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 woods, 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.