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A short history of the early inhabitants
 of Lance Cove, Bell Island, Newfoundland


LANCE COVE

Sailors entering Conception Bay, on the east coast of Newfoundland, are greeted with a remarkable sight.  Rising abruptly from the sea at latitude 47 38' north and 52 48' west,  to a height of over three hundred feet, is a level oblong island with an area of around thirteen square miles.²   Standing just off its western end in stark relief against the blue waters of the bay is a high bell-shaped rock to which this island owes its name.  On the south west end, the high tableland sweeps gracefully down to the sea to make one of the few places where a boat can be brought to land.  This is Lance Cove.

From a geological point of view,  Lance Cove is most interesting.  Myriads of ages ago,  Bell Island formed part of the floor of an ancient ocean where it remained for eons, a silent observer of the evolution and extinction of strange creatures that darted to and fro in the shadows overhead.  When finally the land reemerged from the ocean depths, the old Silurian world of which  it is a part had long since disappeared from the surrounding landscape, swept away by mighty glaciers and the relentless erosion of wind, rain and frost.⁴

However, there are other propitious features which have lent to Lance Cove its reputation as a once prosperous and "very pretty little place".⁵   The land here is extremely fertile, being comprised of loose dark earth, very deep and almost completely free of large stones and course gravel.  It is also well watered and well drained, receiving an annual average rainfall of around five inches.³   Its location  protects it from the chilled ocean gales that sweep the top of the island and exposes it only to the warmer and gentler southwest breezes.  Altogether, the climate is invigorating and conducive to the extensive farming that was once carried on there.