SOUTH COAST. 203 The lands are rugged and barren, and the shores are lined with islands and rocks, among which, how¬ ever, there are many excellent harbours. There are five or six extensive establishments in this bay. Placentia, on the east side of the bay, was the chief settlement planted by the French in Newfoundland . They had it strongly fortified, and endeavoured at that time to drive the English altogether out of the fisheries. One hundred and fifty ships can lie in safety within the harbour, the entrance of which only admits one vessel at a time. There is a great strand or beach between two hills, sufficiently exten¬ sive for sixty ships to cure and dry their fish on. From the head of to Trinity, the isthmus which connects the peninsula of to the main body of Newfoundland is low, and little more than three miles over. The fishermen haul their skiffs across. is from sixty-five to seventy miles deep, and twenty to thirty broad ; it contains innu¬ merable harbours, and many islands and rocks. The lands are bleak, rugged, and barren. There are seve¬ ral fishing establishments within this bay, for which, and for no other purpose, nature has adapted it. Here one of the most extensive houses in ¬ land carries on a whale-fishery with boats,* as well as a most extensive cod-fishery. The coast between * A va9t number of hump-back whales, which yield from three to eight tons of oil each, have been taken this season, 1830, by the fishermen belonging to this establishment.