THE LABRADOR COAST

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Labrador coast. A journal of two summer

ii

olin

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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028905979

Tur PB. S. Wright HELD IN THE ICE AT SQUARE IsLAND Hargor.
(From a photograph by Bradford.)

Frontispiece.

THE LABRADOR COAST:

FOURNAL OF TWO SUMMER CRUISES
TO THAT REGION.

WITH NOTES ON ITS EARLY DISCOVERY, ON THE ESKIMO,
ON ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY
AND NATURAL HISTORY,

BY

ALPHEUS SPRING PACKARD, M.D., Px.D.,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK; AND OF THE
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB, BOSTON.

Witb Maps and Allustrations.

‘NEW YORK:
N. D. C. HODGES, PuBtisHEr,

47 LAFAYETTE PLACE.

LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO.
1891.

TO THE MEMORY OF

PAUL A. CHADBOURNE,

LATE PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE, AND FOR SOME
TIME PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL
HISTORY IN BOWDOIN COLLEGE, AND WHO
CONDUCTED THE FIRST STUDENTS’
EXPEDITION FROM WILLIAMS
COLLEGE TO LABRADOR,

THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED

BY HIS FORMER PUPIL AND FRIEND, THE AUTHOR, WHO
GLADLY, ACKNOWLEDGES THE ENCOURAGEMENT
AND MANY KINDNESSES RECEIVED FROM HIM
IN HIS EARLY STUDENT DAYS.

PREFACE.

THE Labrador Peninsula is less known than the interior of
Africa or the wastes of Siberia. Its rivers are still stocked
with salmon; its inland waters are the breeding places of count-
less birds. Its numerous and deep fiords, and the splendid
mountain scenery of the northern coast, with its Arctic ice-
fields and thousand bergs, and the Eskimos, christianized and
heathen, will never cease to tempt to this threshold of the Arc-
tic regions the hardy explorer or the adventurous yachtsman.

Though this book is mainly based on observations and col-
lections made by the author in his early student days, it was
thought that some general and standard account of the Labra-
dor coast, its geography, its people, its fisheries, its geology, as
well as its animals and plants, might be useful, even if future
explorations of the great fiords and of the interior plateaux
‘and rivers might in time result in far more complete works.

The scientific results, geological and zoological, are reprinted
from the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History
for 1867. Chapters I, II, III, and VI are reprinted by per-
mission from the Bulletin of the American Geographical
Society for 1888. Chapters IV and XIII first appeared in the
American Naturalist, and Chapter V is reprinted from App/e-
tons’ Journal,

Sportsmen and ornithologists will be interested in the list
of Labrador birds by Mr. L. W. Turner, which has been kind-

5

6 Preface.

ly revised and brought down to date by Dr. J. A. Allen. Dr.
S. H. Scudder has contributed the list of butterflies, and Prof.
John Macoun, of Ottawa, Canada, has kindly prepared the list
of Labrador plants. The proof of this chapter has, in his
absence, been read by Mr. Sereno Watson, Curator of the
Harvard Herbarium, and who has kindly made some addi-
tional notes and corrections.

Much pains has been taken to render the bibliography
complete, and the author is indebted to Dr. Franz Boas and
others for several titles and important suggestions ; and it is
hoped that this feature of the book will recommend it to col-
lectors of Americana.

The author also acknowledges his great indebtedness to
William Bradford, Esq., the Arctic traveller and artist, for con-
stant aid and courtesies extended while a member of his party,
and for the gift of a number of photographs of the coast scenery
and of the Eskimos, some of which have been reproduced in
this volume.

The results of the three Canadian expeditions to Hudson’s
Bay under Lieut. A. R. Gordon, R. N., of which Dr. Robert
Bell was the naturalist and geologist; and of the journeys of
Dr. K. R. Koch, and of Mr. Randle F. Holme, have been in-
cluded, so that the work has been brought down to date and
represents our present knowledge of the coast and interior.

It is hoped that the volume will serve asa guide to the
Labrador coast for the use of travellers, yachtsmen, sportsmen,
artists, and naturalists, as well as those interested in geographi-
cal and historical studies.

Brown UNIVErRsIrTy,
PROVIDENCE, R. I.

CHAPTER

ee

VII.

VHT.

AN.

XI.
XII.

XIII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

CONTENTS.

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.
Who First SAW THE LABRADOR COAST ?

THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

. LIFE AND NATURE 1N SOUTHERN ‘LABRADOR.

. ONE OF Firty Days IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.
I. From Boston to Henley Harbor.

A SumMeER’s CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.
II. From Henley Harbor to Cape St. Michael.
A SumMer’s CruIsE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

III. From Cape St. Michael to Hopedale.

. A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

IV. Hopedale and the Eskimos. :

A SUMMER’s CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.
V. The Return Voyage to Boston.

RECENT EXPLORATIONS.

THe Civit History oF LABRADOR, WITH A BRIEF AC-
COUNT OF ITS FISHERIES. 5

THE LaBRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE
SOUTHWARD.

THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. . ‘
THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 2 5

THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. :

XVII. BIBLIOGRAPHY RELATING TO THE EARLY EXPLORA-

TIONS, THE GEOGRAPHY, AND THE CIVIL AND Nat-
URAL HIsToRY OF LABRADOR. . - P .

PAGE

120

140

355

CHAPTER I,
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

Our knowledge of the interior of the Labrador penin-
sula is still so scanty, owing to its inaccessibility, its un-
navigable rivers, the shortness of the summer season, and
the lack of game, as well as the enormous numbers of
black flies and mosquitoes, that any description of this
country must long remain imperfect. The only scientific
explorer of the interior is Professor Hind, who ascended
the river Moisie, which, however, is a confluent of the St.
Lawrence, and is in fact situated only near the borders
of Labrador, in the province of Quebec. None of the
larger rivers of Labrador have been explored to near
their sources; and no one except Indians and but a
single employé of the Hudson Bay Company (Mr. Mc-
Lean) has ever crossed any considerable portion of the
interior. And yet the peninsula is well watered with
streams, rivers, and chains of lakes. I have been in-
formed by residents that the Indians of the interior, pre-
sumably the Mountaineers, can travel in their canoes
from the mouth of the Esquimaux River, which empties
into the Strait of Belle Isle, across the country to the
Hudson Bay posts in Hamilton Inlet. So far as we
have been able to gather from maps and the accounts
of explorers, such as McLean and Davies, the latter of

whom published an account of the Grand or Hamilton

2 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

River, and the Moravian missionaries Kohlmeister and
Knoch, who in their ‘ Journal of a Voyage from Ok-
kak” described the Koksoak River and its probable
source, as well as from our own scanty observation:
taken from elevations near the coast, the interior of
Labrador is thickly studded with lakes, somewhat as in
the Adirondack region of New York, though the in-
terior country is far more broken and mountainous.

It is certainly most desirable that explorers should
penetrate this vast and unknown wilderness, however
formidable may seem the barriers to travel These
obstacles would be the rapids and water-falls. the long
and difficult portages or carries, and the unceasing
plague of mosquitoes and black flies. But the annoy-
ance from insects might not be greater than that en-
countered by explorers in Siberia, or by trout or salmon
fishermen in northern New England and Canada, while
the difficulties and dangers of river navigation would
not compare with those of a passage through the Colo-
rado River. The route which would be most prolific
in results would be to ascend the Meshikumau or Es-
quimaux River from its mouth near Salmon Bay, in the
Strait of BeHe Isle, to its source, and thence to connect
with the probably adjacent source of Grand or Hamil-
ton River to the Hudson Bay post at Rigolet, in
Hamilton or Invuktoke Inlet. Another journey which
would be productive of good geographical results would
be to cross the peninsula from Prince Rupert’s Land by
way of Rupert River and Lake Mistassini to Hamilton
Inlet. The Koksoak River should be explored to its
sources, and the low, flat, wooded region of the East
Main, lying between Hudson Bay and the Labrador.

MAPS OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 3

coast-region, should be adequately mapped. At present,
less is known of the vast region between Hudson Bay
and the Atlantic Ocean than of perhaps any region of
similar extent in North America; although the results
of exploration might be of more value to geographical
and geological science than to trade and commerce.

Thanks to the labors of the Moravian missionaries,
we now have a much better knowledge of the intricacies
of the extreme northern coast of Labrador than is af-
forded by the charts of the British Admiralty or the
United States Coast Survey; and it is to the rare op-
portunity we have been generously afforded by the
officers of the Moravian Society in London and Herrn-
hut, Saxony, that we are able herewith to present maps
which are at least approximately correct, and which
must for a long time to come be the only source of
any exact knowledge of the multitudinous bays, inlets,
promontories, and islands of this exceedingly diversi-
fied coast.

The first special map of Northern Labrador to be
published was that by the Moravian Brethren Kohl-
meister and Knoch. It comprised the northern ex-
tremity of Labrador, north of latitude 57°, including
Ungava Bay, and appeared in 1814.

Previous to this, Cartwright, in 1792, had published
a map of Sandwich Bay and adjacent regions. Then
succeeded the general chart of the coast published by
Admiral Bayfield, in 1827, and the later charts of the
British Admiralty.

In the United States Coast Survey report for 1860,
besides an imperfect outline of the coast given in Mr.
Lieber’s geological map of the Labrador'coast, there is

4 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

a special map of Eclipse Harbor surveyed by Lieut.-
Commanding A. Murray, United States Navy, and
drawn to a scale of ga with the soundings indicated.

About the year 1873 (the date is not given on the
copy of the map we have received) appeared a map of
that portion of the coast embracing the sites of the
principal Moravian stations and lying between N. lat.
55° and 59°. It was prepared by L. T. Reichel from
the sketches made by himself, and published in the lack
of any authentic maps of the coast. For a copy of this
and the map of Aivekték or Eskimo Bay we are in-
debted to the officers of the Society in Herrnhut, Sax-
ony. On this map are given the route of the ship-chan-
nel from the southward to Hopedale, and thence to the
different Moravian stations up to Hebron; also the
overland sledge-routes between Port Manvers and Ok-
kak, and the latter station and Hebron. There is also
an attempt to give in a general way the elevation of the
coast, and the elevation of Kaumajet Mt. and Mt. Kig-
lapeit is given as 4,000 feet. Scales of German and of
English miles are also given.

The second special map was also prepared by Rev. L.
T. Reichel, and published in 1873. It gives what is
probably by far the most authentic map of Hamilton In-
let and Aivekték, or Eskimo Bay, and the coast north-
ward, the whole area mapped being comprised between
latitudes 53° 20’ and 56° 20’; it is of special value in
giving a capital idea of the intricate fiord structure of
the coast, and also a census of the white and Eskimo
residents.

We have also been favored by B. Latrobe, Esq., Sec-
retary of the Moravian Missions in London, with the

THE LABRADOR PLATEAU. 5

loan of a MS. map, by the late Rev. Samuel Weiz, of
the coast from Byron Bay in latitude 54° 4o’ around to
the mouth of George River in Ungava Bay, and kindly
allowed to copy it.

With the aid of the new maps of Messrs. Reichel and
Weiz we have been able to have compiled the new gen-
eral map of the Labrador coast herewith presented; the
southern portion of the coast being reproduced from the
British Admiralty and U. S. Coast Survey charts, as
well as those of the Hydrographic Office, U. S. Navy
Department, as follows :

No. 9.—River and Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfound-
land, Nova Scotia, and the banks adjacent; Sheet
1, English and French Surveys. Published March,
1868.

No. 731.—Anchorages N. E. coast of Labrador, from
Br. Surveys. Published Sept., 1876.

No. 809.—Coast of Labrador, Cape St. Charles to
Sandwich Bay. Br. Surveys to 1882.

There are in Lt. Gordon’s Report of the Hudson
Bay Expedition of 1885, charts of the Ottawa Islands
in Hudson Bay, and of one of the islands at Cape
Chidley.

In its general features the peninsula of Labrador is an
oblong mass of Laurentian rocks situated between the
50th and 62d parallels of north latitude. On the east-
ern or Atlantic coast it rises abruptly from the ocean as
an elevated plateau, forming the termination of the
Laurentian chain, which here spreads out into a vast
waste of hills and low mountains.*

* The mountains in the Quebec Province which appear in the accompanying
map are hypothetical, and were wrongly inserted by the artist.

6 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

This plateau of hills and mountains, with barren table-
lands, rises abruptly from the sea-level, presenting a lofty
but stern and forbidding front to the ocean, throughout
the whole extent of 1,100 miles of coast from the Strait
of Belle Isle to Cape Wolstenholme. :

Mountains.—On the northern shores of the Strait of
Belle Isle the general elevation of the coast is from 500
to 800 feet, and the highest mountains are the three
Bradore Hills, which are respectively 1,135, 1,220, and
1,264 feet in height. From Chateau Bay and Cape
Charles the coast rises in height northwards, until at
Square Island the higher elevations form mountains
about 1,000 feet high. Going farther on, the Mealy
Mountains, said to rise to an elevation of 1,482 feet, are
seen forming a range extending along the peninsula situ-
ated between Sandwich Bay and Eskimo Bay, with
Hamilton Inlet.

Still higher is Mt. Misery, which we suppose to be
the same elevation as Mt. Allagaigai, a noble mountain
mass rising to an altitude of 2,170 feet, forming the
summit of an elevated plateau region lying half-way
between Cape Harrison and Hopedale. It is a con-
spicuous peak seen when crossing the mouth of Ham-
ilton Inlet, and we well remember the grandeur of its
appearance when partly wreathed in clouds, which left
its summit so exposed as to make it look much higher
than in reality.

The highest elevations in Labrador rise from the
irregular coast range between latitude 57° and 60°; and
judging from the views published by Dr. Lieber in the
U. S. Coast Survey report for 1860, and by Professor
Bell in the Report of the Canadian Geological Survey

THE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF LABRADOR. 7

for 1884, the scenery of this part of the country is
wonderfully wild and grand, rivalling that of the coast of
Norway, and of the coast of Greenland, the mountains
being about as high as in those regions, According to
Prof. Bell: ‘After passing the Strait of Belle Isle, the
Labrador coast continues high and rugged, and although
there are some interruptions to the general rule, the
elevation of the land near the coast may be said to in-
crease gradually in going northward, until within seventy
statute miles of Cape Chudleigh, where it has attained a
height of about 6,000 feet above the sea. Beyond this
it again diminishes to this cape, where it is 1,500 feet.
From what I have seen quoted of Labrador, and from
what I have been able to learn through published ac-
counts from the Hudson Bay Company’s officers and
the natives, and also judging from the indications af-
forded by the courses of the rivers and streams, the
highest land of the peninsula lies near the coast all along,
constituting, in fact, a regular range of mountains parallel
to the Atlantic seaboard. In a general way, this range
becomes progressively narrower from Hamilton Inlet
to Cape Chudleigh.” * The highest mountains in Labra-
dor were previously said by Messrs. Kohlmeister and
Knoch to rise from a chain of high mountains terminat-
ing in the lofty peaks near Aulezavik Island and Cape
Chidley. One of the smallest of these mountains,
Mount Bache, was measured in 1860 by the Eclipse
Expedition of the U. S. Coast Survey, and found to be
2,150 feet above the sea-level. This mountain is a
gneiss elevation, and a sketch on the geological chart by

* Observations on the ‘Geology, etc., of the Labrador Coast, etc., Rep. of
Geological Survey of Canada, 1884, p. 10 DD,

8 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

Mr. Lieber, the geologist of the expedition, shows it to
be rounded by glacial action, while lofty, “ wild volcanic-
looking mountains form a water-shed in the interior,
whose craggy peaks have evidently never been ground
down by land-ice into domes and rounded tops.”

