JUKES'S EXCURSIONS IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

THESE volumes appear at an appropriate time, when the debates in Parliament on the alteration of its constitution create a sort of factitious interest about Newfoundland, which "the oldest colony of England" could not otherwise inspire.

To gentlemen who have forgotten their geography, it may be as well to say that the island of Newfoundland is situated opposite the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and is about 420 miles long by 300 broad. The coast is one of the most rocky and iron-bound in the world ; Newfoundland, however, having the advantage of many harbours, although generally difficult of access. With a few rare exceptions, the interior of the country consists of stunted but thick-set woods of pine and other trees, matted together by underwood ; of wet marsh, varying from ankle-deep to knee-deep or deeper, and generally in- tersected by bush and quagmires; or of sheets of water called ponds, whether they resemble what we understand by the term, or expand to large lakes, mostly connected together by streams that eventually find their way into the ocean. Roads have been made out of the larger settlements, but nothing like a complete line between one place and another exists. To pass along the coast is generally impossible, on account of the deep clefts or ravines by which the rocks are intersected : to get by land from one place to another is difficult, because deer-paths are frequently the only paths, some- times to the eye of a stranger there seem to be no paths at all; and even where roads have been planned, their country-end is merely a line thickly set with holes, slippery rolling stones, stumps of trees, or fallen trunks. Unless in winter-time, when ice turns the waters into a solid road, land locomotion must be carried on afoot ; and a tedious and toilsome task it is. Mr. JUKES found, that after long training he could only average two miles an hour

over pretty fair ground ; and that is the mean of walking in New- foundland. The sea is consequently the great highway : even the circuits are made round the coast in a vessel fitted up for all the legal functionaries, from the judge, counsellors, and so forth, down to the tipstaff.

The Western coast contains the most fertile spots ; but this, by treaty with France, is not allowed to be settled, each nation being permitted to use the coast for curing fish only. A few permanent settlers have taken up their abode—of course squatting without title ; but this is winked at, as their supplies, small and scanty as they are, are useful to the fishermen. Inland settlements there are none; but parts of the other coasts are thinly settled where a harbour and other advantages of land and water attract a few hardy adventurers ; some of whom keep a few sheep and cattle, and en- closing a little land, raise scanty crops of corn and vegetables : but, unless where nature is very favourable, farming does not appear to be a profitable speculation. A Roman Catholic priest, who was attempting cultivation, told Mr. JUKES that he did not expect he should be able to get mach profitable return under ten years. The farm of Mr. PACKE, an intelligent resident, instead of yielding a profit, costs 100/. a year to keep it in order. The sea is the soil of Newfoundland ; and the land derives its value from its relation to the water, in proportion as it can be made to dry and pack fish, sustain fishermen and their houses, and furnish timber to build fishing-vessels. The total exports of the island are about 700,000l.; of which salt-fish forms 400,0001., and other salt- water articles—as fish-oil, or seal-oil and skins—the remainder. Fish, if not the circulating medium, is the measure of value, and the means of payment : they look to the fishing-season as other com- munities look to the harvest ; of fish they think, of fish they stink, by fish they live, and for fish, in the season, some of them die. Yet, in the Newfoundland definition, there are not many fish, but one fish—videlicet, cod-fish. So ingrained is this idea, that they ask

at dinner-time, Will you take herrings or fish ?" "will you take salmon or fish ?"

Except the officials and a few beads of mercantile houses, the popu- lation is of a very primitive and patriarchal kind; rough, and some- what addicted to drink, and to driving bargains ; but simple, hospi- table, and kind-hearted. Bating the characteristic, that in them "every thing doth suffer a sea-change," some of their habits are such as obtained in England a century or two ago, and have only of late been quite discontinued in remote parts : such as travellers and strangers occupying one bed, and some of the females sleeping in the same room with males. Another custom, now on the wane, seems peculiar to Newfoundland : when a strange gentleman arrived at a house where (we suppose) there was only one bed, tra- veller, husband, and wife, all slept together,—a custom which Mr. JUKES thinks may have originated in its necessity for preserving life during the intensity of a Newfoundland winter, as without very ample bed-clothes a traveller might, to use an Irishism, lie down a man and get up a corpse. Professional assistance is rare. We have seen that law is dispensed by a regular itinerancy in a sailin- vessel chartered pro hoc vice. The fee of a surgeon of St. John (the capital) for a visit to a settlement twelve miles off, is 51.; partly from the absence of competition, and colonial prices, partly from the labour and difficulty of the journey,—at least one day if not two being occupied, unless the horse-road is now finished throughout : clergymen are so scarce, that people disposed to ma- trimony live together on a written agreement to marry at the first opportunity. Education of the most elementary kind is, necessarily, at a low ebb. The name of a large vessel wrecked on the coast re- mained for some time unknown because nobody who had seen it could read the handwriting on the stern ; though, to do the colo- nist's justice, the schoolmaster is one of their first demands, even among the unrecognized settlers on the Western coast. Of the out-of-the-world ways of some of them an idea may be formed from the fact, that old GEORGE HARVEY, a distinguished person and a true humanity-man, (hawing, among other exploits, saved the lives of 163 persons from a wrecked emigrant-ship, with only the assistance of a son aged twelve and a daughter seventeen, and kept them all for some time out of his own stores,) had only once seen a horse, upon the occasion of some remote excursion, and his family never.

