with me, we lost our way for a time, but recovered it by observing the top branches of the junipers or larches, which in this country always point to the east. About ten o'clock at night, after many falls on a slippery wood-path, we reached the house of a respectable planter, named Miller, on the west shore of Conception Bay: the men of the family were already gone to bed, but I read and explained a chapter of the Bible to the females, and offered up prayers with them; a service which I repeated the next morning in the presence of all the family. I then started in the snow, and after assisting at a marriage which a brother clergyman was solemnizing, crossed through the "slob ice," which was very thick in Conception Bay, to Port de Grave, four leagues in three hours. Here a snow-storm kept me a prisoner during the whole of Thursday in the hospitable house of the Reverend C. Blackman. Early on Friday morning we took an ice-pounder, which is a heavy mallet with a long handle, and escaped some hours of very laborious walking, by crossing in a boat to Bay Roberts, where I was sorry to find that Mr. Joyce, an exceedingly kind friend to the Church and clergy, whom I had found here on former visits, had paid the debt of nature. It is so difficult to get about from place to place in the winter, that the gentlemen of Port de Grave had not seen a St. John's newspaper for a month, and in Trinity Bay, twenty-five shillings had actually been paid to one of the cross-country guides for conveying a single letter over-land. Mr. Blackman went with me as far as Spaniard's Bay Beech. Here I and my guide struck in the woods at eleven in the morning, and crossed the neck of land which divides Conception from Trinity Bay. I broke into the ice of one brook on my way, and by half-past seven reached the house of Mr. Charles Nieuhook, the distance being not more than fifteen miles, but at least twenty by the roundabout course which woods, and brooks, and hills, obliged us to take. On Saturday I visited the people in this neighbourhood with Charles Elford, a layreader, employed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and on Sunday administered the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to fourteen persons in the Church, and to one old man of seventy-seven in his own house. The weather was exceedingly cold, and there was no stove in the Church; -but nevertheless I held two full services, baptized two children at Church, and one in private. After the two services, I walked to Dildo Cove by a church-path made by the

people, which is very creditable to the devotional feeling of the settlers. Here the weather detained me at Samuel Pretty's, an old churchman, who said with a gratitude that was very pleasing; "It is bad enough now, Sir; but when I first came out from Chard in Somersetshire, sixty years ago, twelvemonth after twelvemonth would pass without our hearing a word of a book, or any talk about a Church." New Harbour and Dildo Cove present fine scenery to the admirer of nature; yet I learnt that, before Mr. Pretty came there, they had been the scenes of some very savage murders, into which no inquiry whatever was made. Such was the imperfect state of the magistracy at that time: indeed in some parts of the island which I visited, the murder of a child by its mother, or any other violent death, would scarcely create inquiry now.

Having read and prayed with the inhabitants, visited the sick, and made my residence as useful as I could to the people during my detention, I started on Wednesday morning before it was light. The snow-path was stained with the blood of Bedlamer seals that had been hauled upon it. We had plenty of work for the ice-pounder in this cove and in the bay, as it was full of swish-ice, which, when struck by the oar, makes a sound like that of straw when thrashed with a flail. By halfpast nine we reached Chapel Arm, where, and at Little Gut in its neighbourhood, were about seventy souls, chiefly from New Harbour, for winter's work. I assembled about two dozen people, all who had not gone into the woods for their work before our arrival, for full service at the tilt of William Pollett. As we passed a point in our boat, I got sight of a black fox close to the water's edge, and was told that I might expect shortly to see an otter, which I soon did, and, on going to the spot, found several holes which the otter had made on the slob-ice when diving for fish, which the fox at this time of scarcity would stand by to monopolize or share with him. Hence the otter and the fox are generally found together at this season. A cutting vapour called hereabouts the barber was distinctly to be seen upon the water this morning; and I was glad on the approach of day to turn myself towards the sun, which rose most brilliantly. No words could describe the beauty of the vast icicles which hung down from the rugged cliffs on the side of this fine arm of the sea, till they nearly touched the water.

The great attention and not unfrequent visits of the Rev. William Bullock of Trinity, and of his assistant on the south

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side of the shore, the Rev. William Nesbitt, left me no children, beyond mere infants, to baptize in this neighbourhood. Before one o'clock I was again upon my way through the woods on foot, leaving the remarkable hill, called the Chapel Tolt behind, and the Long-Hill Deer country on my left; and by half-past five got over the crusted snow of Long Harbour, in Placentia Bay. It had rained fast for several hours this morning, and the great coldness of the air near the earth had frozen it as fast as it fell. Consequently every leaf of the evergreens, and every blade of grass that stood out from the snow was crusted over with a transparent covering, which gave a brighter tint to the colour of every object which it thus coated round. It was a morning of unclouded sunshine, and every tree and shrub was brilliantly illuminated. It was indeed a splendid spectacle, and might have fixt the gaze of admiring crowds, yet, though it was now beheld by but one fond admirer of the gospel of nature, it was not lost: "O ye frost and cold! O ye ice and snow! bless ye the Lord; praise him and magnify him for ever."