While the highest elevations have never been meas-
ured, the height of three of the lesser mountains along
this part of the coast appears to have been roughly as-
certained. Professor Bell states that the mountains on
either side of Nachvak Inlet, about 140 miles south of
Cape Chidley, “rise to heights of from 1,500 to 3,400
feet, but a few miles inland, especially on the south side,
they appear to attain an altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 feet,
which would correspond with the height of The Four
Peaks, near the outer coast line, about midway between
Nachvak and Cape Chudleigh.” The mountains around
Nachvak, he adds, ‘‘are steep, rough-sided, peaked, and
serrated, and have no appearance of having been glaci-
ated, excepting close to the sea-level.” These mountains
are formed of Laurentian gneiss, “ notwithstanding their
extraordinary appearance, so different from the smooth,
solid, and more or less rounded outlines of the hills.
composed of these rocks in most other parts of the
Dominion.” The height of these mountains was <evi-
dently roughly estimated from that of an escarpment on.
the south side of the inlet at the Hudson Bay Company's
port, which “rises to a height of 3,400 feet, as ascer-
tained by Commander J. G. Bolton” (p. 14 DD).

According to the British Admiralty chart and the
Newfoundland Pilot, Cape Chidley rises to a height
of 1,500 feet above the sea, and the highest point of the
Button Islands has an equal elevation (Bell, p. 17 DD).

THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN LABRADOR. 9

Port Burwell is situated on the island of which Cape
Chidley is the northeastern point. This island is sepa-
rated from the mainland by McLelan’s Strait. ‘ Nu-
naingok is situated on an alluvial flat, extending between
the two branches of the strait. The hill which rises
steeply on the south side of it is about 700 feet high ; but
farther in, between the branches and on either side of
them, the mountains are from 1,500 to 2,500 feet high,
and have ragged tops and sides” (Bell, p. 19 DD).

In his report for 1885 Professor Bell gives no additional
measurements of mountains, but observes: ‘‘ The moun-
tains everywhere in this vicinity [Nachvak Inlet] give
evidence of long-continued atmospheric decay. The an-
nual precipitation at the present time is not great, other-
wise small glaciers would probably form among these
mountains, which lie between latitudes 58° and 60°, and
which overlook a sea bearing field-ice for half the year,
and from which bergs are never absent. Patches of snow,
however, remain throughout the summer in shaded parts
of the slopes and on the highest summits, which range
from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the ocean.”* Raised
beaches were observed on both sides of Nachvak Inlet.

South of the region visited by Professor Bell are the
two mountains of Kaumajet and Kiglapeit, both of which
‘are put at an elevation of 4,000 feet on Rev. L. T.
Reichel’s map. Of these the former constitutes a penin-
sula, off which lies the island of which Cape Mugford is
the eastern promontory ; while Kiglapeit forms the great
headland lying between Nain and Okkak in latitude
about 57°, and of which Port Manvers is one of the in-
dentations.

*Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, New Ser., vol. i., 1885, p. 8 DD, 1886.

10 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

From these facts it will be seen that along this part of
the northern coast, mountains as high as the Adirondacks,
and even the White Mountains of New Hampshire,
plunge directly into the sea, and are as wild and sublime
as the coast mountains of Norway and Greenland.

Drainage and Rivers.—Of the water-sheds and water-
systems of Labrador our knowledge is mostly conjecture,
on account of the lack of information regarding the in-
terior. Innone of the charts and maps are the rivers
and internal lakes accurately represented, and there is the
widest discrepancy between the different maps.

The Labrador plateau bas an area of about 420,000
square miles. It has a coast-line of about 1,100 miles,
stretching from the Strait of Belle Isle to Cape Wolsten-
holme, and its greatest breadth is said to be 600 miles.
It lies between the goth and 63d parallels of latitude,
and the 55th and 7oth meridians. Bounded on the east
by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the north and west by
Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, its southwestern limits
are defined by the Bersiamits, Mistassini, and Rupert
rivers. The broadest and in general highest portion of
the plateau appears to be in the southern portion of the
peninsula, and it is here that the larger rivers appear to
take their rise.

From the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Law-
rence and Strait of Belle Isle the Labrador plateau rises
until it reaches a vast table-land or water-shed in the in-
terior, the edge of which has been reached by Professor
Hind in his explorations of the Moisie River.

This elevated region is thought by Professor Hind to
attain a height of 2,240 feet above the sea-level. Pro-
fessor Hind says of the table-land from which the river

THE LABRADOR TABLE-LAND. II

Moisie, and also, probably, the Esquimaux as well as
Hamilton rivers take their rise: ‘It is pre-eminently
sterile, and where the country is not burned, caribou
moss covers the rocks, with stunted spruce, birch, and
aspen in the hollows and deep ravines. The whole of
the table-land is strewed with an infinite number of boul-
ders, sometimes three and four deep; these singular
erratics are perched on the summit of every mountain
and hill, often on the edges of cliffs; and they vary in
size from one foot to twenty in diameter. Language
fails to depict the awful desolation of the table-land of
the Labrador peninsula.” This table-land or water-shed
is probably more or less parallel to the Strait of Belle
Isle, and situated between 100 and 150 miles inland.
It probably terminates to the northeast in the Mealy
Mountains. Numerous rivers descend the steep south-
ern slope into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Of these the
Moisie and Esquimaux rivers are the largest. They are
supposed to arise from a chain of lakes on the summit
of the water-shed, which also gives rise to the Kenamou
River.

The Moisie River forms part of the St. Lawrence River
system. It is 250 miles long, and flows south, empty-
Ing into that river near the Bay of Seven Islands, at a
point west of Anticosti and opposite the northern shore
of the Gaspé Peninsula. From this point the streams
running into the Gulf assume, the further we go east, a
N. W. and §S. E. direction. Such is that of the Meshi-
kumau or Esquimaux River, which empties into the
western mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle, at the lower
Caribou Island. This stream is about 250 miles long, as
I learned from residents, and is only navigable for about

12 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

twelve miles from its mouth by ordinary fishing-boats.
There is no large river between this and Hamilton River,
which flows into the Atlantic in a direction a little north of
east. The latter river seems to flow in a fissure that runs
at right angles to the line of upheaval in the syenite and
traps of the Atlantic coast ; as upon the Gulf coast the
rivers flow from the northwest along natural fissures in
the earth’s crust that run at right angles to the axis of
elevation of the Laurentian chain on the north side of
the St. Lawrence. In this connection it should be no-
ticed that the fiords on the Atlantic coast of Labrador
assume the same direction, and though they agree much
in this respect with the direction of those farther south,
there is a yet greater west and east course as we go north-
ward toward Cape Chidley, until beyond latitude 58°
the fords run ina N. W. and S. E. direction, especially
on the Hudson Bay slope. According to Davies, the
Grand cr Hamilton River is supposed to rise from a
chain of lakes in the “rear of the Seven Islands, and
flows for a considerable distance on the top of the ridge,
if I may so express it, between the head-waters of the
rivers falling into the St. Lawrence and those falling
into the Hudson Bay and Strait, for they are said by the
Indians to be quite close to the waters of the Grand
River on either side.” Our author also states that, “two
hundred miles from its mouth it forces itself through a
range of mountains that seems to border the table-land
of the interior, in a succession of tremendous falls and
rapids for nearly twenty miles. Above these falls the
river flows with a very smooth and even current.”
McLean in 1830 descended the river from the now aban-
doned Fort Nasquapee, situated on Lake Petchikapou,

THE RIVERS OF LABRADOR. 13

to its mouth. He had reached the fort from Ungava
Bay. Two other important rivers empty into Invuk-
toke Bay : the Kenamou, which flows in from the south,
and the Nasquapee or Northwest River, which is a larger
stream with a very circuitous southeasterly course.
Professor Hind gives us the fullest information as to
the rivers of this region, and I should regard his map as,
i this respect, the most authentic one yet published.
The situations of the rivers and lakes as given in our
map are copied from his, with the exception of those on
the Atlantic coast mapped by Messrs. Reichel and
Weiz. Hind, however, strangely ignores the Esqui-
maux River, which empties into the Strait of Belle Isle.*
According to Hind, whose work appeared in 1863, and
who obtained his information from employés of the
Hudson Bay Company: ‘ The couriers of the Hudson
Bay Company traverse the country between Musquano
(or Natashquan) and Hamilton Inlet two or three times
every year. The journey can be made ‘in fifteen days
in canoes, and this route has long been a means of com-
munication between Hamilton Inlet and the Gulf. The
St. Augustine forms the great canoe route of the Mon-
tagnais through this part of the country. . . . The

* <The Kenamou River, which enters Hamilton Inlet from the south, cuts
through the Mealy Mountains thirty miles from the coast ; it is a succession of
rapids, and scarcely admits of navigation, even by canoes. The Nasquapee or
Northwest River falls into the inlet on the north side, nearly opposite the
mouth of the Kenamou. The inlet is here twelve miles across. About two
miles from its outlet the Nasquapee River passes through a long narrow lake
bordered by high mountains. It takes its source in Lake Meshikumau (Great
Lake), and the river itself, according to Indian custom, is called by the Nas-
quapees Meshikumau Shipu. There is a canoe communication between this
river and the Ashwanipi, which is shown on two maps, constructed by Montag-
nais Indians, in my possession.”—Hind’s ‘‘ Labrador,” ii., 138.

14 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

St. Augustine, falling into a fine bay of the same name,
has its source in the lakes and marshes on the table-
land, which also give rise to the Kenamou, which falls
into Hamilton Inlet. By this route the Montagnais
can journey in their canoes from the Gulf of St. Law-
rence to Hamilton Inlet in seven days.”

The country north of Hamilton Inlet is thus described
by one of the Hudson Bay Company's officers (presum-
ably Mr. McLean) who was sent to explore it: * From
Northwest River House the Nasquapee River is as-
cended for about sixty-five miles, when it is left at Mont
4 Reine Portage. The country from Mont a Reine
Portage to Little Seal Lake is as barren and as miser-
able as can be seen anywhere; the trecs are all burnt,
and nothing but stones and dry stumps to be seen. On
the ist of July, 1839, the ice was still firm on Meshiku-
mau or Great Lake. There is no wood to build on the
shores of that extensive sheet of water; it is only at
Gull Nest Lake that wood remains in that direction.
The borders of Nasquapee River, when the expedition
ascended it in June, were still lined with ice, some of it
ten feet thick.” (Hind.)

South of Hamilton Inlet, after passing the first range
of mountains on leaving the bay, an elevated plateau is
gained, says Hind, which continues until the shores of
the Gulf of St. Lawrence are approached, when the
country becomes more mountainous and slopes rapidly
to the seaside. The breadth of the plateau is 100 miles,
and it abounds in lakes.

The Atlantic system of streams to the north is one
of small rivers flowing into the ocean in an easterly
course.

THE RIVERS OF NORTHERN LABRADOR. 15

Ungava Bay receives two important rivers which im-
perfectly drain the northwestern slope of Western
Labrador. The smaller of the two is the Kangutlua-
luksoak or George River, which empties into the bay in
lat. 38° 57’, and is 140 miles long. Its water-shed is
said by Kohlmeister and Knoch to be a chain of high
mountains which terminates in the lofty peaks of syenite
at Aulezavik Island and Cape Chidley.

The two Moravian missionaries mentioned above state
in addition that “this chain of mountains may be seen
from the Kangutlualuksoak River, in Ungava Bay,
which is collateral proof that the neck of land termin-
ated to the north by Cape Chidley is of no great
width. Both the Nain and Okak Esquimaux frequently
penetrate far enough inland to find the rivers taking a
westerly course, consequently towards the Ungava coun-
try. They even now and then have reached the woods
skirting the estuaries of George and South rivers.”
These missionaries describe the Koksoak or South
River as flowing smoothly through a low, rocky (prob-
ably Silurian) district, and emptying into Ungava Bay
in lat. 58° 36’. It is said to resemble at its mouth the
Thames, and affords anchorage for vessels twenty-four
miles from its mouth. This stream probably arises near
the source of the Grand or Hamilton River, and flows
ina N. N. W. direction, probably along a natural fissure
formed by the juncture of the Silurian rocks and Lau-
rentian system.*

* This river is said to have its source in Lake Caniapuscaw, which is 70 miles
long and 20 broad, situated in the centre of the peninsula, equidistant from the
St. Lawrence, from Ungava and Hamilton Inlet, being 350 miles from each of
those points. é

“Tt is rapid and turbulent, flowing through a partially wooded country. At

16 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

At the western political boundary-line between Labra-
dor and Prince Rupert’s Land, according to recent maps,
we find apparently another water-shed, which on the
eastern slope sends a few streams into the Koksoak
River, while on its western slope descend several streams
which flow in a westerly course into Hudson and James's
bays.

Thus it will be seen that these four river systems take
their rise from a great water-shed which curves in a
southwesterly direction from Labrador along the north-
ern shores of the St. Lawrence River and the Great
Lakes. .

