Newfoundland’s Fogs

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1008, 26 June 1930, Page 10

Newfoundland’s Fogs

WHERE FLIERS LOST THEIR WAY

ALTHO UGTI Squadron-Leade cause to bless the fogs bearings and eventually give flight from Ireland to New Yo: nion of Newfoundland do no gators of the sea and the air weather.

The logs, ■which are confined mainly to the Grand Banks, are generated by the meeting of the waters in the Gulf Stream with the colder Arctic current, and it is the influence of the Gulf Stream that makes conditions more temperate in Newfoundland than on the adjacent mainland.

Newfoundland’s climate has long been unfairly aspersed, so residents of the Dominion aver. Its very name suggests, to many people, great extremes of cold and the constant prevalence of fog, whereas in Avalon and the southern part of the Island the thermometer rarely goes below zero in winter, the mean temperature in January being 24deg., and ranges from TOdeg. to SOdeg. in the shade in summer, with a mean August temperature of 60deg. In the north, however, it is much colder, and the summers arc very short. Although the island is occasionally visited by fogs, the fogs popularly associated with Newfoundland are confined to the vicinity of the Grand Banks. These great ledges, or mountains in the sea, lie from 200 to 600 miles off the coast of the island. In the shallow waters that cover the banks are countless myriads of the largest species of Newfoundland cod. It is supposed that the meeting of the Gulf Stream and the northerly Arctic current hereabouts, which causes the much maligned fog, has a disturbing effect upon the sea bed, releasing an edible sediment and so creating a luxurious feeding ground. The fishing is carried out in flat-bot-tomed boats, or “dories,” in which the fishermen put. out from the fishing ships. To guide the men back to the ships through the fog each is equipped with a bell, which is rung throughout the fishing operations.

er Kingsford Smith lias littie that caused him to lose his up his attempt at a non-stop >rk’. the residents of the Demist altogether join with naviin their hatred of this thick

It was when he struck the Tinge of the Grand Banks that R ingsfortl Smith reported running into thick fog almost down to the water. It was then that he climbed h:gh otherwise he may have heard the bells of the fishing fleets ringing below. The Newfoundland cod fishery is the largest in the world, and Las made the Island famous. At one time, before the days when aircraft could wing their way over the fishing banks, codfish was the national currency, payment of debts being made in kind.

Newfoundland, which is a dominion of ths British Empire, consists of Newfoundland proper, a large island in the North Atlantic, off the continent of North America, and a narrow strip of the mainland in Labrador. The most northern part of the island is at the straits of Belle Isle, about seven miles wide, which divides Newfoundland from Canada. It is 42,754 square miles in area and its maximum length and breadth are both about 32.0 miles. It is larger than Ireland and is the tenth largest island in the world. From its most eastern point to the most western point of Ireland t’’e distance is 1,640 miles. At Heart's Content, near where Kingsford Smith landed, the Great Eastern landed the Atlantic cable in 1567, and close to where Kingsford Smith landed the first successful air flight started across the Atlantic in June 1919. The coast line of Newfoundland is much indented, giving it a total length of something over 2,000 miles. The population is about 270,000. Harbour Grace, after St. John’s, is the most important town of Newfoundland, with a big trade in furs, fish, sealskins and cod oil. The harbour is on the western side of Conception Bay and is five miles in extent.