In the cabin which I first visited in Placentia Bay, every hole and corner that was not taken up by the human inmates, was occupied by pigs, ducks, fowls, sheep, or dogs; so that I was glad to seek a clearer and more roomy retreat in another tilt. Here, though the door would not shut close by at least a foot, to prevent the inconvenience of smoke, which is almost universal in these winter houses, I sat down upon a chest until dawn. The poor widower, who was my host, spoke of his deceased wife with deep affection: the anxiety, too, which he showed to bring up his children well, by catechising them and hearing them repeat their prayers before they retired to the single bed which served for the entire family of eight, was very creditable. Although these services, which I begged my presence might not be permitted to interrupt, were mixed with much which I deem error, yet I could not but wish that many a careless Protestant could have seen this pious Romanist, and been led to imitate so praiseworthy an attention to the religious interests of his children. The winter settlers at Long Harbour are chiefly of Irish extraction, from Ram Islands, in Placentia Bay. I heard in the evening, that of three Englishmen who had been for years settled among them, ene alone, a native of Greenwich, had not turned to the Romish faith. I went, therefore, to visit him on the morning of Thursday the 26th, at his tilt, over a frozen pond or

lake, about two miles from the harbour. When I reached his comfortless tilt, of which there was no part, except the excavated doorway and the top of the chimney, visible above the snow, I found he was from home. He had heard the preceding evening of the arrival in the settlement of a clergyman of his church, and attempted to cross the ice of the harbour after dark to have some conversation with me; had broken through the ice in the attempt, and had, in consequence of his wet condition, slept at a tilt in the harbour, which I had passed at day-break. I returned thither, and found him at the house of J. D. of Arundel, one of the Englishmen who had turned Papist; he would not, however, permit me to go back again for some private conversation to poor J. G.'s tilt, until I had promised to accompany J. G. back to breakfast, when he gave me a very hospitable entertainment. On conversing with J. G. I found that he had been twenty-one years in the country, and was still pennyless, the poor servant of the other Englishman, H. M., from Redcliffe, who was scarcely less poor than himself. His fondness for ardent spirits, he informed me, had kept him thus poor, and he could trace to this source all his lapses, and all his misfortunes. He assured me in our conversation that he had foresworn the further use of spirits. I told him of a strength greater than his own; this I entreated him to implore. He was much affected by a prayer in which I proposed he should join me in his tilt: he kept a standing posture when I commenced, but the poor fellow soon sunk upon his knees, and, before the conclusion of my prayer on his behalf, he was weeping like a child. It will give some idea of the prevailing use of spirits in this island, and of the consequent discouragement which the minister is doomed to experience, if I mention that notwithstanding all that I had said against the use of this intoxicating stimulant, with all which he had heartily agreed, declaring voluntarily that he had left it off, he yet offered to myself, on my rising from my knees, what is called, a morning," from a little keg, which he drew from under his straw bed; and, on my reminding him, when about to help himself, that he had engaged to break off this habit, he excused himself by saying he had made a reservation for the use of the remaining contents of that keg. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."* I pro* Jer. xiii. 23.

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mised the poor fellow a prayer-book, which he was most anxious to possess; a few other suitable books shall accompany it, and I pray, though almost against hope, that he may be assisted to keep his resolution. A cock crowing during the preceding night, was said, by an old woman in the company, to foretell rain: I found the next day, as I afterwards did on many other occasions during my present trip, that this prophecy was quite correct. We were put across Long Harbour arm, below the ice, in a punt, and walked from the quay, a point in the woods. through some brushwood, and over barrens, to Ship Harbour Point, opposite to Little Placentia. Here a storm of snow and wind, followed by rain, which prevented my proceeding by land or by water, detained me till Monday, March 2.-There is not so much "slob-ice" during the winter in Placentia and St. Mary's bays, as in the northern bays. At this time last year, however, (1834) persons might walk from this side of Placentia Bay direct to Burin, which is at least twenty-four leagues across the open bay on the firm ice. As I had sent my man by land to Placentia to give notice of my being so near, Mr. Tucker, of the firm of Penny and Neve, of Poole, took advantage of a lull in the wind, and kindly sent a boat for me, which landed me at his wharf in the afternoon. Here I was greatly indebted to Mrs. Tucker for much humane attention, and luxuriated in a comfortable bed for the first time since I had left New Harbour, Trinity Bay, on the 25th ult.

Tuesday 3.-Went partly in a sleigh, and partly on foot, by the Martise Reach, nine miles, to Great Placentia. While Newfoundland belonged to the French, this place was the seat of government. Within the memory of several of the present inhabitants, Placentia was a garrison town of our own, and there are still the remains of bomb-proof batteries in tolerable repair, faced with Portland stone. I assembled nine persons, the small remnant of our communion, in the old church, which, within the memory of many living, used to be completely filled by the garrison and numerous protestant inhabitants, under the ministry of the Reverend Walter Harris, and Reverend John Evans, the successive protestant episcopal Missionaries. There is here a valuable service of communion plate, which bears an inscription, notifying, that it was given by his Royal Highness Prince William Henry, in 1787. There are also, a splendid folio prayer-book and bible, and a new version of the Psalms, which were presented