Lakes.—The following remarks are taken from our
memoir on the ‘Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and
Maine.” *

Labrador is essentially a /ake district. Its numerous
rivers afford a very imperfect system of drainage to a
country densely covered with lakes, ponds, and pools,
and morasses innumerable. It resembles in this respect
the probable aspect of the Lake or Terrace period in
New England and Canada after the Glacial period, when

South River House (now abandoned) it receives the Washquah River, which
forms the route of communication between Ungava Bay and Hamilton Inlet.
From this point to the sea (150 miles) the current, though strong, is less broken
by rapids* it also widens very much, and ninety miles from its mouth itis a
mile in breadth, flowing between high rocky banks, thinly clothed with trees ;
it is nearly a league in width. Fort Chimo is situated twenty-eight miles from
the sea.” George’s River was ascended by officers of the Hudson Bay Com-
pany to establish relations with the Nascopé Indians, near its source. For 220
miles it was, though full of rapids, deep enough for barges. ‘The general
course of the river is north, running parallel to the coast of Labrador, where it
is at no time more than 100 miles distant, and often much nearer.” (Hind.)
We may expect a full description of the region about Fort Chimo when Mr, L.
M. Turner’s report is issued, as he spent two years at this station,
* Memoirs of the Koston Society of Natural History, i., 210-303, 1866,

LABRADOR LAKES. 17

the present broad rivers were only chains of lakes, and
may thus be said to be in’ an embryonic stage, as its
tiver-beds have never been remodelled and scooped out
into gentle declivities and broad valleys, nor immense
depths of sand and clay deposited to smooth over the
inequalities of the rocky surface of the country, such as
in the temperate zone render a continent inhabitable
throughout its breadth; while in Labrador man can only
thhabit the coast, and gain a livelihood from the sea.
We must distinguish two classes in the lakes of Labra-
dor, viz.: the deep mountain ¢arzs, lying in the interior,
directly upon the summits of the water-sheds ; and the -
far more numerous broad, shallow lakes and pools spread
profusely over the surface below the height of land.
These last occupy shallow depressions and_ hollows,
most probably excavated by glaciers in valleys which
have been simply remodelled by glacial action. The deep
tarns, on the contrary, evidently fill original depressions,
sinking between lofty ranges of hills. Davies says that
in the region about the source of the Hamilton River
the lakes are very deep, and lie directly on the height of
land, while the ponds on the lowlands are shallow ; and,
‘on the other hand, those which directly communicate
with the ocean or with the fiords are in general distin-
guished for their depth. ‘ This almost universal shal-
lowness of the lakes is a singular feature, when the nature
of their borders is taken into consideration, as they are
generally surrounded by hills, which would lead one to
look for a corresponding depth in the lake; but instead
of this some are so shallow that for miles there is hardly
water enough to float a half-loaded canoe. I am in-
formed by my friend, John McLean, Esq., that this is

18 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

likewise the case with the lakes lying on the water-shed
of Ungava Bay. The lakes lying ox the table-land are
said to be deep.” He also states that the large lakes in
the interior are well stocked with fish, while the shallow
lakes, and, in fact, the deep ones communicating with
the ocean, are in general very destitute of them.

We must believe that the same causes that produce
the deep fiords likewise account for these deep fissures
and depressions in the summit of the water-sheds. It is
evident that any amount of glacial action, however long
sustained and vast in its operation, can never account for
- these rude, irregular, often “geoclinal,” troughs which
follow lines of fracture and faults, lying along the axis ot
elevation of mountain chains, or at neariy right angles to
them.

Ftords.—The fiords onthe Labrador coast are of great
extent and depth. They are either original lines of frac-
ture and faults, or what Professor Dana terms geoclnal
troughs, occurring at the line of juncture of two rock
formations. Thus, Chateau Bay is a fissure at least
1,200 feet in depth. The western shore rises 600 feet
above the sea-level, and the waters of the bay at their
deepest are 600 feet in depth. This fault must have
been produced at the time of the upheaval of the syenites
of the coast.

All the broad, deep bays and fiords on the Atlantic
Ocean occur at the juncture of the syenites and gneiss.
There are deep bays between Cape St. Lewis and Cape
St. Michael's, where syenites rise through the gneiss,
producing faults and lines of dislocation. The large
bay just north of Cape St. Michael’s occurs at the junc-
tion of gneiss and “hyperite” rocks. Sandwich Bay

GLACIAL LAKES. ike)

and Hamilton [nlet were formed by the denudation of
the Domino gneiss. Despair Harbor is a deep fiord oc-
curring at the juncture of the ‘ Aulezavik gneiss” of
Lieber, with syenitic rocks forming the coast-line between
this point and Hopedale. The irregular overflows of
t,ap and syenitic rocks which enclose the gneiss rocks,
produce an immense number of cross fiords and channels,
from the presence of innumerable islands which line the
coast, and are composed of these eruptive rocks.

These original fissures and depressions have been
modified by glaciers, by frost and shore-ice and icebergs,
and by the waves of the sea.

The shallow lakes, formed most probably by glaciers,
lie in shallow troughs, upon a thin bed of gravel and
boulders. We only learn in some regions, especially in
Southern Labrador, that the country has been covered
with boulders by their presence on the banks and in the
centre of these pools. Clear examples of lakes partially
surrounded by walls of rock, with the banks at one end
completed by a barrier of sand and gravel, are frequent.
Such barriers of drift have lost entirely their resemblance
to glacial moraines, to which they undoubtedly owe their
origin, since the drift deposits have been remodelled
into sea beaches composed of very coarse gravel and
boulders, while the finer materials have been swept away
by the powerful “ Labrador current,” with its burden of
icebergs and floe-ice that has so effectually removed
traces of the former presence of what we must believe
to have been extensive glaciers.

From all that has been published, it would seem that
the entire interior of the Labrador peninsula is strewn
with boulders, having once been covered with land-ice,

20 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR.

which flowed into the Atlantic on the east and south,
and Hudson Bay on the west and north. The forest
growths sometimes clothe the lower hills, but in general
are confined to the protected river-valleys and lake
basins.

Itis to be hoped that at no distant day some skilled
explorer, with a sufficient knowledge of geology, may
thread the interior of the peninsula from Ungava to
Hamilton Inlet, passing thence by the Esquimaux River
to the Strait of Belle Isle. The region from the head-
waters of the Hamilton River to Hudson Bay should
also be traversed, and when this is done we shall be pro-
vided with a knowledge of this vast, shadowy, gloomy,
forbidding region, of which we now apparently know
less than of the interior of Alaska, the tundras of Siberia,
or the plateaus of Central Africa.

CHAPTER IL.
WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST ?

THOSE rovers of the northern seas, the Norsemen,
pushing out from the fiords of Greenland in their one-
masted craft, no larger than our coasters or mackerel]
boats, without doubt sighted and coasted along ‘the
Labrador,” nearly five centuries before John Cabot made
his first landfall of the American Continent.

The Labrador coast was not, however, the first Ameri-
can land visited by the Norsemen.*

Kohl states that New England was first discovered
by Biarne, in 990. It appears that Heriulf, one of the
earliest colonists of Greenland, had a son, Biarne, ‘‘ who,
at the time his father went over from Iceland to Green-
land, had been absent on a trading voyage in Norway.
Returning to Iceland in ggo, and finding that his father,
with Eric the Red, had gone to the west, he resolved
to follow him and to spend the next winter with him in
Greenland.

“They boldly set sail to the southwest, but having

* We should acknowledge that, not having access to the cataieiee? sources in
which the voyages of the Norsemen to the American shores are described, we
‘have placed our dependence on the account given by a learned German geogra-
pher, J. G. Kohl, in his History of the Discovery of Maine, as the most authori-
tative exposition of early voyages and discoveries in northwestern America.
Kohl’s views are based on Rafn’s Antiquitates American. . (Documentary
History of the State of Maine. Collections of the Maine Historical Society.

Second Series, Vol. 1. 1869).
al

22 WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST?

encountered northerly storms, after many days’ sail they
lost their course, and when the weather cleared, they de-
scried land, not, however, like that described to them as
‘Greenland.’ They saw that it was a much more south-
ern land, and covered with forests. It not being the
intention of Biarne to explore new countries, but only to
find the residence of his father in Greenland, he im-
proved a southwest wind, and turned to the northeast,
and put himself on the track for Greenland. After sev-
eral days’ sailing, during which he discovered and sailed
by other well-wooded lands lying on his left, some high
and mountainous and bordered by icebergs, he reached
Heriulfsnis, the residence of his father, in Greenland.
His return passage occupied nine days, and he speaks of
three distinct tracts of land, along which he coasted, one
of which he supposed to have been a Jarge island.”

So much for the facts taken from the Norse records.
and sagas. Dr. Kohl then goes on to say: ‘‘ That Biarne,
on this voyage, must have seen some part of the Ameri-
can east coast is clear from his having been driven that
way from Iceland by northerly gales. We cannot de-
termine with any certainty what part of our coast he
sighted, and what was the southern extent of his cruise.
But taking into consideration all circumstances and state-
ments of the report, it appears probable that it was part
of the coast of New England, and perhaps Cape Cod,
which stands far out to the east. One day and night's
sailing with a favorable wind, was, in Iceland and Nor-
way, reckoned to be about the distance of thirty German
miles, Two days and ‘nights,’ therefore, would be sixty
German miles, and this is about the distance from Cape
Cod in New England to Cape Sable in Nova Scotia.”

BIARNE’S LANDFALL. 23

That the land first seen by Biarne was necessarily so
far south as Cape Cod does not, we would venture to
submit, follow from the facts we have quoted. Is it not
more probable that the country was some portion of
Nova Scotia, a land as much “covered with forests” a
New England ?

But Dr. Kohl maintains that the second land which
was “ well-wooded” was Nova Scotia. In his own
words :

“The second country seen by Biarne must, then,

_ probably have been Nova Scotia. The distance from
_ Nova Scotia to Newfoundland is about three days’ sail ;

a

_and frora Newfoundland to the southern part of Green-

land, a Northman navigator, with fresh breezes, might
easily sail in four days, and thus Newfoundland was
probably the third country discovered by Biarne.”

We should not have the hardihood to criticise Dr.
Kohl’s statements and conclusions, if we had rot made
two voyages to Labrador, in which we sailed from Cape
Cod to Nova Scotia, skirted that coast, approached
within a mile of Cape Ray, Newfoundland, and spent a
summer on the northern shores of Belle Isle, opposite
Newfoundland ; and a second summer in coasting Lab-
rador as far north as Hopedale. Hence the general

. appearances of the Nova Scotian, Newfoundland, and

Labrador coasts are, though in a slight degree, to be
sure, known to us.

The records state that the southernmost Jand seen by
Biarne was “covered by forests ;” this would apply to
Nova Scotia as well as to the coast of Massachusetts. It
is then said that without landing, improving a southwest

‘wind and steering northeast, “he put himself on the

24 WIIO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST?

track for Greenland.” This would be the course from
Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, it is true, but such a course
would also take him from the eastern end of Nova Scotia
to Cape Race, Newfoundland, while from the present
position of St. John’s the course to the site of the Green-
land Norse settlements is a northerly one.

As Kohl states, the distance from Nova Scotia to
Newfoundland is about three days’ sail; but the wind
would have to be strong and fair all the time, for the
distance from Halifax to St. John’s, Newfoundland, is
about 530 miles. A Viking’s ship was by no means a
modern cutter either in her lines or rig. I have seen in
the Sogne fiord a vessel of forty or fifty tons, her hull
clumsy and broad, with her single mast placed mid-
ships and carrying a square sail; her stern rather high,
and her prow rising five or six feét above the bows. A
Norwegian friend observed to me at the time, “ There,”
said he,¢‘hang the gunwale of that vessel with shields
and fill her with armed men, and you would havea Vik-
ing’s ship!” We doubt whether Biarne’s craft could
have made in “one day and night’s sailing with a favor-
able wind,” more than. 138 statute miles, or thirty Ger-
man miles. At such a rate it would take from five to
six days to go from Halifax to St. John’s, Newfound-
land. The passage by a swift ocean steamer of the
Allan Line requires from forty-two to forty-cight hours,

Passing by Newfoundland, which is well-wooded, ex-
cept on the more exposed northeastern coast, Biarne,
sailing by a land “said to be high and mountainous, and
bordered by icebergs, reached Heriulfsnis.”. This land
could have been none other than the Labrador coast
from the mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle northward,

BIARNE’S RETURN VOYAGE. 25

If Biarne’s return passage occupied only nine days,
he could not possibly have sailed from Cape Cod to
Greenland in that time. A nine days’ trip from Boston
to the Labrador coast at the mouth of the Strait of Belle
Isle is a remarkably short one for an ordinary fishing-
schooner.

The distance from Boston to the Greenland coast a
little north of Cape Farewell, where the southernmost
Norse settlements were made, is about 2,300 miles,
‘The southern coast of Labrador is about half-way. The
exact sailing distance from Thomaston, Maine, to
Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador, is 910
miles.

The “ Nautilus,” the vessel in which I first sailed to
Labrador, was a staunch schooner of 140 tons. She
sailed from Thomaston, Maine, June 27, and passing
around Cape Breton, reached Caribou Island in ten
days * (July 7th): after leaving our party on the Labra-
dor coast, she set sail for Greenland July oth, over nearly
the same route as the Norsemen must have taken.
From Captain Ranlett of the ‘‘ Nautilus,” I learn that
he first sighted land on the coast of Greenland on the
17th, in lat. 62° 58’, and long. 52° 05’. The land next
seen was about lat. 63° 10’, long. 50° 45’. This is about
fifty miles south of Fiskernaes, and 25 miles north of
Frederickshaab. The voyage to Greenland was thus
made in about nine days, as the vessel did not reach
land before the 18th. The return voyage from God-
thaab to Bonne Esperance, Labrador (three miles west
from Caribou Island), was made in twelve days.... The

* Rev. C, C. Carpenter writes me that he sailed in a fishing-smack from Cari-
ou Island Oct. 3d, and made the shores of Maine on the 13th.

26 WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST?

“Nautilus” left Godthaab Aug. 13th, and entered the
Strait of Belle Isle Aug. 24th, anchoring at Bonne
Esperance Aug. 25th. Then sailing from Bonne Espe-
rance Aug. 26th, owing to calms and a storm she did not
reach Thomaston until September 11th, a period of about
fifteen days. It thus appears that the voyage from the
mouth of the Penobscot River, Maine, to southern
Greenland, through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a shorter
route than that of the Northmen east of Newfoundland,
took nineteen days, not including the detention on the
Labrador coast, while the return voyage from southerm
Greenland to Maine required 27 days.

In 1864 my second trip to the Labrador coast was
made in a Wellfleet oysterman, a schooner of about 140
tons, built for speed, with long spars and large sails.
She was. probably the fastest vessel which ever visited
the Labrador coast. The voyage from Boston to
Mecatina Island on the Labrador coast, through the
Gut of Canso, was made in seven days; it was probably
the quickest voyage from Massachusetts to Labrador
ever made. We ran from Provincetown to Port Mul-
grave in the Gut of Canso in just forty-eight hours.
The return trip from Caribou Island to Boston, a dis-
tance of about nine hundred miles, was made in nine
days. The average was therefore just a hundred miles
a day. How could a Norseman’s clumsy craft of forty
or fifty tons, with but a mainsail and a jib, outdo such
sailing as that ?

The Norse record says that Biarne’s ‘‘ return passage
occupied nine days,” and Kohl adds that “from New-
foundland to the southern part of Greenland a North-
man navigator, with fresh breezes, might easily sail in

HELLULAND THE MODERN LABRADOR. 27

four days. But we have seen that with fresh breezes a
modern schooner, at least three times as large as a
Viking’s ship, required eight or nine days to run from a
point but a few miles from northern Newfoundland, ze.,
Belle Isle, to southern Greenland. The distance from
St. John’s, Newfoundland, to the Norsemen’s colonies in
southern Greenland is not less than 1,500 miles. To
perform a voyage of this length in four days would be
an impossibility for a modern yacht. _It is not impossible,
however, that Biarne sailed from southern Newfound-
land to Greenland in a period of about nine days. Buta
voyage from Cape Cod to Greenland by an ordinary
schooner requires at least three weeks, or from twenty
to thirty days at the most.