Mr. JUKES, whose agreeable volumes have mainly furnished us with these characteristics, was appointed Geological Surveyor of Newfoundland ; the Assembly, now extinguished by act of Parlia- ment, voting his salary and expenses—some visions of colonial beds of coal apparently prompting their scientific ardour. Besides his Geological Report, with some short notices of natural history, the work before us contains an account of the different excursions by land and water he undertook in fulfilment of his duty ; together with a sealing voyage to the Arctic ice, in which he employed his winter. On his first arrival, Mr. JUKES seems to have intended a regular survey and exploration of the island ; but he found, much to his surprise, that even parts of the sea-shore in the neighbourhood of the capital were inaccessible by land, whilst the inhabitants were equally surprised that he should think of such a possibility. A small vessel was therefore chartered for him, in which he circumnavigated the island, in the season of' 1839; landing at different points, and working his way inland as far as the nature of the country and his means of transporting provisions would permit : and his course was pretty similar in 1840, except that his sea- voyage was less extensive. The scientific observations of Mr. JUKES are judiciously presented in a separate form ; his popular matter con- sisting of a narrative of his trips and nautical adventures, descnp- tions of the wild, lonely, but picturesque and sometimes beautiful landscapes of the island, with sketches of the customs, modes of life, and character of the settlers. Had these things been less singular or better known, it is possible that some weariness might have arisen from the sameness of their character, and the compara- tive deficiency in human interest, inevitable where men are not. Amid so strange a people and so strange a country, this, however, is little felt ; and Mr. JUKES, moreover, is a person well fitted to get along himself, or carry his readers along with him : as a traveller, he is ardent and indefatigable in exploring, patient under hard- ship, hunger, and fatigue, and adapts himself readily to the customs about him, and to the companions he falls in with ; whilst as an author he is rapid, lively, and unaffected, and communicates to his literary manner some of his travelling pleasantry.

The volume is one which would furnish extracts from almost every page. We will select what we take so as to convey some idea of the generic nature of the subjects handled.

THE CAPITAL OF NEWFOUNDLAND.

The first view of the harbour of St. John's is very striking. Lofty precipi- tous cliffs, of hard, dark red sandstone, and conglomerate, range along the coast, with deep water close at their feet. Their beds plunge from a height of from 400 to 700 feet, at an angle of seventy degrees, right into the sea, where they are ceaselessly dashed against by the unbroken swell of the Atlantic

waves. This immense sea-wall is the side of a narrow ridge of hills which strike along the coast here, and through which there are occasional nar- row wellies or ravines. These transverse vallies cut down through the range to various depths, and the bottom of one being about fifty or sixty feet below the level of the sea forms the entrance to the harbour of St. John's, and is ap- propriately termed the Narrows. Inside, the harbour expands and trends towards the S.W., and the land on the other side of it has a much more gentle slope, and a much less height than that immediately on the coast. It is also of a better quality, and more fertile. The dark naked rocks that frown along the coast near St. John's, their stern outlines unbroken by any other vegeta- tion than a few stunted fire that seem huddled together in the more sheltered nooks and hollows, give a stranger but an unfavourable idea of the country he has come to visit, and seem to realize all the accounts he may have heard or read of the coldness and barrenness of the land. As we sailed backwards and forwards across the mouth of the Narrows, which in one place is only 220 yards across, with rocky precipitous heights of 500 feet on each side, we caught a view of the town, which, from its being built for the most part of unpainted wood, had a sufficiently sombre and dismal appearance. The harbour, how- ever, was full of vessels, and on landing, there seemed to be much bustle and business going on. The melting of the previous winter's snow bad, however, furrowed the streets in various places with gutters running across them, while from their ill-kept state, from their long, straggling, and irregular appearance, the narrow dirty alleys and lanes leading out of them, the dingy aspect of the unpainted houses, and the groups of idle and half-drunken sailors and fishermen, the absence of street lamps and drains, the entire want of all police, and the air of disorder and confusion which reigned throughout, it was evident that the scene was a foreign one. I found afterwards that it was just the season when a number of vessels, having shortly returned from the sealing ex- pedition, their crews were all loitering about with money in their pockets, and the merchant's wharfs and premises were crowded with their men unloading the vessels, and preparing the seals for the oil-vats. My first impulse on land- ing was to ascend the ridge on the South-east side of the harbour, which from the people all using compass bearings instead of the true, is called the South side, and the ridge the South side hill. From its top, which is about 750 feet above theses, there was an extensive prospect over sea and land. On return- ing to the town, myself ands fellow voyager found it quite destitute of inns and hotels, but were lucky enough to engage very comfortable rooms in a private

