In the spring and fall of the year the _Stanley_ is employed in the Coast Buoy service; in summer she takes her place in the Fisheries’ Protection fleet, and proves herself a smart and formidable cruiser and a terror to evil-doers. She commences the winter mail service from Charlottetown to Pictou about the first of December, and about Christmas, when the Charlottetown harbour is frozen over, she takes up the route from Pictou to Georgetown, at the eastern end of Prince Edward Island. When she is imprisoned in the ice, as frequently happens, the mails and passengers are taken by the open boats in manner above described. From February 8th to April 12th, 1895, when the _Stanley_ was laid up for repairs, the ice-boat service carried 3,497 mail bags, 458 pounds of baggage, 76 pounds of express goods, 9 passengers, and 77 “strap-passengers.” DOMINION STEAMERS. In connection with the Lighthouse and Buoy service and the Fisheries’ Protection the Canadian Government employs fourteen steamers and three sailing vessels. The aggregate gross tonnage of the steamers is 5,589 tons. Of these the _Stanley_ is the largest, after which come the _Newfield_, 785 tons; the _Aberdeen_, 674 tons; the _Acadia_, 526 tons—all of Halifax; the _Lansdowne_, 680 tons, of St. John, N.B.; the _Quadra_, 573 tons, of Victoria, B.C.; _La Canadienne_, 372 tons, of Quebec, etc., etc. NEWFOUNDLAND.[71] The history of steam navigation in this province begins with the year 1840, when Her Majesty’s ship _Spitfire_—a paddle steamer—entered the harbour of St. John’s with a detachment of soldiers to strengthen the garrison. In 1842 the steamship _John McAdam_ visited St. John’s, and a number of ladies and gentlemen made excursions in her to Conception and Trinity bays, startling the natives by the sight of a vessel walking the waters without the aid of sails or oars. In 1844 the Government arranged with the owners of the steamship _North American_ to carry mails and passengers regularly between St. John’s and Halifax. When this vessel first entered the harbour, with her huge walking-beam and a figurehead of an Indian, painted white, half of the population of the city crowded the wharves to see her. She had made the run from Halifax in sixty hours. Soon after this a contract was made with the Cunard Company for a mail service between St. John’s and Halifax, fortnightly in summer and monthly during the winter months. In 1873 direct steam communication with England and America was established by arrangement with the Allan Line for the conveyance of mails, passengers and goods, fortnightly during nine months of the year and monthly during the remaining months, though at a later date fortnightly trips were made all the year round.