Instead then of accepting Kohl’s summary of Biarne’s
voyage stated on p. 63 of his work, we should be in-
clined to believe, as the results of the expedition, that
Biarne was the first European to sight the coast of
Newfoundland, possibly the eastern extremity of Nova
Scotia, while he also saw the mountainous, desolate, tree-
less, rocky coast of Labrador.

The next Norse adventurer, Leif, the son of Erik,
not only sighted the Labrador coast but landed on it.
To this country he gave the name of stony land, or
‘‘Helluland,” a name perpetuated in an Iceland map of
1570 by Sigurd Stephanius.

The records tell us that Leif, the son of Erik the
Red, the first settler in Greenland, having bought
Biarne’s ship in the year 1000, manned her with a crew
of thirty-five men, among whom was Biarne himself, and
followed Biarne’s track towards the southwest. Kohl
then says: ‘‘They came first to that land which Biarne

28 WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST ?

had last seen, which, as | have said, was probably our
Newfoundland. Here they cast anchor and went on
shore, for their voyage was not the search of a son after
his father, but a decided exploring expedition. They
found the country as Biarne had described it, full of ice
mountains, desolate, and its shores. covered with large
flat stones. Leif, therefore, called it ‘ Helluland’ (the
stony land).”

Here again we should differ from Kohl as to Leif's
first landfall. A southwest course would naturally carry
him to the Labrador coast, while the description— “ full.
of ice mountains, desolate, and its shores covered with
large flat stones’—well describes the barren, rock-bound,
treeless coast of Labrador, in distinction from the much
lower, wooded coast of Newfoundland. Moreover, St.
John’s, Newfoundland, lies nearly due south of the
southern extremity of Greenland.

While it is to be doubted whether Biarne ever went
south of Newfoundland, we see no reason for dis-
believing the conclusions of Rafn and Kohl, that the
followers of Biarne, Thorwald and Thorfinn Karlsefne,
became familiar with Cape Cod and wintered at Vin-
land. There is no reasonable doubt but that they landed
on Nova Scotia; there is no reason to disbelieve the
records which state that they wintered farther west
where no snow fell, so that the cattle found their food in
the open fields, and wild grapes were abundant, as they
certainly are in Rhode Island and southern Massa-
chusetts, as compared with Maine or Nova Scotia.

Without reasonable doubt, then, Helluland of the
Norse and Icelandic records is Labrador, though it is
not impossible that the bare and rocky coast of north-

HELLULAND THE MODERN LABRADOR. 29

eastern Newfoundland was by some regarded as Hellu-
land. It would be easy for a vessel in those days to
pass by without seeing the opening into the Strait of
Belle Isle, and, owing to the somewhat similar scenic
features of the two lands, to confound the northeastern
extremity of Newfoundland with Labrador.

That, as some have claimed, the Norsemen ever
sailed through the Strait of Belle Isle, coasted along
Southern Labrador and wintered at the mouth of the
river St. Lawrence, is certainly not supported by the
early Norse records as interpreted by Kohl.

Their vessels sailed to the seaward of Newfoundland.
That they did not feel drawn to sojourn in Helluland
is no wonder. Its coast presented no more attractions
than Greenland, while the grapes, food, and furs, with
the verdure and mild winter climate of “ Vinland the
Good,” led to one expedition after another, as late per-
haps as 1347, when, according to the Icelandic annals,
‘‘a vessel, having a crew of seventeen men, sailed from
leeland to Markland.”

Then came the decadence of Norse energy and sea-
manship, succeeded by the failure of the Greenland col-
onies, which were overpowered and extinguished by the
Eskimo. A dense curtain of oblivion thicker and more
impenetrable than the fogs which still wrap the regions
of the north, fell upon these hyperborean lands, until, in
1497, the veil was again withdrawn by an English
hand.* :

Since the foregoing remarks were sent to the printer,

*The voyage of Szkolney, the Pole, to the coasts of Greenland and Labrador,
is stated to have been performed in 1476. See Humboldt, Examen Critique,
aii, p. 152. (N. A. Review, July, 1838, 179.)

30 WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST?

Prof. E. N. Horsford’s address at the unveiling of the
statue of Leif Eriksen has appeared. He also adopts
the general opinion that Helluland was Newfoundland,
but the language of these extracts convinces us still
more that Helluland was Labrador.

In the first translation printed by Prof. Horsford of the
Saga of Erik the Red, it is stated in the account of the
expedition of Biarne, that after leaving Iceland bound
for Greenland, he missed that country and was ‘borne
before the wind for many days, they knew not whither,”
finally approaching land which ‘was not mountainous,
but covered with wood,” with rising ground in many
parts. Then sailing two days, and putting the ship
about, leaving the land on the left side, he saw land
again, ‘‘low and level, and overgrown with wood.”
This land was probably Newfoundland, perhaps the
southern or eastern part. We would, however, contend
that the next or third land which Biarne saw was Lab-
rador, for the Saga reads: “At length they hoisted
sail, and turning their prow from land, they stood out
again to sea; and having sailed three days with a south-
west wind, they saw land the third time.” This land
was high and mountainous, and covered with ice. They
asked Biarne whether he wished to land here. He said,
‘‘No; for this land appears to me little inviting.”
Without relaxing sail, therefore, they coasted along the
shore till they perceived that this was anisland. They
then put the ship about, with the stern towards land,
and stood out again to sea with the same wind, which
blowing up very strong, Biarne desired his men to shorten
sail, forbidding them to carry more sail than with such a
heavy wind would be safe. ‘When’ they had thus

HELLULAND THE MODERN LABRADOR. 8

sailed four days, they saw land the fourth time.” To-
wards evening they reached the very promontory not far
north of Cape Farewell where Heriulf, the father of
Biarne, dwelt.

The high, mountainous land, covered with ice, was
probably Labrador near Cape Harrison, or along the
coast to the northward, and a Norseman’s vessel, with a
strong, fair wind, could probably sail from that part of the
Labrador coast to near Cape Farewell, a distance of a
little over 600 miles, in four days, allowing that a Vik-
ing’s ship of about 60 tons could sail from eight to ten
miles an hour under a spanking breeze. Certainly they
could not have made the distance from any part of New-
foundland, which is about 900 miles, in four days.

From the account of the expedition of Leif Eriksen:

‘All being now ready, they set sail. and the first land
to which they came was that last seen by Biarne. 05s

“They made direct for land, cast anchor, and put out
ina boat. Having landed, they found no herbage. All
above were frozen heights ; and the whole space between
these and the sea was occupied by bare flat rocks ; whence
they judged this to be a barren land. Then said Leif,
*We will not do as Biarne did, who never set foot on
shore : I will give a name to this land, and will call it
‘‘Helluland” [that is, land of broad stones].’” Here
again we have a much better description of Labrador
than of northeastern Newfoundland. From there Leif
sailed to what he called Markland, or ‘‘ Land of Woods,”
which may have been southern Newfoundland, or east-
ern Nova Scotia, or Cape Breton, as it is but two days’
sail from the Gut of Canso to Cape Cod; and the Vin-

and of Leif was undoubtedly the shore lying east and
south of Cape Cod.

32 WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST?

From Mr. J. Elliot Cabot’s translation of the Saga re-
lating to Biarne’s voyage (Mass. Quart. Rev. 1849,
quoted by Horsford), we take the following reference to
Helluland. As before, on returning from the south,
after turning the bow of his vessel from the land and
sailing out to sea for three days with a W.S.W., wind,
Biarne saw a third land; “but that land was high, moun-
tainous, and covered with glaciers :” then the wind rose,
and they sailed four days to Heriulfsness.

‘\.D. 999, Leif set sail. ‘‘ First they found the land
which Biarne had found last. Then sailed they to the
land and cast anchor, and put off a boat and went ashore,
and saw there no grass. Mickle glaciers were over all
the higher parts; but it was like a plain of rock from the
glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land
was good for nothing. Then said Leif: ‘We have not
done about this land like Biarne, not to go upon it ;
now I will give a name to the Jand ana cali it “ Hellu-
land” [flat-stone land ].’”

The northeastern coast of Newfoundland is rather
low, not mountainous, is somewhat wooded, with cer-
tainly more or less herbage on the outer islands and
points. The rock formations are of later age than the
Laurentian. We are familiar with the appearance of the
Newfoundland side of the Strait of Belle Isle, which
decidedly contrasts with that of Labrador opposite.

CHAPTER III.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

JuNE 24th, 1497, a year before Columbus discovered
the American continent, the crew of a little vessel, the
“Matthew,” bound from Bristol on a voyage of discov-
ery to ascertain the shortest line from England to
Cathay, sighted land. The vessel was under the com-
mand of John Cabot, who was accompanied by his son
Sebastian, a Jad still under age, perhaps but nineteen or
twenty years old. Sebastian kept the ship’s log; but
the narratives of this, as well as his other voyages, have
been lost.

The land was called “ Prima vista,” and it was believed:
by Biddle and Humboldt, as well as Kohl and others,
that this region which the Cabots first saw was the coast
of Labrador in 56° or 58° north latitude. While the
narrative of this momentous voyage has been lost, a map»
of the world ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, and engraved
in 1549, contained an inscription, of which we will copy
an extract translated in Hakluyt’s Voyages (iil. 27).

‘In the yeere of our Lord 1497, John Cabot, a Vene-
tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set
out from Bristoll) discouered that land which no man
before that time had attempted, on the 24 of Iune about
fiue of the clocke early in the morning. This land he

called Prima vista, that is to say, First seene, because as.
i 33

34 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first
sight from sea. That Island which lieth out before the
land, he called the Island of S. Iohn vpon this occasion,
as I thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of
Iohn the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to
weare beast skinnes, and haue them in as great estima-
tion as we haue our finest garments. In their warres
they vse bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs,
and slings. The soile is barren in some places, and
yeildeth little fruit, but it is full of white beares, and
stagges farre greater than ours.” (Page 27.)

Kohl seems fully persuaded that the landfall of John
Cabot was Labrador, because of the presence of white
bears.* But if the inscription and map are genuine, the
description of the inhabitants of the island, both men
and beasts, would better apply to those of the eastern or
southern coast of Newfoundland. The human beings
were more probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the
Labrador coast the soil is “barren” in all places, while
the “stagges far greater than ours” may have been the
moose, which then abounded and still exists in New-
foundland, and must have been rare, if it ever lived, on
the coast of Labrador. Moreover the “ white bears”
spoken of as being so abundant may have been a white
variety of the black bear, or perhaps.the ‘“‘ barren ground”
pale bear of Sir John Richardson may have been fre-
quent in Newfoundland. It appears to have been of
smaller size than the brown bear of Europe, because in
Parmenius’ account of Newfoundland, published in 1583,

* «This agrees much better with the coast of Labrador than with that of
Newfoundland, to which the white bears very seldom, if ever, come down.”
(Page 133:).

CABOT THE DISCOVERER OF LABRADOR. 35

it is said: ‘“ Beares also appear about the fishers’ stage
of the countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they
seeme to be white, as I conjectured by their skinnes,
and somewhat lesse than ours.” (Hakluyt.)

On the other hand, the true white or polar bear may
have frequently visited the eastern coast of Newfound-
land, as it formerly abounded on the Labrador coast.

Moreover, nothing is said in the inscription of any
ice, which at that date, the 24th of June, so abounds
from the Strait of Belle Isle northward to the polar re-
gions. Besides, if we contrast the account of this voy-
age of the two Cabots in 1497 with that of the younger
Cabot the following year, it seems plain that John
Cabot’s “ Prima vista” was Newfoundland rather than
Labrador.*

In May, 1498, Sebastian Cabot, under license of
Henry VII., in command of two ships, manned with
three-hundred mariners and volunteers, again sailed to
the northwest in search of Cathay. Kohl says: “We
have no certain information regarding his route. But
he appears to have directed his course again to the coun-
try which he had seen the year before on the voyage
with his father, our present Labrador.” Farther on he
remarks: ‘* The Portuguese Galvano, also one of the
original and contemporary authorities on Cabot’s voyage
of 1498, says that, having reached 60° north latitude, he
and his men found the air very cold, and great islands
of ice, and from thence putting about and finding the
land to turn eastward, they trended along by it, to see

* According to Charles Dean, LL.D., in the Critical History of America, vol.
iii., John Cabot’s landfall was the northern part of Cape Breton Island.

36 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

if it passed on the other side. Then they sailed back
again to the south.”

From this and other statements by Humboldt and
D’Avezac, Kohl concludes that “ Cabot in 1498, without
doubt, sailed along the coast of Labrador and the west-
ern shores of Davis’s Strait. Finally, after a struggle
with the ice off the Cumberland peninsula in 673° north
latitude, where he probably lost a number of his men,
he abandoned any further advance. He then retraced
his course southward along the coast of Labrador, and
‘probably came to anchor in some bay on the eastern
coast of Newfoundland, where he rested his men and
repaired the damage done to his vessels by the Arctic
ice. His vessel was probably the forerunner of the fleet
of English, Portuguese, Basque, French, and Spanish
fishermen which in the next two centuries visited those
shores, opening to the Old World a source of revenue
more available than the fabled wealth of Cathay.

Still, dreams of the Indies led Cabot on southward,
past Newfoundland, past Nova Scotia, along the New
England shores, and probably southward near Cape
Hatteras, with the hope of finding a direct passage to
the East.

Although on their return from their first voyage of
1497 the Cabots believed that the land they had dis-
covered was some part of Asia, to them must be given
the credit of beholding the American continent before
Columbus; while, with little or no doubt, Sebastian.
Cabot beheld in July, 1498, the mainland of Labrador,
for, says Hakluyt, ‘‘ Columbus first saw the firme lande,
August 1, 1498.” *

* Kohl, p. 131, foot-note.

THE PORTUGUESE ON THE LABRADOR COAST. 37

English seamen, then, were the first to reveal to a
world which had forgotten the deeds of the Norsemen
the northeastern shores of our continent, and to carry
to Europe the news of the wealth of life in the seas of
Newfoundland and the Bay of St. Lawrence.

The Cabots were of Italian origin, though Sebastian
was born in Bristol. The English did not immediately
follow up their discoveries, for the next explorer who
ventured near if not within sight of the Labrador coast
‘was a Portuguese, Cortereal, who was commissioned by
Emanuel the Great of Portugal, the same enterprising
monarch who had previously sent out Vasco de Gama.
on his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope.

