mer.

large portion of the strata is now put beyond question. Mr Burnett, the present Premier of Newfoundland, has been working a mine for some years past with great success at a place called Tilt Cove, on the northeastern coast, not far from Cape St John's. Between the month of October 1872 and the 1st of April last, 4600 tons of copper ore have been extracted, and are ready for shipment; and an average of 600 tons per month is expected to be produced throughout the present sumLatterly this mine has turned out highly productive of nickel ore. This was found at one time in a vein where the "prill," or solid ore, varied from 12 to 18 inches in thickness, and this exclusive of the disseminated, or, as it is usually called, the "stamp ore. For two years this vein and the accompanying ore was lost; but during last winter a small vein of nickel ore was observed, which was found on trial to increase in width, descending. The "prill," in this case, varies from 2 to 6 inches in thickness, and there is, besides, a fair yield of "stamps.' The lode is opened, as yet, only about 38 feet linear. This ore is of the quality usually called yellow, or copper nickel. The value at the time I write is 16s. per metallic pound. The ore averages 20 lb. per cwt. of metal, or 448 lb. to the ton-that is, in value at present rates, £358, 8s. a ton. Within the last two months about 7 tons of this ore has been extracted, and is now ready for shipment, representing a value of £2508, 16s.; but I see that, in consequence of the demand for nickel from Germany for the manufacture of the new currency, the price of nickel is likely to double. It is therefore easy to estimate the value of the prize which the Premier has drawn in the mineral lottery of the island.

At La Manche, on the Bay of Pla

66

centia, is a remunerative lead-mine, which, however, has been a good deal mismanaged; and in the same neighbourhood some sanguine speculators have been so much attracted by the auriferous-looking character of the quartz, that they have taken out a licence for mining gold at the south-west corner of the island, on the Cod Roy rivers. Mr Murray describes a vast exposure of gypsum, where it may be quarried to any extent." I have myself seen rich specimens of galena brought from Port-au-Port, on the same shore; while marbles of almost every shade of colour have been produced from various parts of the coast on both the eastern and western shores. Space does not allow me to enter at length into this most interesting subject; but those anxious to gain information in regard to it will find, in the very able reports of Mr Murray, which are published by the colony, the geological structure and mineral resources of the island carefully examined; while the interesting articles of the Rev. Mr Harvey upon all matters connected with Newfoundland will be found of great value by the intending emigrant or mining speculator. This year Mr Murray intends to make a thorough examination of the coal-fields on St George's Bay, where he has also discovered magnetic iron; and the result of his exploration will be of the highest importance to the future prospects of the colony. I cannot leave Newfoundland without calling attention to the inducements which, owing to the increased facilities of access, it offers to the sportsman. In less than a week after leaving home he may find himself in unexplored wilds, dependent upon his gun and rod for subsistence; and it is his own fault if he does not live royally on their spoil. Carriboo, a species of reindeer larger than those of Lapland, range

the savannahs of the interior in great abundance, herding in the months of November and May, in flocks of thousands, when they are killed by the Micmac Indians and white hunters while crossing the lakes. In summer they afford excellent sport, and are more or less solitary; an ordinary shot should kill two or three a-day. Besides the carriboo, the lover of more savage game may chance upon bears or wolves. The remaining animals are foxes, beavers, otters, Arctic hares, weasels, and musk-rats. It is a singular fact, that although the Straits of Belle Isle are frozen in winter, and might easily be crossed by moose-deer, wolverines, and many other animals peculiar to the American continent, none beyond those I have enumerated are found there, while the island is altogether free from reptiles of any kind; snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, et hoc genus omne, are unknown here; and there is no fear, when camping out and sleeping on the ground, of one's night's rest being disturbed by any creeping thing more formidable than a beetle or a spider. In the way of feathered fowl the sport is also excellent. Ptarmigan are the grouse of the country, but they are a larger and heavier bird than the European ptarmigan. It is no uncommon thing for thirty brace of these fine birds to fall to a single gun in a day. Then there are snipe in abundance, but, curiously enough, no woodcock. Wild geese arrive here to breed in the spring in immense flocks; while the black duck, a variety said to be superior to the "canvas back," and the blue-winged teal, complete the list of birds fit for a bag. In the way of fishing the choice is small but select. The rivers contain nothing but salmon, trout, eels, and minThe salmon sadly need pro

nows.

