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into the spring, through the chilling influence of the great mass of Baffin's Bay ice that comes down the coast about the month of March. For that reason, and because the extent of good land is limited, and also on account of the proximity of Prince Edward's Island and the mainland, where both soil and climate are better suited to the cultivation of crops, Newfoundland will never be much of an agricultural country. It has great mineral riches, chiefly consisting of copper, which as yet are only partially developed, but the true source of its wealth and cause of its prosperity is, and always will be, the sea. There is a farm which needs no cultivation, a mine which never peters out.' The hardy Newfoundland fisherman pursues his calling not only among his native bays, but also along the coasts of the Labrador as far north as the entrance into Hudson's Straits; and yet, in spite of all his industry and the inexhaustible riches of the sea, he leads a poor, and too often a miserable life. He is generally deeply in debt to the nearest storekeeper, and he is compelled to look on while others reap the harvest drawn from what he, perhaps not unnaturally, considers his own seas. The fishery question in Newfoundland, and in fact the whole state of the country, is in a peculiar condition.

Most Englishmen probably suppose that Newfoundland is a dependency of Great Britain; but that idea is only partially true, for the sovereign rights of the Crown are recognised only over a portion of the island. The fishery rights of France, as settled under the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, still remain in force. Under that treaty the islands of St. Pierre and Miguelon were absolutely secured to France to enable her to pursue the cod-fishery of the great banks, and she further retained certain vaguely defined rights over that part of the island known as the French coast, namely, the shore from Cape Ray to Cape John, a distance of about 400 miles. The possession of the two islands above mentioned is of the greatest value to France, and at the same time causes no practical inconvenience to the Newfoundlanders. It is true that a great industry has passed from us, and that the fishery on the great banks is almost entirely in the hands of the French, who employ about 300 vessels and 10,000 men-half the number of ships and seamen engaged in their Newfoundland fishery, in that branch of the trade alone; but this is not owing to the convenience offered them by the possession of fishing stations at St. Pierre, or to any lack of industry and enterprise on the part of our men, but is caused by the high bounties given by the French Government, which enable their fishermen to undersell our people, and renders competition on our part useless. The state of things existing on the French shore is, however, looked upon as a real grievance by the English inhabitants of Newfoundland. France claims a strip of land half a mile in width along the whole western seaboard of the island. She also, practically What is the exact

speaking, owns half the interior of the island.

nature of the rights which she is entitled to exercise over the foreshore has never yet been determined. It was retained for fishery purposes. The French cannot erect permanent buildings of any kind, but they may set up temporary huts and drying stages, and everything necessary for the accommodation of their men during the fishing season. So much is clearly understood. But whether the French rights are exclusive; or whether the English may also make use of the shore for fishing purposes; or if not, then whether they are also precluded from permanently settling and cultivating land, or working minerals on the French shore, are doubtful points; but they will have to be decided some day, for the state of things which now exists, though it might have been thought little of when Newfoundland was a mere storehouse for salt, and a drying-place for the nets of fishermen who paid it an annual visit, will become unbearable as the island develops and is settled up. It is not the fisheries alone that are concerned. If you make a man absolute master of the door, it is obvious that he practically controls the room within; and as the natural and only outlet for nearly half the island is through the French shore, it is equally certain that the wealth in mines, timber, and agricultural produce of many thousands of square miles must remain undeveloped until some satisfactory arrangement is arrived at. Thanks to the tendency of treaty makers to scamp their work, and to be content to accept vague generalities and to leave inconvenient details to be dealt with by their successors, a nice muddle exists in Newfoundland. The Crown exercises sovereign right, and the Colonial Parliament extends its rule over a portion only of a British colony. And now, to make confusion worse confounded, we have entered into more vague and ill-defined engagements with the United States. Nobody seems even to know whether American fishermen can exercise their rights subject to or independent of the local laws binding on the natives of Newfoundland. Still less can any one pretend to say what rights, if any, the United States acquired on the French shore. The Fishery Convention between Great Britain and the United States was of course subject to the provisions of all existing treaties entered into by France and England, and dealing with the fisheries of Newfoundland, but nobody knows what those provisions mean. We may take one view, France a second, Newfoundland a third, and the Government of Washington a fourth. Who is to say which view is correct? The result of this confusion is, that there is no law whatever on the French shore. That country is inhabited by refugees from other parts of the island, and emigrants from Cape Breton or Prince Edward's Island, and from Nova Scotia and other portions of the mainland. These people, many of whom had urgent private reasons for thinking a change of domicile desirable, have squatted on the land and appropriated it-stolen it, in fact, from the Crown. Each family or cluster of families forming a little settlement, claims the land about them, the valley probably of the river on the banks of which they dwell, and are fully prepared to uphold their claim. It is a delightfully primitive state of society. No writs run in that happy land, and every man does that which seems best to him in his own eyes. Taxes, however, have been raised, but when the Colonial Parliament passed a Bill giving two members to the district, the Act was at once disallowed by the Home Government, as interfering with the French rights; and the curious spectacle might have been seen of a population of British subjects in a colony enjoying free Parliamentary Government, paying taxes, but having no representation whatever. There are many other inconveniences arising from the peculiar circumstances connected with the French shore. The Government is, practically speaking, precluded from making grants of Crown lands over about 20,000 square miles of country; nobody cares to purchase and clear land or prospect for minerals; millions of feet of lumber have been cut from off Crown lands without the payment of one farthing, and the rivers are persistently barred and the salmon fisheries destroyed. There is, in fact, a state of things existing in Newfoundland which finds no parallel in any civilised country in the world, and which is unknown in any other colony of Great Britain. In the midst of a self-governing community a population exists owning no allegiance to any one, liable to no laws, practically speaking subject to no Government of any kind. It is an anomalous and not a very creditable state of things. Whether it can be remedied or not is altogether another matter, but if possible something should be done for our own credit and for the sake of our fellow-subjects in Newfoundland. Newfoundland has special claims upon us, for though sentiment is generally out of place in politics, it cannot be forgotten that Newfoundland is England's first-born. That foggy little island, although perhaps somewhat of a rough diamond, is a valuable jewel, and is the first that was set in our imperial crown.

