being under the forest laws, was affected by the forest clauses of Magna Carta and by the Forest Charter (1217), which mitigated their severity. The chief officer of this, as of other forests, was the justice in eyre who held the justice seat, the highest forest court and the only court of record capable of entering and executing judgments on offenders; the lower courts were the Swainmote and Wodemote, the former of which is still held, in a modified form, in the Verderers’ Hall of the King’s House at Lyndhurst. The circuit of the justices in eyre, or their deputies, continued down to 1635; they were virtually ended by the Act for the Limitation of Forests (1640), though Charles II. attempted to revive them, and they were not legally abolished until 1817. The lower officers of the forest, who held merely local appointments, were the verderers, the regarders (one of whose duties was that of seeing to the expeditation of “great dogs”), the foresters, the woodwards and the agisters. There was also a lord warden, who was usually a nobleman and performed no judicial functions. The Deer Removal Act (1851) resulted in the almost total extinction of the forest deer. Under the act of 1877 the forest is administered rather as a national park than for the growing of timber on commercial principles.
See J. R. Wise, The New Forest (4th ed., 1883), with over sixty engravings by W. J. Linton and a dozen etchings by H. Sumner; and R. D. Blackmore, Cradock Nowell (1866).
NEWFOUNDLAND, a large island, forming a British colony, and occupying an important and commanding position off the eastern coast of the North American continent, not dissimilar to that occupied by Great Britain towards Europe. It stretches directly across the entrance of the Gulf of St Lawrence, to which access is afforded at both the northern and the southern extremities of the island. In the south-west its distance from Cape Breton is less than 60 m., while only 1640 m. separate its most easterly point from the coast of Ireland. It is situated between 46° 36′ 50″ and 51° 39′ N., and between 52° 37′ and 59° 24′ 50″ W. The total area of the island is about 40,200 sq. m. or one-sixth larger than Ireland: its maximum length from Cape Ray to Cape Norman is 317 m., its maximum breadth from Cape Spear to Cape Anguille, 316 m. In shape it is roughly triangular, three extensive peninsulas, which project from the north (Petit Nord) and south-east (Avalon), assisting the conformation, although the latter, the most populous region of the island, is joined by a very slender isthmus, at one place only 3 m. wide. A further division of the Avalon peninsula is wrought by the two bays of St Mary’s and Conception. St John’s, the capital, is situated on the eastern side of Avalon.
Physical Features.—Viewed from the ocean the coasts of Newfoundland appear bleak, rocky and barren. The brown wall of rock, 200 to 300 ft. in height, is, however, broken at frequent intervals by deep fjords and large bays running in some instances 80 to 90 m. inland, and throwing out smaller arms in all directions. For this reason the circumference of the island, which, measured from headland to headland, is about 1000 m., is actually doubled. The fjords resemble those of Norway; islands are numerous, some of them clad with vegetation; and picturesque scenery is not uncommon.
Near the coasts the surface of the country is of a hilly, rugged character. In the interior the elevated undulating plateau is diversified by ranges of low hills, valleys, woods, lakes, ponds and marshes. Much of this is a savanna country, giving sustenance to large herds of caribou. All the principal hill ranges have a N.N.E. and S.S.W. trend, as have also all the other great physical features of the island, such as the bays, larger lakes, rivers and valleys, a conformation doubtless shaped by glacial action during the Ice period. The most important range of mountains is the Long Range, beginning at Cape Ray and extending along the western side of the island for some 200 m., and having peaks more than 2000 ft. high. Parallel to this but nearer the west coast is the Anguille Range, running from Cape Anguille to the highlands of Bay St George. Some of the summits of the Blomidon Range, extending along the south shore of the Humber and Bay of Islands, attain a height of 2084 ft., being the highest on the island. Avalon peninsula is also very hilly, but the greatest altitude is only 1200 ft.—North-East Mountain, from which sixty-seven lakes are visible on a clear day. Over the interior are spread a number of detached sharply-pointed summits, springing abruptly from the great central plateau, bearing the local name of “tolts,” and serviceable as landmarks.
