NEWFOUNDLAND The island of Newfoundland has an area of 42,700 square miles. It belongs in the main to the Laurentian region, though in the west there are Carboniferous rocks which are the continuation of those in Cape Breton Island. The climate is, on the whole, less extreme than on the adjacent parts of the mainland. On the submarine plateau to the south and east of the island, there feed at certain seasons of the year enormous quantities of fish which have come down from the north with the Arctic current. Of these, cod are the most important, and dried cod and cod-oil constitute over 70 per cent. of the total exports. In the earlier part of the year before the cod have made their appearance, many fishermen go sealing in the Arctic. Lobsters, herring, and salmon are also caught along the coasts. In Bell Island, in the Bay of Conception, the Wabana mines, which now extend under the sea, are said to contain the largest deposits of low-grade iron ore in North America. They are extensively worked, the bulk of the product being sent to Sydney. Other minerals obtained, or known to exist, include copper, coal, and silver-lead. Agriculture has hitherto been of comparatively little importance, but, with increased knowledge of the interior of the island, the area devoted to it is likely to extend. Lumbering and the manufacture of paper from wood-pulp are also becoming important.
NEW ENGLAND.-Irl New England the connection between geographical conditions and economic development is of particular interest. The country consists of a raised peneplain, high in the interior, low along the coast. This peneplain is being gradually reduced to base level by rivers which, when they flow over rocks of weak structure, form wide valleys such as that of the Connecticut. The ice-sheet, which at one time covered the whole region, has left its mark in the scanty soils of the uplands, in the innumerable boulders in the lowlands, and in the drift-dammed rivers where many waterfalls occur. The more recent depression of the coast has led to the submergence of river valleys and to the formation of numerous bays and harbours.
The climate is cold in winter, when the mean temperature varies from 15° F. in the north to 33° F. in the south, but warm in summer, when it rises from 65° F. in the north to 70° F. in the south. The rainfall, which is fairly well distributed throughout the year, is generally between 40 and 50 inches in the lowlands, and between 35 and 40 inches in the uplands.
The early colonists settled near the coasts and in the lowland valleys, agriculture and fishing being their chief occupations ; and it was but slowly that they spread to the less favoured uplands. With the opening up of the wheatfields in the west, New England, with its soil, scanty in some places, boulder-strewn in others, found itself at a disadvantage in agriculture, as it was unable to make use of the improved machinery which was reducing the cost of production. Dairying, fruit-farming, and the raising of garden
" truck " are now the chief pursuits of the agricultural community, but throughout the whole country many farms have been abandoned within the last thirty years.
Fishing, another occupation of the early settlers, is still carried on from a number of ports along the New England coast. The advantages possessed by the region are the numerous good harbours formed in the drowned river valleys, and the proximity of the fishing grounds of Newfoundland and the continental shelf. Gloucester, in Massachusetts, and Portland, in Maine, are two towns largely engaged in this industry ; and cod, mackerel, and sardines are among the principal products.
The growth of manufactures has been, however, the most striking fact in the economic development of the New England States, and, although the place which these States hold is relatively less important than it was fifty years ago, the progress which they have made has been very great. At the census of 1905 it was calculated that, with 2.2 per cent. of the area of the United States, they had 141 per cent. of the capital invested in manufacturing industry, and 17.2 per cent. of the average number of wage-earners engaged in it ; while the value of the products amounted to 13.6 that of the whole country.' Various causes have led to this important position. Domestic industries were naturally started by the early settlers, and these were developed during the latter half of the eighteenth century, when for a time commercial relations with Great Britain were broken off. The rivers, with their numerous waterfalls, offered a plentiful supply of power, and climatic con ditions favoured the growth of textile pursuits. Early smelting furnaces obtained their ore from shallow glacial ponds or marshes, and their fuel from the neighbouring forests. Communications by river and sea facilitated both the import of such raw materials as were required and the export of manufactured goods. The opening up of the trans-Appalachian wheatfields, moreover, left much labour and capital, hitherto necessary for agriculture, free to be employed in other directions. The momentum acquired by certain industries from these early advantages is still effective, though changed conditions render some of them less important than formerly. The rivers, for example, supply less than 30 per cent, of the power used, coal from Nova Scotia and Pennsylvania providing the greater part of the remainder. On the other hand, the facilities for importing raw material and exporting manufactured goods, and the inherited skill of the workers, are now of the utmost value.