Reminiscences Of Forty-Two Years Of Exploration In And About Newfoundland

Geological Survey of Newfoundland: Field books

This is an edition of J. P. Howley's "Reminiscences" (ca. 1914), a memoir based on diaries and notebooks written during his years of exploration and mapping in the interior and along the coasts of Newfoundland. He spent summers between 1868 and 1909 in southern, western, and northeastern parts of the island, with crews of residents and Micmacs, in geological examinations, surveying, determining railway routes, and searching for coal deposits. The author hoped his diaries, when put into book form, would "prove of some interest to future explorers and give some idea of what the conditions of travelling in the interior were before the advent of the Railway."

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The text of J.P. Howley's Reminiscences, describing his experiences as a Newfoundland government geologist and surveyor from 1868 to 1909, is divided into seven sections.

Section 1:
preliminaries, including a Preface explaining the genesis of the edition, an Introduction by P.A. O'Flaherty placing the work in historical, literary, and social context, a statement of Editorial Principles by W.J. Kirwin, and a Glossary of technical and local words that may be unfamiliar to readers;

Section 2:
Howley's Introduction, and surveys 1868 - 1880;

Section 3:
surveys 1881 - 1889;

Section 4:
surveys 1890 - 1896;

Section 5:
surveys 1897 - 1911 (the last two being paragraph length comments on trips to England);

Section 6:
Emended Text containing editorial emendations to Howley's typescript;

Section 7:
Bibliography including works cited, a Bibliography of J.P. Howley, and a list of Howley's Maps, and an Index to the text of the Reminiscences.

Also see:
An Album of James P. Howley's Photographs