I.

Introduction

Newfoundland and Labrador, easternmost province of Canada. It is also Canada’s newest province, having joined the federation in 1949. The province has two sections of unequal size: Newfoundland, which is an island, and the much larger region of Labrador, on the mainland of Canada. Together, these sections have a land area of roughly the size of California. From 1927 to 1965 the name Newfoundland was used both for the island and for the entire province. In 1965 the province’s name was changed to Newfoundland and Labrador. St. John’s, in southeastern Newfoundland, is the provincial capital and largest city; it is also one of the oldest settlements in North America.

Labrador is bordered by Québec province on the south, west, and north; the Atlantic Ocean on the east; and the Strait of Belle Isle on the southeast. Newfoundland, located southeast of Labrador, meets the Atlantic Ocean on the east and south, the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the west, and the Strait of Belle Isle on the north.

Newfoundland and Labrador is a land of rugged beauty. Picturesque fishing villages dot the rocky shores and outlying islands. Vast tracts of untamed wilderness cover the interior of Newfoundland and almost all of Labrador, a land of tundra, ice, thick forests, and barren rock. The province was among the first areas of North America to be encountered by Europeans. Vikings from Iceland and Greenland briefly settled in northern Newfoundland about the year ad 1000, at a site called L’Anse aux Meadows. The first use of the name Newfoundland dates to 1497, after Italian explorer John Cabot sighted a “new found isle” in the North Atlantic. By the early 1500s the island was referred to as the “New found launde” in English, and the Latin name Terra Nova (new land) was used in early documents and maps. It is still called Terra Nova by the Spanish and Portuguese, and the French use the name Terre Neuve.