tection: the net-fishing and traps set for them at the mouths of the rivers spoil sport for the angler; and though they are numerous enough up the stream, they seldom attain any great size. Still a goodly show of seven and eight pound fish may be killed in a day, to say nothing of the delicious red sea-trout, which swarm in the brooks and ponds that are accessible to the sea; besides which, the fresh-water trout, both in the lakes and rivers, average from two to five pounds, and are to be caught in any quantities. In addition to the attractions which are thus held out to the sportsman, he may further be tempted by the magnificent scenery which is to be found in some parts of the island

especially on the rivers Exploits, Gander, and Humber, recently examined by Mr Murray, which drain the finest region in the country. Here the large lakes, some of them from thirty to fifty miles long, dotted with islands, are fringed with fine forests or hemmed in by precipitous walls of rock, while the rivers, by which they are connected, tumble in picturesque cascades from one to the other.

But all this scenery waits to be explored. There are rivers still untraced; glorious lakes upon which the eye of a white man has never rested; and vast savannahs, peopled with deer, upon which gun has never yet been fired; and waters swarming with fish, upon which line has never yet been cast. The centre of the island is now a vast solitude, for the aboriginal Indians disappeared some thirty years ago. The last intercourse which we had with them forms a strange and mysterious episode. The corpse of an Indian woman, taken captive, and who died in captivity, was taken and placed on the spot in which the native Indians had last been seen. When the same spot was visited shortly after, the body

of the woman had been removed, and there were numerous traces of the presence of the tribe; but from that day to this, not one of them has ever been seen, and it is supposed either that they have died out, or crossed the Straits of Belle Isle to Labrador. They had many distinguishing characteristics from the Indians of the mainland. Their language, of which a vocabulary was obtained, possesses no resemblance to that of the continental tribes. Their manner of encamping, of constructing their wigwams-of which traces may be seen in the interior-and many of their habits were different; from an ethnological point, it is therefore to be regretted that we have now lost all trace of them. The only Indians in the island are two or three hundred Micmacs, who came over, since our occupation of Newfoundland, from Nova Scotia, and who are no doubt to a large extent responsible for the extermination of the aborigines, with whom they waged incessant war-though, I am sorry to say, our own white settlers regarded them as their natural enemies, and seem to have slaughtered them mercilessly. These lonely plains and valleys are only waiting to be once more inhabited by man; and in spite of the prejudice and ignorance that has prevailed in regard to the climate and resources of Newfoundland, there can be no doubt that the day is not far distant when the most fertile tracts of country in various parts of the island, but especially on the west coast, will be taken up by the emigrant. Mr Murray calculates that on the Cod

Roy and Humber rivers, and in St George's Bay alone, there are about 726 square miles available for settlement for farming purposes. This region, besides being well timbered, possesses great advantages of water power, and the Humber is navigable for upwards of thirty miles. The range of the thermometer is very much less than in any part of the Canadas, the heat in summer seldom exceeding from 70° to 75° Fahrenheit, while in winter the mercury rarely falls below zero. The price of land, unencumbered by conditions of settlement, is only two shillings an acre; the amount to be taken up by one individual not to exceed a hundred acres. Some years since, for the encouragement of agriculture and the relief of the poor, the Legislature passed an Act, the provisions of which secure to all poor settlers on Crown lands eight dollars gratuity for the first acre cleared, and six dollars for each succeeding acre, until six acres cleared, when the settler is entitled to a free grant of the portion he has thus reclaimed. When we remember that these districts are a thousand miles nearer to England than the farming regions of Canada - that they must, before long, be on the highroad from the mother country to the Dominion-that they show promise of abundant resources of coal, iron, and other ores,—we can scarcely resist the conviction which one of the colonists has recently expressed in an able article on her resources, that "Newfoundland has a great future before her, and is destined to rise into a populous and prosperous country."

are

ALL the thought that gets hold of the world's ear and imprints itself on the memory, all sententious wisdom and all sentimental poetry, agree in disparaging the later half of man's life. Life naturally divides itself into four ages childhood, youth, middle life, and old age. The poet, the man of the world, and the moralist, are of one mind to centre all the charm, beauty, and joy of life upon the two first of these conditions, and to treat the remaining half, or it may well be three-fourths of existence, as at best a flat, dull level of unromantic occupations, pleasures, and pains; more commonly a period of disappointment, failure, flagging hopes, discontent, and bodily suffering,― of losses which find no compensation; where we are daily losing what we desire to keep a period in which it is ignoble to feel satisfaction, and truest philosophy to make short work of, and confound at once with old age. And so much are people the prey to popular impressions, and so apt to be guided by the prevailing tone-so prone, we will add, to ingratitude for blessings which come as a matter of course -that they raise no remonstrance, and affect to acquiesce in sentiments which their life and aspect alike contradict. Who dares stand up for that mental prime forty or forty-five?—with some it is fifty; who ventures to set at its true worth as an element of happiness, liberty of action? What man has the courage to set his gains through thought and experience against his losses in youthful ardour? He is ready enough to estimate time's maturing benefits in his case, above the rising aspirant's flash and fire of youth; but it is a mark of genius

to have had unutterable communings in the spring of existence, whisperings which the inevitable discords of life have silenced ;-few can forego a claim to such elevating regrets.