In comparison with the island’s size large rivers are few, owing to the broken, uneven character of most of the country, and the fact that the ponds and lakes find a convenient vent in the numerous lengthy inlets and arms of the sea. There are, however, three considerable streams, the Exploits, the Humber and the Gander. The first-named rises in the extreme S.W. angle of the island, close to the southern extremity of the Long Range, and after a course of 200 m. falls into the Bay of Exploits, Notre Dame Bay. It is a mile wide at its mouth; its channel is studded with islands, the largest being Thwart Island, 9 m. in length. Fourteen miles from the mouth is a succession of cascades known as Bishop’s Falls, and farther inland are the picturesque Grand Falls. The Exploits drains an area of between 3000 and 4000 m., much of it fertile land, and densely wooded with pine, spruce, birch and poplar. The width of this fertile belt varies at different parts of the river, but it is estimated that some 200,000 acres might be available for agriculture. The Humber rises 20 m. inland from Bonne Bay, and, after emptying itself by a circuitous course into Deer Lake, falls into the Bay of Islands. It drains an area of 2000 sq. m. Rising near the southern coast, the Gander flows through Gander Lake into Hamilton Sound, draining an area of nearly 4000 sq. m. Besides these three there is the Codroy, rising in the Long Range and emptying into the Gulf of St Lawrence.
The immense number of lakes and ponds constitutes perhaps the most striking physical feature of the island. More than a third of the whole area is occupied by water. These bodies of water, large and small, are found in the most various positions: in the mountain gorges; in the depressions between the low hills; in the valleys and even in the hollows on the tops of the highest eminences. The largest is Grand Lake, 56 m. long, 5 in breadth, with an area of 192 sq. m. Its surface is but 50 ft. above sea-level, the bottom at its deepest portion being 300 ft. below sea-level. It contains an island 22 m. long. The next, Red Indian Lake, is 37 m. long, with an area of 64 sq. m. Gander Lake is 33 m. in length, and Deer Lake, through which the Humber flows, is 15 m. After these Michel Sandy Lake, Victoria, Hind’s, Terra Nova and George IV. lakes rank next in size. Save where the railway and lumbering camps have invaded them the shores of these lakes are still primitive wilderness.
The coasts of the island, intersected by many great bays, have been familiar to fishermen from an early period, but the interior remained almost completely unknown until the geological survey, still in process, was begun in 1864. Chief amongst the inlets are Placentia Bay, 55 m. in width at its mouth and 90 m. long; Notre Dame Bay, 50 m. wide and 70 m. long; Fortune Bay, 25 m. wide and 70 long; and St Mary’s Bay, 25 m. wide by 35 m. in length. Opposite Fortune Bay, which has several important arms, are the two islands of St Pierre and Miquelon, ceded by treaty in 1713 to France, as shelter for her fishermen, and now all that remains of French sovereignty in North America. In the neighbourhood of Bay St George, on the west coast (40 m. wide at the mouth and boasting a good harbour) are situated some of the most fertile lands in the island, well-timbered and containing large deposits of coal and other minerals. Three extensive arms run 20 m. inland from Bay of Islands, the seat of a profitable herring fishery. Conception Bay is one of the largest and most important in the island, having in 1901 a population scattered through the settlements on its shores of over 40,000 inhabitants. Another principal inlet is Bonavista Bay, which contains numerous groups of islands.
Geology.—All the great ancient rock systems, between the Lower Laurentian and the Coal-measures, are more or less represented at one part or another of Newfoundland.
The Laurentian system has an immense spread in the island. It constitutes the principal mountain ranges, coming to the surface through the more recent deposits, on the axes of anticlinal lines, or brought up by great dislocations, most of which trend nearly parallel with each other in a general bearing of about north-north-east and south-south-west. The Laurentian gneiss of the Long Range, on the western side, extends in a nearly straight course from Cape Ray to the headwaters of the Castor in the great northern peninsula. On the south-western extremity of the island these rocks occupy the coast from Cape Ray to La Poile. They are largely exhibited on Grand Lake, running in a spur from the Long Range between it and Red Indian Lake, and bearing for the south-eastern shores of Hall’s Bay. The central portion of the northern peninsula is Laurentian, which also spreads over a wide expanse of country between Grand Lake and the Humber and Exploits rivers, and shows itself on the coast between Canada Bay and White Bay. Another range of Laurentian comes up in the district of Ferryland, and shows itself occasionally on the coast of Conception Bay. Thus more than half the island is Laurentian.
Three-fourths of the peninsula of Avalon are Huronian, a formation which does not extend west of Fortune Bay. The town of St John’s and, in fact, nearly all the settlements between Fortune Bay and Bonavista Bay are built upon it. Signal Hill, overlooking the harbour of St John’s, is capped with the sandstone of this formation. The whole Huronian system is not less than 10,000 ft. thick, and has been cut through by denudation to the Laurentian floor. The rocks of the Primordial Silurian age are spread unconformably over the area thus ground down. These evidences of denudation and
reconstruction are very clear in Conception Bay, where the rocks