Cortereal sailed from Lisbon in the year 1500. His
landfall was Newfoundland near Cape Race, or north-
ward at Conception Bay. From this point he sailed
northward, and probably discovered Greenland. He
then came to the mouth of a river called by him “ Rio
nevado,” which is supposed to have been near the lati-
tude of Hudson’s Strait. Here he is said to have been
‘stopped by ice. He then sailed southward, resting on
the east coast of Newfoundland before returning to
Lisbon.

The next year Cortereal returned to Newfoundland.
He was unable to reach the northern regions on account
of the ice, which was more abundant than the year
before. On his return his vessel and all aboard foun-
dered, the companion ship reaching Lisbon. The land
Cortereal visited was mapped on a Portuguese chart in
1504, and was called ‘Terra de Cortte Reall.” Kohl
claims that “the configuration of the coasts and the
names written upon them prove that parts of New-

EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL

38

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intended.

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EARLY VISITORS TO THE LABRADOR COAST. 39

Labrador and Newfoundland being a nebulous muss.
In a Portuguese map of 1520, nevertheless, we have
the name of “ Lavrador,” which, however, was applied to
Greenland, while the Labrador coast and Newfoundland
were confounded and given the name “ Bacalhaos.”

But yet it is to the Portuguese that we owe the name
of Labrador. Kohl tells us that ‘‘ King Emanuel, hav-
ing heard of the high trees growing in the northern
countries, and having seen the aborigines, who appeared
so well qualified for labor, thought he had found a new
slave-coast like that which he owned in Africa; and
dreamed of the tall masts which he would cut, and the
men-of-war which he would build, from the forests of
the country of the Cortereals.”

The word Labrador is a Portuguese and Spanish word
for laborer. On a photograph of a Mexican field-hand,
or peon, ploughing in a field, which we lately purchased
in Mexico, is written ‘ Labrador.” Ina recent book on
Cuba the author thus speaks of a wealthy Cuban planter :
“ He is, by his own account, a /7zjo de Labrador (labor-
er’s son) from Alava, in the Basque Provinces.”* Cor-
tereal’s land was thus the “laborer’s land,” whence it
was hoped slave laborers might be exported to the
Portuguese colonies.

The Portuguese also, as is well known, applied to
Newfoundland the name Bacalhaos, which means dried
codfish or stockfish. |

As the result of Cortereal’s voyage the Portuguese
fishermen through the rest of the 16th century habitually
visited the shores and banks of Newfoundland, and
undoubtedly were more or Jess familiar with the Labra-

* A. Gallenga. The Pearl of the Antilles, p. 100. 1874.

40 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

ai

dor coast, for Scandinavian authors report their presence
on the Greenland coast. (Kohl, p. 190.)

In a foot-note to p. 197 of his ‘“ Pioneers of France in
the New World,” Mr. Parkman remarks: ‘ Labrador—
Labratoris Terra—is so called from the circumstance
that Cortereal in the year 1500 stole thence a cargo of
Indians for slaves.” That the ‘‘ Indians” were captured
on the Labrador coast, however, appears to be an in-
exact statement. There were probably then no red
Indians or timber on the Labrador coast, but Cor-
tereal must have entrapped them in Newfoundland or
some place southward. Kohl [p. 169] tells us that
“these aborigines, captured according to the custom of
the explorers of that day, are described, by an eye-wit-
ness who saw them in Lisbon, as tall, well built, and
admirably fit for labor. We infer from this statement
that they were not Esquimaux from the coast of Labra-
dor, but Indians of the Micmac tribe, inhabitants of
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.” The editor of Kohl's
work adds a quotation from the Venetian Pasqualigo,
who says: ‘‘ His serene majesty contemplates deriving
great advantage from the country not only on account
of the timber, of which he has occasion, but of the in-
habitants, who are admirably calculated for labor, and
are the best slaves | have ever seen.”

The path opened by Sebastian Cabot was not only
trod by Portuguese, but the Spanish,* Basques, French
(Bretons and Normans), and English frequented the
rich fishing-banks of Newfoundland, and with little

* « The voyage of Estevan Gomez produced in Spain the same effect which
those of the Cabots, of Cortereal, and of the men from Normandy and. Brittany
had produced in England, Portugal, and France—it conducted the Spaniards to
the northwestern fisheries.” (Henry Hudson, by Ashler, Hakluyt Soc. p. xcix.)

’

THE VOVAGES OF CARTIER. 4!

doubt visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the southern

coast of Labrador. Their discoveries were perhaps
recorded in Gastaldi’s map.

Labrador first became clearly differentiated from
Newfoundland by Jacques Cartier. To him we owe

I.

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New France by the Jialian Jacomo di Gaflaldi in about the year 1550

the discovery of the Strait of Belle Isle; of Belle Isle,
the Isola De’ Demoni of earlier voyages; of Chateau
Bay and other points on the Gulf coast of Labrador.
Sailing from St. Malo the 2oth of April, 1534, he
arrived May roth on the eastern coast of Newfoundland,
near Cape Buonavista. From this cape Cartier pushed
northward until he came to what is now called Fogo
Island, which was one of the resorts of the great auk, or

42 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

“penguin” of the early explorers. But we will let
Cartier describe the scene which met his eyes in his own
words translated by Hakluyt from “ The first Relation
of Iaques Carthier of S. Malo, of the new land called
New France, newly discovered in the yere of our Lord
1534.”

‘“Vpon the 21 of May the winde being in the West,
we hoised saile, and sailed toward North and by East
from the Cape of Buona Vista’ vntil we came to the
Island of Birds, which was enuironed about with a banke
of ice but broken and crackt : notwithstanding the sayd
banke, our two boats went thither to take in some birds,
whereof there is such plenty, that vnlesse a man did see
them, he would thinke it an incredible thing: for albeit
the Island (which containeth about a league in circuit >
be so full of them, that they seeme to have bene brought
thither, and sowed for the nonce, yet are there an hun-
dred folde as many hovering about it as within ; some
of the which are as big as iavs, blacke and white, with
beaks like vnto crowes: they lie alwayes vpon the sea :
they cannot flie very high, because their wings are so
little, and no bigger than halfe ones hand, vet do they
flie as swiftly as any birds of the aire leuell to the water ;
they are also exceeding fat; we named them: Aporath.
In Jesse then halfe an houre we filled two boats full of
them, as if they had bene with stones: so that besides
them which we did eat fresh, eury ship did powder and
salt five or sixe barrels full of them.

‘‘ Besides these, there is another kinde of birds which
houer in the aire, and ouer the sea, lesser then the others :
and these doe all gather themselves together in the Isl-
and, and put themselves vnder the wings of other birds

THE VOYAGES OF CARTIER. 43

that are greater: these are named Godetz. There are
also of another sort but bigger, and white which bite
even as dogs: those we named Margaulx.

“And albeit the sayd Island be 14 leagues from the
maine land, notwithstanding beares come swimming
thither to eat of the sayd birds; and our men found one
there as great as any cow, and as white as any swan, who
in their presence leapt into the sea; and vpon Whitsun
mvnday (following our voyage toward the land) we met
her by the way, swimming toward land as swiftly as we
could saile. So sooneas we saw her, we pursued her with
our boats, and by maine strength tooke her, whose flesh
was as good to be eaten as the flesh of a calfe of two
yeres olde.”

Cartier then sailed north, entered the Strait of Belle
Isle, anchoring at Blanc Sablon, still a settlement east
of Bradore Bay.

‘White Sand [Blane Sablon] is a road in the which
there is no place guarded from the south, or southeast.
But towards south-southwest from the saide road there
are two IJands, one of the which is called Brest Island,
and the other the Iland of Birds, in which there is great
store of Godetz, and crows with red beaks and red feete:
they make their nests in holes vnder the ground euen
as conies.”

The great French navigator harbored in the ancient
port of Brest, near these Islands; the ‘land of Birds,”
being the present Parroqueet Island, fifteen miles east-
ward of the mouth of Esquimaux River,

Our voyager then coasted along these forbidding
shores to St. James River, where he first saw the natives ;
“they weare their_haire tied on the top like a wreath of

44 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

hay; ... they paint themselves with certain Roan
colors; their boates are made of the barke of birch trees,
with the which they fish and take great store of seales,.
and as farre as we could vnderstand since our comming
thither, that is not their habitation, but they come from
the maine land out of hotter countries, to catch the saide
seals and other necessaries for their liuing.” These red
men must have been the Mountaineer Indians, which
still come down to the coast from the warmer interior
each summer to fish for seal. Cartier makes no men-
tion of the Eskimo, who would undoubtedly have been
encountered if their roving bands had been living on
the coast from Chateau Bay to the Seven Isles, which he
so carefully explored.

This coast appeared to Cartier so disagreeable, un-
productive, and barren, that he exclaimed, “It ought to
be the country which God had given to Cain.” So he
crossed the Strait of Belle Isle, sailed over to Newfound-
land, coasted that Island to Cape Anguille, which he
reached on the 24th of June. From there he sailed over
to the Magdalen Islands, to the Bird rocks (Isles aux
Margaulx), thence to Prince Edward’s Island, thence to
Miramichi, afterward to Gaspé Bay, and coasted Antt-
costi, crossing over again to near and within sight of the
Mingan Islands. Not on this voyage discovering the
river St. Lawrence, he finally turned homewards, coast-
ing along the Labrador shore, touching at Cape Tien-
not, now called Cape Montjoli. Thence he returned to
France through the Strait of Belle Isle. |

The next year Cartier returned, sailing again through ,
the Strait of Belle Isle; and, coasting along the southern
shores of, Labrador, discovered the river St. Lawrence.

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46 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

On his third voyage, Cartier entered the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, passing in between Newfoundland and Cape
Breton, thus for the first time demonstrating that New-
foundland was an island and not a part of the continent.

The next step in the geographical evolution of Lab-
rador is seen in Mercator’s great map of 1569. Kohl
tells us that for the compilation of this map Mercator
had collected many printed and manuscript maps and
charts, and many reports of voyages of discovery. ‘‘ But,”
says Kohl, ‘‘the best portion of Mercator’s work, and a
real and valuable improvement upon all former maps, is
his delineation of the large peninsula of Labrador, lying
southwest of Greenland. On all former maps, that re-
gion was ill-shapen and most incorrectly drawn. But
here, under the name of ‘Terra Corterealis,’ it receives
its proper shape, with a full and just development, which
had not been given to it on any map prior to 1569. He
makes its eastern coast run southeast and northwest, as it
really does from about 53° to 60° N. In the north he
plainly shows the narrow entrance of Hudson’s Strait,
and at the west of it a large gulf, called by him ‘ Golfam
de Merosro.’ This remarkable gulf may be an indica-
tion of either Hudson’s Bay or only the Bay of Ungava.
[ think that the latter was meant; first, because the
‘Gulf of Merosro’ has the longitude of the mouth of
the river St. Lawrence, which is also the longitude of
the Bay of Ungava; second, because the said gulf is
represented as closed in the west. The western coast of
the Bay of Ungava runs high up to the north, where
Hudson's Strait is often filled with ice. This may have
led the unknown discoverers, the informants of Mercator,
to suppose that it was closed in the west. If they had

THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES, + 47

looked round Cape Wolstenholm into Hudson’s Bay,
they would have perceived a broad bay and open water
before them.

‘‘Mercator does not indicate, so far as I know, the
sources from which he derived these remarkable improve-
ments for his chart, which were not known by Homem
in 1558, and of which there are only slight indications
on the Cabot map of 1544. He adopts the Portuguese
names for his ‘Terra Corterealis,’ namely, ‘Golfam de
Merosro, ‘Y. dus Demonios,’ ‘Cabo Marco,’ ‘ Ilha
da Fortuna,’ ‘ Baia dus Medaus,’ ‘Rio de Tormenta,’
‘Ylhas de Caravillo,’:* Baia de Malvas,’ etc. Some of
the names are not new, but had been long known, though
not always put in the same position. We know of no
official Portuguese exploring expedition made to these
regions between the time of Homem (1558) and Merca-
tor (1569); and therefore the suggestions of Dr. Asher,
for the solution of this problem, have a high degree of
probability. He says:* ‘The Portuguese fishermen
continued their surveys of the northern coasts,’ com-
menced by Gaspar Cortereal in 1500, ‘most likely for
no other purpose than to discover advantageous fisheries.
They seem to have advanced slowly, step by step, first
along the shores of Newfoundland, then up to the mouth
of Hudson’s Strait, then through that strait, and at last
into Hudson’s Bay,’ or, as I think, into Ungava Bay.
‘With a certain number of ancient maps, ranging from
1529 to 1570, before us, we can trace this progress step
by step. In i544,’ the time of Cabot’s map, ‘the Por-
tuguese seem not yet to have reached the mouth of the
strait ; and in 1570, or, as I think, (569, the date of

* See G. M. Asher's “ Henry Hudson,” ’ Introduction, p. “xevi., London, 1860,

48 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

our Mercator's map,* ‘they have reached the bay,’
Hudson’s, or at least Ungava Bay. ‘We can, there-
fore, state with the greatest certainty that Hudson's.
Bay,’ Hudson’s Strait as far as Ungava Bay, . . . ‘had
been discovered before the publication of Ortelius’s at-
las, which took place in 1570,’ or, better, before the pub-
lication of Mercator’s chart, which took place in 1569.
‘But we are not equally certain that the discovery falls
within the years 1558 to 1570,’ or, better, 1569, ‘ because
we have only the negative evidence of Diego Homem’s
chart to support the latter assertion. The fact itself is,
however, probable enough.’ ” ;

To the English navigators of the 16th and 17th cen-.-
turies succeeding Cartier we owe the next step in our
knowledge of the geography of the Labrador peninsula.

In 1577 Master Martin Frobisher sighted the coast
of Northern Labrador, which he called ‘“ Frisland,”
using a word which frequently appears in the early
charts. The point he first sighted was probably north
of 58°, for after coasting four days along the coast for
perhaps a distance of nearly two hundred miles, a voy-
age of eight days, between the 8th and 16th of July,
would carry him to Frobisher’s Strait. Moreover his
description of the coast applies well to the northern ex-
tremity of Labrador beyond Hopedale and Okkak.

The narrative reads thus:

“The 4. of Iuly we came within the making of Fris-
land. From this shoare 10. or 12. leagues, we met
brea Islands of yce, of halfe a mile, some more, some

* Dr. Asher does not mention Mercator’s map of 1569. He had before him:

the map of Ortelius of 1570 who was only a follower and copyist of Mercator,
but adopted his views.’

THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES. 49

lesse in compasse, shewing above the sea, 30. or 40.
fathoms, and as we supposed fast on ground, where with
our Jead we could scarce sound the bottom for depth.

