Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Newfoundland

The coast of Newfoundland is rocky and wind-whipped, free of the scent of decaying vegetation. The outports hug the coast, like barnacles. The interior of the Avalon Peninsula is boggy, with thin soil and shallow "ponds", the local name for lakes. The people of the outports are Irish and very Catholic, only recently risen out of a subsistence lifestyle. These "baymen" are opposed to the "townies" of St John's, which is the closest thing to a metropolis on the Island. The Protestants moved to ST John's as it grew, abandoning the outports to their Irish fishermen (almost in peonage until confederation with Canada).

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