lodging-house.

" snippily° " A SERVANT.

My first care was to engage a man who was acquainted with the country, as a guide and servant. Accordingly a rough-looking subject named Kelly, with a strong brogue, presented himself, whom after some hesitation, I engaged, or in his own language "shipped." All domestic servants come to be "shipped." Families are applied to to know whether they want to " ship " a housemaid or a cook. Some idea of the rate of wages may be formed by the fact of my having to pay this fellow, a common fisherman, 28/. currency, and his board for the summer, that is from the 1st of May to the 31st October.

FIRST SAMPLE OF COUNTRY ECONOMY.

It was just dusk when we arrived at Pouche Cove, and we put up at the first house or cabin we came to. The people received us most hospitably, and gave us tea and bread and batter; but owing to the recent death of a daughter, could not accommodate us for the night. We then were taken to the house of the schoolmaster, where we were kindly received; hut his house being Nosily unfurnished with room for more than his own family, he took us to a Mrs. Sullivan's, where, it appeared, strangers usually put up. We found here several people assembled round the wood-fire, and shortly joined the circle. After some interchange of talk, in which Kelly bore his part by retailing all the news of St. John's, Dr. S. and I were shown through a door into a small narrow room, in which there were two beds. I, in my ignorance, concluded this was a bed apiece ; but Dr. Stabb, more accustomed to the country, im- mediately asked who slept in the other bed, " Myself and the girl, Sir," said the venerable Mrs. Sullivan, to my great astonishment. Accordingly we tumbled into one bed, and after the fatigues of the day, were soon fast asleep ; and in the morning found the other bed had certainly been slept in, and so con- cluded the old lady and the girl had effected their entrance and exit quietly in the night without disturbieg our slumbers.

A WALK IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

1 set out this morning in the boat, accompanied by Mr. Green of Brigus, to visit the Cat's Cove Hills, at the head of Collier's Bay. After exploring the coast, we arrived at the head of the bay at twelve o'clock, and struck off into the woods by a narrow path. We took three men to carry the theodolite and hammer-bag, but I did not intrust the barometer to any one, and accordingly carried it myself. In about a quarter of a mile, we came upon a newly-cut road that was intended to run from Brigue round the head of the bay towards St. John's. We travelled along this for about half a mile, but found it a mere morass, and were obliged to jump from one root of a tree to another the greatest part of the way. We then struck off across a marsh for the hills, and ID a abort time entered a wood. Here we found the bed of a little torrent, which enabled us to proceed Borne distance with tolerable ease, but when that waded we were obliged to force our way through the dense thicket, sometimes climbing over, sometimes crawling beneath masses of fallen rotten wood, stum- bling over slippery moss-covered boulders, slipping on the wet roots of trees, sliding down steep banks of rock, or tearing the clothes off our backs by drag- ging ourselves through the matted twigs and branches of the trees. All this while the thermometer stood at 75 degrees, and not a breath of air could find its way to us. The smell of the woods and the turpentine exuding from the trees was as close and stiffing as an oven, and the mosquitoes began to attack us by hundreds. They did not, indeed, annoy me so much, but Mr. Green's face and neck were soon running down with blood. When, after toiling in this way to the top of one ridge, we still found a ravine separating us from the hill, we were half inclined to give it up. However, taking " heart of grace," we plunged again into the woods, and after another stiff climb we at length found ourselves on the summit. It cost us altogether more than four hours' hard labour, although the distance was not much more than three miles from the sea-side.

A NEWFOUNDLAND DOG.

