almighty power. None less tn
''' the God that arrays the millions
- the fathomless deep,marshals them
their time and leads them in the
course could have excavated the
'isf refugees for the ships or prepar
these Ravens for seafaring mC
Take a port like that of St. John
the capital, where you enter as in
instant from the open sea betw
two walls of precipitous rock, HI
,o,o dreds of feet high, by a passa
al scarcely wide enough for two vess
to pass, and come in minute into
WI long and broad basin complete
- surrounded by equally lofty ran!
of rock, where a navy may ride
IN calm deep sea in perfect securi
Take another like that at Trim
a, still further north, where we en-
by channel not much wider,
come at once into large open b
LIZ, surrounded by towering rocks as
will St. Johns, and then may press
day. into the land between the prec
very tous hills on either of the two ex
give arms of the sea, giving not o
dnes. a safe retreat but actually a hid
place for the navies of matte