DUNRAVEN.

A DAY WITH A WAR BALLOON.

I.

So many people seem to take a lively interest in balloons and ballooning, that perhaps it may be worth while to note down the following short account of some early experiences and first impressions with balloons before they fade away from the memory.

July 28. This is the third day that we have been hard at work making gas for balloons in the Arsenal at Woolwich with an experimental apparatus. The process of manufacturing hydrogen by blowing steam through heated iron turnings presents no great novelty in principle, for the French used it for inflating their military balloons as long ago as the battle of Fleurus in 1794; and, to judge by the meagre accounts which have reached us, they appear to have been very successful in the manufacture. In these days of competitive examinations and Staff College certificates the soldier has to use his pen as much if not more than his sword, and the military student of the future will be overwhelmed with records only too voluminous and elaborate of every detail of our military equipment. But in those days, under the stern régime of a revolutionary convention, the sword had decidedly the best of it, so no detailed records of the French and their work are available. We must be content to learn our experience from the beginning, and find out how to manufacture our hydrogen for ourselves. We are at present very new to the work, and we have to contend with many difficulties. Yet we do manage to make hydrogen. The worst of it is that when we have got it, it is very difficult to keep it, for it is the most subtle and difficult to retain of any gas which we could possibly use. So we cannot avoid a serious loss by leakage, though our light balloon fabric does retain it much better than might fairly be expected.

But to-day being fine and favourable for ballooning, it is time to forsake the gas furnace, and get a little practical experience as an aeronaut. The Talisman, as the balloon is named which we propose to employ, being already half full of hydrogen, is filled up completely with gas, and I first try a captive ascent.

A strong rope, perhaps 4,000 feet long, is wound upon a large

drum, whence it can be paid out or hauled in, as required, by means of a winch and brake. The end of the rope is carefully made fast to the Talisman's hoop. This is a strong circle of ash, to which all the terminal cords of the balloon netting above are fastened, and below which again the car is suspended by proper car-lines or connecting ropes. I get into the car. A sufficient number of bags of sand as ballast are introduced, to leave only a moderate lift or ascensional power in the balloon. The rope pays itself out readily from the drum as the Sapper in charge eases off the brake. The Talisman soars aloft, and whenever the pace is too rapid it is easily checked by a light application of the brake.

This is almost my first introduction to captive work, and the sensation is most decidedly not too pleasant or reassuring. The great balloon above tugs and struggles, as if perfectly conscious of a humiliating state of captivity, and longing to be free. This is especially the case whenever a gust of wind puts a considerable extra strain on the guy rope. The latter, as I have said, is fastened to the hoop above one's head. But it rides against the light wickerwork of the car, which creaks and groans in response in a doleful and somewhat distressing manner. Were it not for a powerful spring of india-rubber, which checks the oscillations of the guy rope, and tends to steady the balloon, the effect on one's nerves might be much worse than it is.

But, fortunately, there is not too much time for noticing these matters, for there is a constant necessity for letting go ballast, to meet the continually increasing weight of suspended guy rope below, or the balloon would soon cease to rise. At last the ballast is all expended, and the guy rope is payed out no further. The wind has caused the balloon to drift off to a considerable distance horizontally from the point of departure below, and she now settles into a condition of approximate equilibrium. The height above the ground is shown by the barometer to be about 1,000 feet. The long guy rope hangs in a graceful curve below. The portion next the balloon, for hundreds of feet, is nearly vertical, and that near the ground almost horizontal. But of this I see little. One or two timid glances are quite sufficient, for one's head, naturally a very indifferent one where it is a question of looking down from giddy heights, is not yet acclimatised to the situation by practice in ballooning. So I cannot look at the ground under, or nearly under, the balloon without a shudder and a decidedly creepy sensation. Above all, one must avoid looking down the guy rope, for this, in its long catenary, extending far below, reach after reach, and ending almost in a vanishing point, gives a measure to the eye of the giddy height. And to look along it makes one's brain reel-far worse, as I afterwards find, than looking down from thrice the height in a free trip where there is no guy rope. For military purposes, for reconnoitring that is, there can be

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