A great deal of the country is, or was, dense forests, chiefly consisting of fir trees.

As numerous almost as the sea birds were the seals and walruses which frequented the Newfoundland coasts.

Inland there were very large numbers of reindeer, generally styled nowadays by the French-Canadian name of _Caribou_[1].

Besides reindeer there were wolves, apparently of a smaller size than those of the mainland.
There were also lynxes and foxes, besides polar bears, martens, squirrels, &c.

The human inhabitants of Newfoundland, whom I shall describe in the next chapter, were known subsequently by the name of Beothuk, or Beothik, a nickname of no particular meaning.