As nothing is morally salutary but the truth, we take exception to this tone as a general experience. It fits certain temperaments of passionate sensibility, it follows naturally upon a youth of brilliant promise; but it is not real with the majority, and it leads to two opposite mischiefs. This excessive exaltation of youth leads the vain and frivolous on to greater frivolity and vanity; and some, who are neither the one nor the other, it almost excuses and justifies in their recoil from the inevitable yoke of years and their melancholy clinging to habits and companionship which no longer become them, and where they are not welcome. Those, on the other hand, who alike disdain fraud or self-deception, or to linger where they are not wanted, officiously anticipate the world's judgment, resolving to be beforehand with the insolence of youth, or gossip's cold scrutiny; and so do injustice to their manhoodthe period of performance, the weekday of labour, wherein is done the work of the world-and call themselves old before their time: an act of treachery towards self which is generally accompanied by similar treachery towards contemporaries; for no one affects age prematurely who does not, as far as he can, drag all his youth's intimates down hill along with him. "When people grow old, as you and I do," says a man of this temper to some friend, on whose unaccustomed ear the epithet falls chill and strange, "others do not care for us, but we seem

wiser to one another by finding fault with them. I daresay that monks never find out that they grow old fools when age gives them authority and nobody contradicts them."

If the pleasures and dignities of middle life were acknowledged as frankly as they are in reality appreciated and enjoyed, we should see less fantastic aping of youth (though this is an aspect of human folly unduly enlarged on by satire), and less of the contrary affectation. The true view of life, to put it in trite phrase, is that every stage has its pleasures as well as its duties, and in each the pleasures are real, not ghosts of pleasures. But to make life this harmonious whole, neither pleasures nor duties must be anticipated not taken out of course, nor hurried forward. Keep the child a child its full time, let not youth propel itself into manhood, and let manhood hold its own manfully, and not weakly, sheepishly, grumblingly, ungraciously, unthankfully shelve itself even in words-empty as they generally are, and not intended to carry weight-upon the period of passive experience and the borders of oblivion. When age really overtakes men, then, and often not till then, they value at its true worth the period answering to the summer and autumn of nature, the strength of maturity,-" l'âge viril que nous n'estimons pas assez," says La Bruyère,-which they disparaged and miscalled while it lasted, because it was not the season of blossom and hope. Not that age is without its pleasures, which a thankful heart makes much of, and which recommend themselves to the observer as he sees

"Age steal to his allotted nook
Contented and serene;

for nothing cheers the whole prospect of life to the young like a picture of

calm, bright, intelligent old age. And examples of such are not rarer to be met with than ideal examples of every age.

Very true-all people have not those accompaniments and privileges of middle age we have assigned to it it sometimes suffers the loss of all things, while hope is left with a barren prospect scarcely to be gilded by any charm; but if they have, it makes very little difference in the strain we speak of, which comes so naturally to the hand that holds the pen; for men are more themselves in speech and action than in silent weaving of sentences. It is the happy men of middle age, happy in their circumstances, men sleek and well nourished, who think it high-minded and poetical to be querulous towards the tract of life they are passing through. The truth is, most people go by looks: that part of their life when they were at their comeliest, when everything became them, when even follies were graceful, fascinates the memory. It is not the mind of youth but its body that is mainly sighed over ;-that charm of grace, strength, and bloom; and a certain subtle sense of immortality that goes along with it. So long as most of the people we encounter are our seniors, death is regarded practically as a thing that does not concern us. It is so many older folks' turn first, so many must entertain the thought before it becomes necessarily our business. If young people die it is a sort of accident-it is not natural; so that even the death of the young scarcely disturbs this sense of immortality as the attribute of youth; for to the imagination they remain, wherever they are, the same. We cannot so easily accommodate the leanness, the massiveness, the stoop, the heightened or fading colouring of middle life, or the decrepitude of old age, to our ideas of