LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Newfoundland: Newfoundland Island
built 630 days ago
The Newfoundland is a large dog with the size and strength to perform the tasks required of him. He has a heavy coat to protect him from the long winters and the icy waters surrounding his native island. His feet are large, strong, and webbed so that he may travel easily over marshes and shores. Essentially, the Newfoundland dog is as much at home in the water as on dry land. Canine literature give us stories of brave Newfoundlands which have rescued men and women from watery graves; stories of shipwrecks made less terrible by dogs which carried life lines to stricken vessels; of children who have fallen into deep water and have been brought safely ashore by Newfoundlands; and of dogs whose work was less spectacular but equally valuable as they helped their fishermen owners with their heavy nets and performed other tasks necessary to their occupations. Although he is a superior water dog, the Newfoundland has been used and still is used in Newfoundland and Labrador as a true working dog, dragging carts, or more often carrying burdens as a pack horse.
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Most of Newfoundland's inhabitants are of English or Irish descent, but in sparsely populated Labrador the inhabitants are largely Inuit and Montagnais-Naskapi. The Beothuk, an indigenous people on the island of Newfoundland, died out in the 19th cent., presumably of European diseases. The population is centered on the island's southeastern Avalon Peninsula, the province's most important commercial and administrative region. The capital and largest city is St. John's. Corner Brook is the third largest city (following the St. John's suburb of Mount Pearl) and the second urban center in importance.
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According to the 1991 census, Newfoundland had 568,474 inhabitants, virtually the same as in 1986. The overall population density in 1991 was about 1.4 per sq km (about 3.6 per sq mi); the distribution of population... was extremely uneven, with most of the people concentrated on the coast of Newfoundland Island. The entire area of Labrador had less than 1 person for every 2.6 sq km (less than 1 per sq mi). English was the first language of more than 98 percent of the population; less than 1 percent had French as their only mother tongue. About 4700 Native Americans, 4100 Inuit (Eskimo), and 1400 Métis (persons of mixed Native American and white ancestry) lived in the province in the late 1980s. Roman Catholics formed the largest single religious group in the province; other major religious groups included the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada.
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Newfoundland has a rocky, deeply indented coast. Most of the island is a plateau, with many lakes and marshes; forests cover less than half the area. The inland wilderness abounds with fur-bearing animals, waterfowl, and fish; caribou graze on the tundra of the north. The Grand Banks, south of the island, was once one of the best cod-fishing areas in the world, but overfishing has severely depleted stocks, and the Atlantic cod fisheries were closed in 2003. The province has a generally cool and moist climate. In Labrador, the cold Labrador current brings below-freezing temperatures eight months of the year.
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The population of Newfoundland increased considerably during the 19th century as laborers from various parts of the British Isles were brought to work in the fisheries. With this influx of settlers and the growth of towns, the people of Newfoundland began to resent the colonization restrictions of the British government, directed at keeping the island merely a fishing station, and this gave impetus to a demand for self-government. In 1832 Great Britain granted Newfoundland the right of representative government, and in 1855 complete self-government, or responsible government, was established, including a legislature of two houses, a cabinet, and a governor. Exploitation of the abundant mineral resources began in 1864. International complications about fishing rights arose when France refused to allow British colonization on the west coast because it wanted no intrusion on its exclusive fishing rights. The Newfoundland government retaliated in 1888 by enacting measures that, in effect, prohibited sale of bait to French fishermen.
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N[E]wfoundland depended upon the fishery for its very life and this was established long before the first settlers came out to plant. The international fishery had developed its own rough laws and customs which took no account of the possibility of permanent settlement. In the rest of the New World European settlers came out to virgin territory, unpopulated and unvisited by other Europeans. Able to ignore the native peoples as savages, they could do what they pleased. This was not true of Newfoundland for the first English settlers arrived to find thousands of English fishermen and many more from France, Portugal and Spain who ... claimed the right to use the Island for making fish. England and France laid claim to it, and Spain could at least claim that she had anciently used the land for her fishing.
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