Newfoundland in 1897 - Rumbolt

152 NEWFOUNDLAND :
ignorant we are of the beauties and attractions of places
near our shores, while thoroughly conversant with the
lesser grandeur of historic lands far away. Thousands
from the United States and many from Canada yearly
flock to Europe, and write rapturous accounts of the
scenes over which poetry or fiction has thrown a
glamour. For a trifling outlay, and without the discomforts
of a long sea-voyage, they could, by visiting-
Newfoundland, enjoy a cool and healthy summer, and
revel in all the wild grandeur of Alpine scenery, or
dream away the hours by lakes and bays compared
with which Killarney and Loch Katrine are but tame
and uninviting pools."
" You find yourself in a land
where the virgin forest still fringes the noblest bays in
the world ; where the codfish actually swim within a
yard of the shore, and salmon bask in the ledges of
secluded inlets."
Some sixteen years ago, when Newfoundland was
much less known than at present, the London Times, in
an article calling the attention of travellers and tourists
to this island, used the following words :
"
Newfound-
landers can doubtless exist without the constant inter-
course of Englishmen. But they not unnaturally take
a little umbrage at being let down, in pure ignorance,
through being left out of the track of British tourists, as
a population resembling, in locality and habits, the
Esquimaux. Canada and the Cape and Natal, and even
the sequestered Shetlands, have each for its especial class
of taste and imagination, its traits of peculiar interest
and fascination. They
have at all times had their
delights and graces remarked. Newfoundland alone