‘Here in place of odoriferous and fragrant smels of
sweete gums, and pleasant notes of musicall birdes,
which other Countreys in more temperate Zones do
yeeld, wee tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts mixt
with snow and haile, in the moneths of Iune and ITuly,
nothing inferior to our vntemperate winter ; a sudden
alteration, and especially in a place of Parallele, where
the Pole is not eleuate aboue 61. degrees; at which
height other Countreys more to the North, yea vnto 70.
degrees, shew themselues more temperate than this doth.
All along this coast yce lieth, as a continuall bulwarke,
and so defendeth the Country, that those that would
land there, incur great danger. Our Generall 3. days
together attempted with the ship boate to haue gone on
shoare, which for that without great danger he could
not accomplish, he deferred it vntil a more convenient
time. All along the coast lie very high mountains cou-
ered with snow, except in such places,where through the
steepenes of the mountains of force it must needs fall.
Foure days coasting along this land, we found no signe
of habitation. Little birds, which we judged to have
lost the shoare, by reason of thicke fogges which that
Country is much subiect vnto, came flying into our ships,
which causeth us to suppose, that the Country is both
more tollerable, and also habitable within, than the out-
ward shoare maketh shew or signification.

‘From hence we departed the eight of luly; on the
16. of the same, we came with the making of land,
which land our Generall the yeere before had named the

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FROBISHER’S VOYAGE. 51

Queenes foreland, being an Island as we iudge, lying
neere the supposed continent with America; and on the
other side, opposite to the same, one other Island called
Halles Isle, after the name of the Master of the ship,
neere adiacent to the firm land, supposed Continent with
Asia.” (Page. 57.)*

In Rundall + we find it stated that “ Frobisher, now
left to himself, altered his course, and stood to the S.W.;
and, seventeen days afterwards, other land, judged to be
LasBraDor, was sighted in latitude 62° 2’ N.” (p.11). In
this latitude, however, lies Meta Incognita.

“The great cape seen [by John Davis] on the 31st
was designated, it is stated, Warwicxk’s ForELAND; and
the southern promontory, across the gulf, Cape Cuip-
LEY.{ On this Fox observes: ‘Davis and he [Wey-
mouth, a later navigator| dzd, / concetve, light Hudson
into his Streights.’ The modern authority before cited
expresses a similar opinion; and there is no reason to
doubt the fact.

‘“From Cape Chidley a southerly course was taken to
seek the two vessels that were expected to be at the
fishing-ground ; and on the roth, in latitude 56° 4o’, they
had a freskeng gale at west-northwest. On the 12th,
in about latitude 54° 32’, an island was fallen in with
which was named Darcie’s Island. Here five deer were

* “ The second voyage of Master Martin Frobisher, 1577, written by Master
Dionise Settle. Hakluyt, vol. iii., New Edition, London, 1810.”

+ Narratives of Voyages towards the Northwest in search of a passage to
Cathay and India. 1496-1631. By Thomas Rundall, Esq., London, Hakluyt
Society, 1849, 8°, pp. 259.

t “' The worshippfull M. John Chidley, of Chidley, in the county of Deuon,
esquire,’ was apparently chief promoter of an expedition which sailed Anno 1589,
for ‘the province of Araucoon thecoast of Chili, by the streight of Magellan.
Of this expedition M. Chidley was also the General. Hakluyt, iv. 357.”

52 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

seen, and it was hoped some of them might be killed,
but on a party landing, the whole herd, after being
twice coursed about the island, ‘took the sea and
swamme towards ilands distant from that three leagues.’
They swam faster than the boat could be pulled, and so
escaped. It was represented that one of them ‘was as
bigge as a good prety cowe, and very fat, their feet as
big as oxe feet.’

“The 13th, in seeking a harbour, the vessel struck on
a rock and received a leak ; which, however, was mended
the following day, in latitude 54°, ‘in a storm not very
outragious at noone.’ On the 15th, in latitude 52° 4o’,
being disappointed in their expectations of finding the
Elizabeth and Sunshine, or of finding any token of
those vessels having been in the vicinity, and there
being but little wood, with only half a hogshead of fresh
water on board, it was determined to shape the course
homeward for England. This was accordingly done,
and they arrived on the 15th of September in Dart-
mouth, ‘giving thanks to God’ for their safe arrival.”
(Page 49.) ne

But it is to Davis, after whom Davis Strait was
named, that we owe the most exact knowledge of the
Labrador coast, until modern times. The following
extracts contain all that we can find regarding his ex-
ploration of the Labrador coast.

Davis, in the A/oonshine, left Greenland in latitude
66° 33’ Aug. Ist, 1586. ‘She crossed the strait in
nearly a due westerly direction. The 14th of August
she was near Cape Walsingham, in latitude 66° 19’ on
the American side. It was too late for anything more
than a summary search along the coast. The rest of

WEYMOUTH’S VOYAGE. 53

_ the month, and the first days of September, were spent
in that search. Besides the already known openings,
namely, Cumberland Strait, Frobisher’s Strait, and Hud-
son’s Strait, two more openings were found, Davzs's [let
in 56°, and Jvuctoke Inlet in 54° 30’. Davis's men had to
cross the Atlantic in his miserable craft, and he per-
formed the voyage through the equinoctial gales in
little more than three weeks. He reached England
again in the beginning of October, 1586.” (Henry
Hudson, cxv.)

Davis was followed by Weymouth in 1602. Accord-
ing to Rundall :

“From the 5th to the 14th of July, the navigator
appears to have been ranging along the coast of Labra-
dor, where, on the toth, variation 22° 10’ W., he saw
many islands. On the 15th he was in latitude 55° 31’,
variation 17° 15’ W.; and the day following saw ‘ a very
pleasant low land, all islands,’ in latitude N. 55°, varia-
tion 18° 12’ W. On the 17th he entered and sailed up
an inlet for thirty leagues, in sanguine hope of having
found the desired passage; but he was doomed to dis-
appointment. In this inlet, which has been identified
with Sleeper’s Bay on Davis’s Inlet, Weymouth en-
countered his last peril, and escaped in safety. The fly-
boats were assailed by a furious storm, which terminated
in a‘whirlwind of extreme violence, that rendered them,
for a while, completely unmanageable ; and though very
strongly built, they took in so much water, for want of
spar:decks, that they narrowly escaped being swamped.
As soon as the weather cleared up, the course was
_ shaped for England.” (Page 68.)

The Labrador coast was next seen by Master John

THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

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VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN KNIGHT. 55

Knight, who sailed April 18, 1606, from Gravesend in
the Hopewell, i

“ After a most tedious and uninteresting passage, the
vessel arrived off some broken land, in latitude 56° 25’
N.: much ice driving to the southward. The wind was
fresh and the commander made fast to a piece of ice ;
but falling calm, he endeavored to row in between the
masses. This was dn unfortunate attempt. The weather
became thick and foggy, and a furious storm arose on
June 14: they were driven about in the ice. Lost
sight of land till the 19th, when it is described as being
seen again, rising like eight islands in latitude 56°
48’ N., variation 25° W. The vessel was then taken
into a cove, and made fast by hawsers laid out on shore.
On June 26th, Capt. Knight, his mate, and three hands
set out, well armed, to explore a large island. They
disappeared, having probably been killed by the natives.

“On the night of the 29th, ‘they were attacked by
savages, who set on them furiously with bows and
arrows ; and at one time succeeded in obtaining posses-
sion of the shallop. However, the eight mariners, with
a fierce dog, showed a resolute front, and the assailants,
upward of fifty in number, were finally driven off. The
savages are represented to have been “* very little people,
tawnie colored, thin or no beards, and flat-nosed.’ They
‘are also described as being ‘man-eaters;’ but for this
imputation there appears to be no warrant, except in the
imagination of the parties on whom the attack was
made,”

On the 4th of July, the vessel was in great danger of
foundering, the craft leaking badly.

‘Shaping their course towards Newfoundland, with

56 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

a strong current in their favour, they made Fogo on the
23d of July. At that place they were most hospitably
entertained. Having refitted, they left on the 22d of
August, full of grateful feelings towards their generous
friends; and arrived at Dartmouth on the 24th of
December.” (Pages 75, 76.)

In 1610 Henry Hudson discovered the strait which
bears his name, his discoveries being recorded in the
accompanying map, copied from the volume on Henry
Hudson published by the Hakluyt Society.

In the narrative of the Voyage of Szx Thomas But-
ton (1612-13) we find the following reference to Cape
Chidley:

‘“‘On this part of the voyage, the following remarks are
reported, by Fox, to have been made by <Adacuk
Prickett. ‘He saith, they came not through the maine
channell of /retam Hudson, nor thorow Lumley’s [nlet,
but through into the Mare Hyperborum betwixt those
Ilands first discovered and named Chidley’s Cape by
Captain Davis, and the North part of Amerzca, called
by the Spaniards, who never saw the same, Cafe
Labrador, but it is meet by the N. E. point of Amerzca,
where was contention among them, some maintaining
(against others) that them Ilands were the Resol/utzon,’”
etc. (Page 89.)

Captain Gibbons, in 1614, appears to have been de-
tained for some months on the Labrador coast.

“Of the result of the voyage, all that is known,” says
Asher, “is thus laconically communicated by Master
Fox: ‘Little,’ he says, ‘is to be writ to any purpose,
for that hee was put by the mouth of Fretum Hudson,
and with the ice driven into a bay called by his company

GIBBON’S VOYAGE. 57

Gispons HIS Hote, in latitude about 57° upon the
N. E. part of Stznenca, where he laid twenty, weeks fast
amongst the ice, in danger to have been spoyled, or
never to have got away, so as the time being lost, hee
was inforced to returne.’ The bay in which Gibbons
was caught is supposed to have been that now called
Nain, on the coast of Labrador.” (Page 95. Arctic
Voyages, p. 205.)

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A summary mention of the early voyages we also
find in the records of the Hakluyt Society :

“ Hudson's Strait had been discovered by Sebastian
Cabot in 1498. The Portuguese had sailed through it

58 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR.

and had become acquainted with part of Hudson’s Bay
between 1558 and 1569. In 1577 Frobisher had by
chance entered the strait. In 1602 Weymouth had
sailed nearly a hundred leagues into it, from Hatton’s
Headland to the neighborhood of Hope’s Advance Bay.

“The whole cast coast of North America, from 38°
north to the mouth of Hudson’s Strait, had been sur-
veyed by Sebastian Cabot in 1498, and part of it before,
in 1497, by his father and him. Others had rediscov-
ered various parts. Thus the east of Newfoundland had
been explored by Cortereal in 1501; the south coast,
by some fishers from Normandy and Brittany in 1504
and 1508. The mouth of the St. Lawrence had also
been visited by Cortereal and by these French mariners.
The river, nearly up to the lakes, and all the surround-
ing country, had been thoroughly explored by Jacques
Cartier in 1534 and 1535, and afterwards by Roberval
and Cartier.

“The Sandbanks near the mouth of the St. Lawrence,
and the fishing-stations along the Newfoundland coast,
were frequented by the English, Portuguese, French,
and Spaniards.” (H. Hudson, Hakluyt Soc. cxliv.)

After Henry Hudson’s voyage, no further explora-
tions were made of the Labrador coast, so far as we can
ascertain, until the time of rear-Admiral Bayfield, of the
British Navy, who, during the years 1815 to 1827, sur-
veyed and mapped this coast as well as the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and Newfoundland. His researches are em-
bodied in the English Admiralty charts, from which the
maps of the Labrador peninsula in use up to about 1880
are copied. Of the advances lately made by British and
Moravian surveys mention has previously been made.

LABRADOR A LAND OF MYSTERY. 59

To most readers the Labrador coast is still a Meta
Incognita, an Ultima Thule, a land of mystery, shrouded
by fog and gloom. The ordinary knowledge of it is as
vague and indefinite as in the times of Cabot. The
period when accurate charts of this intricate coast with
its tens of thousands of islands, skiers, and ledges will be
made, seems far distant. Local pilots and fishermen
from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and at times from the
United States, with an occasional Newfoundland or
Canadian steamer, ply over regularly beaten routes, but
owing to the lack of commercial interest in these barren,
almost deserted shores, the coast will for years still re-
main well-nigh beyond the pale of modern interests and
thoughts.

In time the Indian and Eskimos will be a people dead
and forgotten. The Moravian settlements will be aban-
doned. Already, owing to the decrease in the cod fish-
ery, famine and want are slowly but surely reducing by
removal and death the numbers of the lingering white
population, and the coast will be still more desolate and
lonely than now.

And yet this coast stands like a protecting, guardian
-wall between the frozen north and the more temperate,
inhabitable regions south and west. Its unexplored bays
and rivers will always remain full of interest to our ad-
venturous yachtsmen, as well as to the naturalist, the
sportsman, and traveller.

CHAPTER IV.

LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

Tue following recollections of our student days are
offered with the suggestion that the more adventuresome
of our college boys of the present day might spend .to
advantage the long summer vacation in cruising on our
northern coasts, and combine in agreeable proportions
science and travel.

In the summer of 1860, while a student in Bowdoin
College, I joined the Williams College expedition to
Labrador and Greenland under the charge of Professor
P. A. Chadbourne. June 27th found us on board the
Nautzlus,a staunch schooner of about 140 tons, com-
manded by Capt. Randlett. Soon after five o’clock of
a bright, fresh morning our vessel cast off from the wharf
at Thomaston, Me. The Thomaston band played a
lively air, a clergyman made a parting address, calling
down the blessings of Heaven upon the argonauts ; our
Nestor replied, the students cheering for the citizens of
Thomaston and the band, and witha favoring northwest
wind the Vaztz/us, gliding down the current of the St.
George's River, a deep fiord, in a couple of hours reached
the open sea.

Our course lay inside of Monhegan, with its high, bold
sea-wall. Passing on, the Camden Hills recede, and we

endeavor with the glass to make out the White Moun
60

THE NEWFOUNDLAND COAST. 61

tains, said by some to have been seen by Weymouth from
inside of Monhegan. The ocean swell not being con-
ducive to historical controversy, we turn to watch the
Mother Carey’s chickens and the grampus as well as the
fin-back whales sporting in the waves.

By the next morning we had sailed 190 miles from
Thomaston, past Cape Sable, and our northwest wind
still attending, we bowl] along, through schools of por-
poise, while two or three whales pass within a few
fathoms of our vessel, showing their huge whitish backs.
The next day our seven-knot breeze does not fail us,
and takes us by the 30th intoa region of light winds and
calms off the Gut of Canso.

July rst we sail along Cape Breton Island, its red
shores glistening in the noonday sun and then mantled
with purple as the sun goes down over Louisbourg. As
darkness sets in the lights of Sidney appear. The next
morning’s sun rose on Cape Ray, around which we beat,
passing within a mile of Channels, a fishing-village of
Newfoundland, behind which rise steep hills clothed
with ‘‘ tucking-bush,” or dwarf spruce and larch. Cape
Ray pushes boldly into the sea, its precipitous sides of
decomposed sandstone furrowed by the rains which pour
down its scarred cheeks, on which still linger banks of
the last winter’s snows.