A thin, short-haired, black dog, belonging to George Harvey, came off to tts today. This animal was of a breed very different from what we understand by the term "Newfoundland dog," in England. He had a thin tapering snout, a long thin tail, and rather thin but powerful legs, with a lank body, the heir short and smooth. These are the most abundant dogs of the country, the long-haired curly dogs being comparatively rare. They are by no means hand- some, but are generally more intelligent and useful than the others. This one caught his own fish. He sat on a projecting rock beneath a fish-flake, or stage, where the fish are laid to dry, watching the water, which had a depth of six or eight feet, and the bottom of which was white with fish-bones. On throwing a piece of cod-fish into the water, three or four heavy clumsy-looking fish, called in Newfoundland " sculpins," with great heads and mouths, and many spines about them, and generally about a foot long, would swim in to catch it. These he would " set " attentively, and the moment one turned his broadside to him, he darted down like a fish-hawk, and seldom came up without the fish in his month. As he caught them, be carried them regularly to a place a few yards off, where he laid them down ; and they told us that in the summer he would sometimes make a pile of fifty or sixty a day, just at that place. He never attempted to eat them, but seemed to be fishing purely for his own amuse- ment. I watched him for about two hours ; and when the fish did not come, I observed he once or twice put his right foot in the water and paddled it about. This foot was white ; and Harvey said he did it to " toll " or entice the fish; but whether it was for that specific reason or merely a motion of impatience, I could not exactly decide. The whole proceeding struck me as remarkable, more especially as they said he had never been taught any thing of the kind.

TOUCH-AND-CO.

On anchoring, we learned that all the vessels bound for St. John's had left, but that one belonging to Mr. Slade was still waiting in Fogo Harbour, to take Mr. Slade and Mr. Peyton, who were expected down to go on board of her to St. John's. As I thought it possible they might go down to Fogo outside the island, I wished to go on. The people said it was no time for any loaded craft to try to get into Fogo Harbour, but our light cutter might do it; and old John said he thought he could take her in, so we set off. We found a tremendous sea rolling in from the North, with only a light wind blowing from the West, making it more difficult to manage. Mountains of foam were bursting over all the shoal rocks about ; Black Rock was alternately dry, standing thirty feet out of the water, and buried in boiling surges that were raging and swell- ing above its head. The scenery was very grand ; the bare dark rocks of Fogo Head frowning characteristically above the waves. On nearing the entrance of the harbour, we found the western entrance under Fogo Head white with foam all across ; and as the wind would be likely to baffle us under the high land, we prepared to run in by the Boatswain's Tickle, a narrow passage be- tween two of the islands, of only two fathoms depth at low water. John gave the men directions to stand by the main sheet, and when he told them to haul, to pull away without minding what became of themselves, and on no account to let go. As I could be of no service, I held on by the rigging amidships, to watch the result. As we slowly drew in between the islands, the rocks on each side of us presented themselves alternately bare and black, and covered with torrents of white foam, in which, as it extended across the passage, we were soon involved. Then came a long thundering wave which lifted us up on high, and launched us into the middle of the channel. Down we sank as it retired, till we seemed touching the rocks below, and our rudder did receive a slight shock. All our heads were then turned aft to watch the approach of the next wave. On it came, a huge mountain of water, rising continually higher as it approached, lifting up our punt, which was towed behind, high over our heads, so that I verily thought it would fall over on to our deck, until at last it plunged under our stern, and up we rose on the swelling wave, which buried Tom and Simon for a brief space, and drenched our decks as far as the foot of the mast. This wave hurried us helter-skelter close to a black rock, upon which I could have leaped ashore from the leeward rigging, as the water receded, and to avoid which it had been necessary to haul in the main sheet. Luckily, the men obeyed their directions ; and old John, as steady as a rock when he had no rum on board, never blenched from the helm, so we crept past it ; and another wave, of rather less violence than the preceding, launched us into smooth water within the harbour. Some people had collected on the opposite cliff to watch our entrance, as it was certainly "a very close shave," and old John acknowledged afterwards he would not have tried it had he known the sea was so high. As we were on the slope of the middle wave, and I looked over the bowsprit and saw it pointing directly down to the rocks at the bottom of the water, I really had expected it to catch on one of them, and that the little vessel would enter the harbour by a kind of summerset. As it was, however, in about twenty minutes I was comfortably seated in Mr. R.'s parlour, feeding on fish with not the less appetite that I had narrowly escaped becoming their food.

CLOSE OF A TRIP.

When we landed, our appearance must have been somewhat remarkable, and not the less striking as the day happened to be Sunday. I had taken one sum- mer and one winter pair of trousers with me, but was now obliged to wear them both, not merely on account of the cold, but also that, as the holes in each did not exactly correspond, I might get a mean or average pair of trousers from the two. My jackets were in a similar condition, while our faces were grimed with smoke and dirt, and our whole persons redolent of bad salt-fish.

As in all Mr. MURRAY'S books, the typography is unexception- able; but the omission of a map is an oversight detracting from the use of the volume, as not many readers of it will have one com- plete enough to enable them to follow Mr. JUKES.