Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/398

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336
THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

infrequent farms directly on the main road and its branches no inland settlements have followed its inauguration.

Newfoundland is not at its best until mid-July. The month of June is often so cold that winter clothing is worn. From July to November the skies are usually blue and the air bracing and not subject to extremes of either heat or cold. Fogs are rare in late summer and early fall after the Arctic ice has passed down. Western Newfoundland has very little fog and the cold raw spring departs sooner there than on the coasts which face the Atlantic. Crossing by the railway, snow may be seen on the Topsails at the crest of the interior upland as late as August in some years. During the winter 1914—1915 there were only ten days of hard "frost" and not enough snow to make good sleighing on the roads. After severe winters the frost is not out of the ground before the middle of June. The expansion of the warming earth has its effect on the road-bed of the railway which, unfortunately for those who must travel in that month, is not rock-ballasted. This is quite as potent a reason as any for the Newfoundland tour being delayed until mid-summer. When the frost is "working out," train tables are perforce disregarded, the daily express is often hours behind schedule time, and "tip-overs," especially of the rear or Pullman car, are so frequent as to cause but passing comment in the public prints.