By the next evening we pass Cape St. Georges. The
4th was celebrated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence amid
fog and rain. It was succeeded by a twenty-four hours’
gale, rather severe for the season, which tested the excel-
lent qualities of the Mau¢zlus as a sea boat. This being
our first storm at sea was enjoyed more keenly than sim-
ilar gales in-after-years. The sea swept our deck, but

62 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

only a few drops entered the cabin. The experience
was novel and interesting ; fortunately we were not sea-
sick; the long waves sloped up like far-reaching hills:;
sea-birds rode on their crests, and the wind, like a swarm
of furies, tore through ourrigging. There were but oc-
casional glimpses from the companion-way of our dark,
close cabin, redolent with the stench of the bilge-water.
The storm abated after sunset, and the morning of. the
6th found us only fifty miles from Caribou Island.
Towards noon the first iceberg was seen; others came
into view, some stranded, others floating on the sea.

The evening was a glorious one; after a gorgeous
sunset, the twilight lasting until after ten o’clock, the
moon rose upon berg and sea. We were in an arctic
ocean ; creatures born in the Greenland seas floated past
our vessel, and while becalmed at night we fished up
from a depth of sixty or seventy fathoms a basket star-
fish (Astrophyton agassizi2) large enough to cover the
bottom of a pail.

The impressions made on our minds the next day as
we approached the coast and passed in shore, winding
through the labyrinth of islands fringing the main land,
are ineffaceable. That and other days in Southern
Labrador are stamped indelibly on our mind. — It was
passing from the temperate zone into the life and nature
of the arctic regions. There is a strange commingling
of life-forms in the Strait of Belle Isle: the flora and
fauna of the boreal regions struggling, as it were, to dis-
place the arctic forms established on these shores since
the ice period, when Labrador was mantled in perennial
snow and ice, when the great auk, the walrus, and the
narwhal abounded in the waters of the Gulf of St. Law-

THE LABRADOR FLORA. 63

rence, and the Greenland flora, represented by the
Arenaria grontandica, the dwarf cranberry, and the
curlew-berry or black Empetrum, nestled among the
snow and ice of the glacier-ridden hills.

We landed on the morning of July 7th, and I was.
astonished at the richness of the arctic flora which car-
peted the more level portions of the island. Groves of
dwarfed alders, over which one could Jook while sitting
down, crowded the sides of the valleys, watered by rills
of pure ice-cold water. The groves of spruce and hack-
matack were of the same lilliputian height. In the
glades of these dwarfed forests and scattered over the
moss-covered rocks and bogs were Cornus canadensis,
two varieties in flower ; Kalmza glauca was in profusion,
as attractive a flower as any; the curlew-berry (Zm-
petrum nigrum), the dwarf cranberry, with other flow-
ers and grasses characteristic of the arctic and Alpine
regions. Particularly noticeable were the clumps of
dwarf willow from six inches to a foot in height, now in
flower and visited by the arctic humble-bee and other
wild bees. Other insects of subarctic and arctic types
were numerous, among them a geometrid moth (Aheu-
maptera hastata), which extends from the Alps and
snow-fields of Lapland around through Greenland and
Labrador to the mountain regions of Maine, New
Hampshire, northern New York, Colorado, and Alaska.
The flies, beetles, and other forms had an arctic aspect,
showing that on the shores of the Strait of Belle Isle
the insect fauna is largely tinged with circumpolar
forms.

On the 7th of July our party of seven men landed,
lodged in a Sibley tent, and the Vauézdus left us for the

64 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

Greenland seas with the majority of our party. Our
tent, provisions, and baggage becoming soaked with the
rain and dampness, two days after, we moved over to
Caribou Island and built a house of Canada clapboards,
kindly loaned for the purpose by the Rev. C. C. Car-
penter, missionary to Southern Labrador, for whom a
large frame house, sheltering under its roof a chapel,
study, and living-rooms, was building.

A Canadian clapboard is twelve inches long and six
inches wide; with these and a few joists two of the
party built a house twelve feet square, which sheltered
us from the sun and the black flies, and only leaked
when it stormed, which happened regularly twice a
week, usually Wednesdays and Sundays. Six berths
were put up on the north side (the seventh man was
accommodated in the mission-house); a wide board
placed on two flour-barrels at the west end served as a
dining and study table, and in the southeast corner a
little stove, not over fifteen inches square, with a funnel
whose elbow, projecting out-of-doors, had to be turned
with every change of wind, was the focus, the modern-
ized hearthstone, over which hung our Lares and
Penates, sundry hams and pieces of dried beef, Azeces-de-
resistance of our meals, often alleviated by game and
fish, clams and scallops or pussels (Pecten magellanicus),
with entrées of seal and whale flesh. How we college
boys cooked and ate, rambled and slept in those seven
weeks of subarctic life is a subject of pleasant memory.
They were days of rare pleasure, of continuous health,
and formed an experience whose value lasted through
our future lives) We made hunting, ornithological,
entomological, botanical, and dredging expeditions in all

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THE LABRADOR FLORA. 65

directions, by sea and land; the geology and the flora
and fauna were explored with zeal, and resulted in the
discovery of many new forms and the detection of
Alpine and arctic European species before unknown to
this continent. We investigated the Quaternary for-
mation, ice marks, drift and fossil shells; procured
fossils of the Cambrian red sandstone beds, chiefly
a sponge (a new species of Archeocyathus), which
were scattered along the shore, probably derived from
the red sandstone strata so well developed at Bradore,
also visited by some of our party. The results were
perhaps of some importance to science, but the lessons
in natural science we learned were of far greater moment
to ourselves.

The coast of Labrador is fringed with islands, large
and small, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Hud-
son’s Strait. A sailboat can go with safety from one
point to the other, and only occasionally will be exposed
to the ocean swell. These islands are the exact counter-
part of each other, differing mainly only in size and
altitude. Caribou Island was two or three miles in
length, formed of Laurentian gneiss, which had been
worn and molded by glaciers. Its scenic features re-
called those of the more rugged portions of the coast of
Maine, particularly in Penobscot Bay and Mt. Desert.
The higher portion of the island is of bare rounded
rock, with deep valleys or fissures down which run little
rills; these valleys are dense with ferns, shelter many
insects, and where they widen out into the lower land
support a growth of dwarf spruce, hackmatack and wil-
low. In the more protected parts a few poplars and
mountain-ash rise to a height of from ten to fifteen feet.

66 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

The Alpine vegetation is mostly confined to the exposed
boggy places or moors, in which are pools of water,
supporting water-boatmen, case-worms, aquatic beetles
and numerous water-fleas, and an occasional hair-worm
or Gordius.

Along the lower portions by the shores are patches
of salt marsh with shallow pools of water, which in the
spring and autumn are undoubtedly frequented by ducks
and geese, though only a few of the former were to be
seen. Indeed, I was surprised, to see so few sea-fowl.
They were principally the parroquet, which abounded on
the sea a mile or two away from shore. A _ favorite
breeding-place of this most interesting of arctic birds
was in the soft red Cambrian sandstone of Bradore, an
island lying fifteen miles easterly from Caribou Island.
With their powerful parrot-like beaks they excavate the
crumbling rock, extending their galleries in to the dis.
tance of several feet. Three of our party made an ex-
pedition to this well-known breeding-resort, and in
thrusting their hands into the burrows received an occa-
sional bite from the sharp strong bills of the birds which
was not soon forgotten, Ducks were occasionally seen,
the eider-duck and also the coot, as well as the loon,
both the northern diver and the red-necked loon. Shore- ©
birds, particularly the ring-necked plover, and others of
its family, abounded, while the most familiar bird was a
white-headed sparrow which nested near our camp.

It was not yet the time for the curlews. About the
middle of July the sheldrake and coot, which breed in
the inland ponds, lead out their young and appear in
great numbers. The old ones are wary and hard to
shoot, but the young will then be in fine condition. At

MOUNTAINEER INDIANS. 67

this time the “’longshoremen” abandon their diet of
salt pork, bread and molasses, and feast on game, for
then, we were assured, they have “great plenty fowl.”

In August, also, one or two families of the red Indians
or Mountaineers of the interior come down to the mouth
of the Esquimaux, or ‘“‘ Hawskimaw” River, as it is pro-
nounced by the settlers, to hunt seal, especially the
young, and ducks as well as curlew. These Indians are
entirely governed in their wandering by the situation of
the deer and other game. One may travel a hundred
miles up the Esquimaux River without meeting them.

I saw but a single Esquimau man at Caribou Island.
His low stature, his prominent, angular cheek-bones,
pentagonal face, and straight black hair sufficiently char-
acterized his stock. The only other native Esquimau
was the wife of an Englishman, John Goddard, the
“ King of Labrador,” who lived on a point of land three
miles west of Caribou Island. She was a famous hunter,
would go out in a boat, shoot a seal and dress it, making
boots and moccasins from the skin. Whether these
Esquimaux had strayed down from the north or, as I
suspect, were the remnants of their people who may
have inhabited the entire coast from the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the arctic regions, deserves further investi-
gation.

Few mammals were to be seen. The deer and cari-
bou were confined to the mainland. On our island was
a white fox, or rather a blue one, for his summer pelage
was of aslate-color. His burrow was situated in a hill-
side behind our house. He would prowl about our
camp at night, and he might have known that it was un-
safe to come within reach of our guns. His skin un-

68 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN, LABRADOR.

doubtedly adorns the museum of the Lyceum of Nat-
ural History of Williams College.

A weasel also visited our camp. The otter frequents
the brooks at the head of Salmon and Esquimaux rivers.
In winter they rarely come outside, z.¢., to the coast.

It .is well known that in Newfoundland the bears,
especially those living near shore, will eat fish, their diet
being mixed, and such bears are more savage than those
in the interior, which live chiefly on berries and ants.
While on Caribou Island a fisherman living a mile and
a half from us had his sea-trout nets invaded by two old
bears accompanied by a young one; at low water they
would walk out to the nets, tearing them apart in order
_to eat the fish.

We were told that a Mr. Hayward, an Englishman
who lives at a distance of two miles across the bay, had
about ten years since shot the last polar-bear seen on this
coast.

Speaking of trout, there are two kinds: one living in
the brooks and lakes, the other the sea-trout, a handsome
fish about twelve inches in length, whose food we found
consisted of a surface-swimming marine shrimp, the
yszs oculata, which lives in immense shoals. The sea-
trout is taken in nets, and so far as we experimented do
not, in salt water, rise to the fly.

Although it was now the 15th of July, the warmer
summer weather had not yet come, we were told by the
people on shore. There is, however, scarcely any spring
in Labrador, The rivers open and the snow disappears
by the roth of June as a rule, and then the short summer
is at once ushered in.

Potatoes, and especially turnips, are raised without

LABRADOR BUTTERFLIES. 69

much difficulty as far north as Caribou Island. Rhu-
barb is said to do well farther up the coast towards the
Mecatina Islands. Among the wild-flowers blooming
in the middle of July were the dandelion and Potentzlla
anserina. Another Potentilla was the P. ¢trzdentata,
the mountain trident, with its three-toothed leaf and
modest white flower. It was pleasant to see this flower,
so familiar from my earliest childhood, as it flourishes
on the plains of Brunswick, Me., and is common on
Mt. Washington as well as on the mountains of Maine,
and abounds on the bare spots about Moosehead Lake,
particularly at the foot of Mt. Kineo. The wild cur-
rant, strawberry, and raspberry were in flower; the straw-
berry plants were luxuriant, sometimes eight inches in
height, but the raspberries were dwarfed, not exceeding
the strawberry in height. Up the rivers the raspberries
and blackberries are abundant, but the latter low and
dwarfish.

The shad bush (Amelanchter canadensis) was now in
flower, blossoming in southern New England in April
or early May, while Rudus chamemorus, the cloud-berry,
so abundant in Greenland and Arctic America as well as
on the fields of Norway and Sweden, and the ‘“tundras”
of Siberia, was going out of flower. With it were asso-
ciated the star-flower, 7rzentalzs americana, a few Clin-
tonza borealts, Smzlacena btfolrata and probably S. stellata,
Streptopus amplextfolia ; one or two species of Andro-
meda ; an Iris, species of Vaccinium, the Arctostaphylus
uva-urst or bear-berry; the shore-pea, a honeysuckle
(Lonicera cerulea), a Viburnum, and also the buckbean
(Menyanthes trifoliata).

Among the flowers fluttered the white butterfly

70 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

(Preris frigida), a Colias labradorensis, Argynnts tricla-
vts,and some geometrid moths, while a few owlet moths
flew out of the grass at the late twilight, which now
lasted until near eleven o'clock at night, when fine print
could be read.
We were told that the average temperature in June
here is 48°, that of July 56°. In the warmer days of
summer the thermometer rises from 64° to 68”, rarely to
70. July 17th was one of the warmest and most pleas-
ant days of the month; the temperature was 60° F. The
21st, however, was’ much warmer, the thermometer
being 72° F.
July 18th was the day of the eclipse; the sun was ob-
scured in the forenoon ; the light of day was much modi-
fied, though not approaching twilight. The steamer
‘ which we saw on the day of the storm inthe Gulf of St.

Lawrence was without doubt that which bore the Coast
Survey eclipse party to Cape
Chidley, where the eclipse was
total.

After roaming over the island
and making pretty full collections
of the insects, we paid attention
to the marine zodlogy. Shore
collecting is not as remunerative
in Labrador as on the Maine and
Massachusetts coasts. The most
noticeable form is the six-rayed
starfish (4 steracanthion polaris),
which sometimes measured
twenty inches from tip to tip of
its Opposing’ rays; its color was a dirty yellowish white,

PELICAN’S FOOT SHELL.

MARINE LIFE.- 71

not red as in the common five-finger, also abundant.
The polar star-fish is common in Greenland, and is a
truly arctic form.

The common crab (Cancer zrrorata) frequently oc-
curred under stones, but the lobster was neither seen nor
heard of ; though common on the southern shores of
Newfoundland it does not reach north into the Strait of
Belle Isle. Among the worms which occurred at low-
water mark was the Pectinaria. On the New England
coast it only occurs in deep water below tide mark.

Dredgings were first made at the mouth of Salmon
River, a few rods from shore, in some eight fathoms of
water in a firm deep mud. The most characteristic
shells were gigantic Aphrodzte grenlandica, large cock-
les (Cardium wslandicum), as well as the pelican’s foot
(Aporrhats occtdentalis), which occurred of good size
and in profusion. In the soft mud occurred multitudes
of the neat little sand star (Ophzoglypha nodosa). An-
other form dredged on rocky bottom was Cyxthza pyri-
formzs, or the sea peach, and large specimens were cast
up by the waves on the beach. Every spare day was
given to dredging, and having been deeply interested in
marine zodlogy by the writings of Gosse, in England,
and of Stimpson in this country, and having obtained a
good idea of the local marine fauna of Casco Bay, in
Maine, it was with no little interest and expectation
that we dropped the dredge in arctic waters, and we
were not a little delighted with the result of finding so
near shore and in such shallow water, forms which off
the coast of Maine, in deep water, were rare and usually
but half grown.

July 25th a party of us rowed up Salmon Bay and

72: LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

went a mile up the river. The tide was out and we
looked for the fresh-water mussel (A /asmodon arcuata),
which is our northernmost species, and inhabits the
rivers of southern Newfoundland. We could find
none, although the settlers told us that mussels, clams,
and “oysters” were common enough in the river. But
something better was discovered. We found traces of
genuine Quaternary marine sands and clays containing
fossils. There were several banks of sand and clay along
the edges of the river. In the latter I found Aphrodzte
grenlandica and Aporrhars occidentalis, with Buccinum
undatum. They had been washed out of the clay into
the bed of the river, and were collected at low-water.
I also dug several inches into the clay bank and found
the disintegrated shells of the Aphrodite, so as to leave
no doubt but that the shells were fossils. Down at the
mouth of the stream at the head of the bay, on the flats, I
found several Buccenum undatum, and quite a number of
A porrhats, young and old, broken and entire. On each
side of the river was a terrace of sand and clay, with a
thick growth of alders and willows, with the fire-weed
(Epelobcum angustifolium), the golden-rod and a large
cruciferous plant common in the mountainous parts of
New England; also Comarum palustre, and a Thalte-
trum. Farther back and mostly lining the banks was
a dense growth, impossible to penetrate save occasion-
ally where there was a break in the thicket of spruce
and birch, perhaps Betula populifolva. Still farther up
and away back stretched the bare moss-covered _hill-
tops, the summer-resort of deer and caribou. Here we
saw a ptarmigan. But this was one of our halcyon |
days, of which there were few, as the last two weeks of

UP THE ESQUIMAUX RIVER. 73

July were stormy and wet. The clear fair-weather winds
were from the southwest; the southeast winds brought
in the fog and rain, while the northerly winds brought
a few curlew, the advance-guard of the hosts which were
to arrive early in August.

The 3d of August was a fine day. A party of us
went up the Esquimaux River to Mrs. Chevalier’s, whose
husband, now dead, entertained Audubon when visiting
this coast. The sail up the river was a pleasant one.
It was about three miles from its mouth to an expansion
of the river on whose shores were four or five winter
houses. Although most of ther settlers live on the coast
through the year, some have their winter and summer
houses. Those who live up the interior, sometimes a
distance of seventy miles from the coast, where there is
wood and game, move from the shore about the 2oth of
October. They spend a month in cutting wood, a fam-
ily burning through the winter about thirty cords.
Then succeeds a month of hunting and trapping. The
snow does not come, we were told, until the last of De-
cember, although we should judge this to be an extreme
statement, and the snow is not usually more than three
feet deep. The people profess to like the winter better
than the summer. They shoot deer, foxes, etc., black
fox being sometimes secured, whose .skin is worth be-
tween two and three hundred dollars. Grouse are
abundant, a good hunter securing from sixty to seventy
a day in favorable seasons. At any rate fresh meat is
obtained for each family two or three times a week.

The houses are small, built of wood, boarded and
shingled, seldom constructed of logs, and are heated by
peculiar stoves, great square structures resembling Dutch

74 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

stoves, and heating the whole house, the two living-
rooms opening into each other, the stove being placed
partly in each, the partition between the two rooms be-
ing cut away to admit the stove.

The French residents at the Mecatina Islands, more
social and gayer than the phlegmatic English settlers
about the mouth of the Esquimaux and Salmon rivers,
spend the winter evening in dancing and other gayeties
to which the Anglo-Saxon, in Labrador at least, is a
comparative stranger.

The Esquimaux River at its eastern entrance is but a
few rods wide. Passing Esquimaux Island we sailed out
into a broad bay or expansion of the river, with ravines
leading down to it, and under the steep bank protected
from the northerly winds were the winter houses pre-
viously described. Up the river, just beyond Mrs. Chev-
alier’s, the river contracted into narrows with rapids; it
then opened into another bay or expansion two miles
wide, the river being a succession of lakes connected by
rapids, and this is typical of the rivers and streams of the
Labrador peninsula. A barge cannot sail up the Esqui-
maux River more than fifteen miles, although one can
push farther on in a flat boat. We were told that the
river is about two hundred miles in length, and although
perhaps the largest in Labrador it has never been ex-
plored.

Here we met the black flies in full force, and al-
though we had been fearfully annoyed by them in ram-
bling over Caribou Island, here they were astounding,
both for numbers and voracity, The black fly lives dur-
ing its early stages in running water. The insect finds
nowhere in the world such favorable conditions for its

UP THE ESQUIMAUX RIVER. 75

increase as in Labrador, over a third of whose surface is
given up to ponds and streams. The insides of the win-
dows of Mrs. Chevalier’s house swarmed with these
fiends, the children’s faces and necks were exanthema-
tous with their bites; the very dogs, great shaggy New-
foundlanders, would run howling into the water and lie
down out of their reach, only their noses above the sur-
face. The armies of black flies were supported by light
brigades of mosquitoes. No wonder that these entomo-
logical pests are a perfect barrier to inland travel; that
few people live during summer away from the sweep of
the high winds and dwell on the exposed shores of the
coast to escape these torments. They are effectual es-
toppels to inland exploration and settlement.

Accepting our hostess’s kind invitation to take dinner,
we sat down to a characteristic Labrador midday meal
of dough balls swimming in a deep pot of grease with
lumps of salt pork, without even potatoes or any des-
sert; nor did there seem to be any fresh fish. The sta-
ples are bread and salt pork; the luxuries game and
fish; the delicacies an occasional mess of potatoes,
brought down the St. Lawrence once a year in Fortin’s
trading schooner.

Over the mantelpiece was a stuffed Canada grouse or
partridge and a ptarmigan in its winter plumage; but I
was most :delighted with the gift of some Quaternary
fossils with which Mrs. Chevalier kindly presented me,
including large specimens of Cardzta borealts, A por-
- vhats occtdentalzs and, most valuable of all, the valves of
a brachiopod shell, which I had also dredged on the
coast in ten fathoms, the Ay pothyris psettacea. On our
return down the river we fished up the valves of the

76 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

Pecten magellanicus, the great ‘scallop shell, which lives
in five or six feet of water. This. mollusc, which is lo-
cally known in Labrador by the name of “ pussel,” we
afterwards obtained in quantity, fried it in butter and
meal, finding it to be delicious eating, combining the
properties of the clam and oyster, the single large ad-
ductor muscle being far more tender than that of the
common scallop of southern New England and New
York.

With our man, James Mosier, and his sailboat we
spent two days in dredging in from forty to fifty fathoms
out in the Strait of Belle Isle, three or four miles from
land. The collection was a valuable one, containing
some new species. The crown of the bank which we
raked with our poorly constructed dredge was packed
with starfish, polyzoans (including a coral-like form, or
myriozoum), ascidians, shells, worms, and crustacea. The
collection was purely arctic, and had not the only dredge
I had become broken, we should have reaped, or rather
dredged, a rich harvest. As it was, the novelties were
quite numerous, and the interest and excitement, as well
as labor, of overhauling, sorting, and preserving what we
did obtain lasted for several days.

The only plant besides stony vegetable growths called
‘‘nullipores” dredged at this depth was a delicate red
sea-weed, the /zlota elegans, which was found after-
wards to extend as far down in depth as ninety fathoms.
Those who glibly talk, on ¢erra firma, of plant life as
affording a basis for animal life, should dredge in deep
water. They will find that a vast population of animals
of all sorts and conditions in the scale of life is spread
at all depths over the sea-bottom, thriving almost with-

DREDGING IN THE STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE. 77

out exception on one another—on animal protoplasm—
and in the beginning of creation animal life was without
doubt contemporaneous in appearance with vegetable
existence. Indeed, what is the difference in form and
structure between a bacterium and amoner? The two
worlds of plant and animal life arise from the same base,
a common foundation of simplest structure, showing

A BRANCHING PoLyzoon. AMyriozoum subgracile. (Natural size.)

none of the distinctive characteristics of animal or plant
life, and only barely earning the right to be called or-
ganisms, that vague term we apply for convenience to
any, even the simplest structures endowed with life.

Of all the pleasures of a naturalist’s existence, dredg-
ing has been, to our mind, the most intense. The severe
exertion, the swimming brain, the qualms of sea-sick-
ness, tired arms and a broken back, the memory of all
these fade away at the sight of the new world of life, or
at least the samples of such a world, which he wriggling
and sprawling on the deck of the sailboat, or sink out of
sight in the mud and ooze of the dredge, to be brought

78 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

to light by vigorous dashes of water drawn in over the
side of the boat. Those days of ‘dredging on the Lab-
rador coast, where there was such an abundance and
luxuriance of arctic varieties, were days never to be for-
gotten. There is a nameless charm, to our mind, in
everything pertaining to the far north, the arctic world,
and we can easily appreciate the fascination which leads
one back again to the polar regions, even if hunger and
frost had once threatened life. Arctic exploration has
but begun, and though its victims will yet be numbered
by the score, enthusiasts will still attempt the dangers of
arctic navigation, and fresh trophies will yet be won.

Early in August, during the few still clear nights suc-
ceeding bright and pleasant days, we had auroras of
wondrous beauty, not excelled by any depicted by arctic
voyagers.

On the :oth of August the curlews appeared in great
numbers. On that day we saw a flock which may have
been a mile long and nearly as broad; there must have
been in that flock four or five thousand! The sum total
of their notes sounded at times like the wind whistling
through the ropes of a thousand-ton vessel; at others
the sound seemed like the jingling of multitudes of sleigh-
bells. The flock soon after appearing would subdivide
into squadrons and smaller assemblies, scattering over
the island and feeding on the curlew-berries now ripe.
The small plover-like birds also appeared in flocks. The
cloud-berry was now ripe and supplied dainty tid-bits to
these birds,

By the 18th of the month the golden rods were in
flower. Here, as has been noticed in arctic regions, few
bees and wasps visit the flowers ; the great majority of

LABRADOR FOSSILS.” 79

insect: visitors are flies (Muscidz), especially the flesh fly
and allied forms. A bumble-bee occasionally presents
himself, more rarely a wasp, with an occasional ichneu-
mon fly, but the two-winged flies, and those of not
many species, were constant visitors to the August
flowers. The black flies still remained to this date terri-
ble scourges in calm weather, though in cloudy days and
at night they mostly disappeared. ,
Wandering through the fog and drizzle along the mud
flats on the northern side of the island I picked up
A porrhats occidentalis, Fusus tornatus, Cardita borealts,
large valves of Saxzcava rugosa, Buccinum and Astarte
sulcata and compressa, these and Pecten zslandicus and
*other shells forming much the same assemblage as I had
‘dredged a few days previous out in the straits in fifty
fathoms. The only recent shells lying about were shal-
low-water forms, such as the common clam, J7elzna
fusca and the razor shell. It was evident that here was
a raised sea-bottom, and the Quaternary formation. In
the afternoon I returned to the spot and dug up many
more shells. mingled with pieces of a yellow limestone
containing Silurian fossils, brachiopods, and corals. This
horizon, then, represented a deep sea-bottom, over which
the open sea must have stood at least 300 feet, while the
clay fossils of the mouth of the Esquimaux River must
have lived in a deep muddy bay sheltered from the waves
and currents of the open sea. The drift deposits of La-
brador are scanty in extent compared with those of the
Maine coast. They are but isolated patches compared
with the extensive beds of sand and clay which compose
the Quaternary deposits of New England.
On the 22d August we made our last excursion up

80 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

the Esquimaux River, going up some six miles from its
mouth. From a hill-top I could look over the surface
of this lake-dotted land. The surface was rugged and
bare in the extreme. The river valley, however, was
well wooded, the spruce and birch perhaps thirty feet in
height. Here and there the river passed through high
precipitous banks of sand. The hills were rough, scarred
with ravines, precipices, and deep gaps, the syenite
wearing into irregularly hummocky hills, the rough
places not filled up with drift, and thus the contours
tamed down as in New England. Indeed, Labrador at
the present day is like New England at the close of the
ice period or at the beginning of the epoch of great riv-
ers, before the terraces were laid down and the country
adapted for man’s residence. Labrador was never
adapted for any except scattered nomad tribes. It is
still an unfinished land.

While the hills were bare and the rocks covered with
the reindeer moss, here and there by the river's edge in
favorable, protected places were tall alders and willows,
with groups of asters and golden rods. Here I saw a
veritable toad, and glad enough was I to recognize his
lineaments. I was also told that there were frogs in ex-
istence, though we never saw or heard them. There are
no snakes or lizards, so that our history of these animals
in Labrador will be as brief as that of the Irish historian,
but we did find a small salamander at Belles Amours in
a later trip to this coast.

On our return we found that a whaler had towed a
whale into the mouth of the river and was about to try
out the oil, We secured a piece of the flesh, and on
reaching camp boiled it; it was not bad eating, tasting

THE RETURN HOME. 81

like coarse beef. Seal’s flippers we also found not to be
distasteful, though never to be regarded as a delicacy.
Dredging and collecting insects on fine days when not
too calm filled up the measure of our seven weeks. The
time passed rapidly, the days were too short for all the
work we planned to do, and it was not without regret:
that we left the rugged untamed shores of “the Labra--
dor.” On the afternoon of the very day she had set for
her return to Caribou Island, the Mauéz/us hove in sight.
As she made our harbor she struck, upon a sunken rock,
tore off a piece of her keel, but slid off and came to an-
chor as near as practicable to the mission house, and
then succeeded the mutual spinning of Labrador and
’ Greenland yarns by the reunited party.

CHAPTER V.
ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

Four o’clock Saturday morning, July 7th, 1860, in
the Strait of Belle Isle, and that huge rampart of rock,
these few icebergs stranded here and there, this occa-
sional lump of floe-ice floating down with the tide, these
outlandish puffins, and large flocks of eider-ducks skim-
ming the surface or flying high overheard, tell us that,
after nine days of sailing, we are sighting the Labrador
coast.

Here codfish grow largest and most numerous; so
twenty thousand fishermen from the British colonies and
about five thousand Yankees migrate hither every sum-
mer for the cod, herring, and salmon that swarm in
these icy waters. Here, in the spring of the year, num-
bers of hardy Newfoundland sealers risk their lives in the
ice just breaking up; while all the year round there are
estimated to be five thousand Esquimaux, Micmacs,
Englishmen, Frenchmen, Jerseymen, and _half-breeds,
who live, thanks to the codfish, on these favored shores.
Here people are born, live, and die, who have never
seen a horse, cow, sheep, or cat, or a civilized dog.
Wild Esquimaux dogs, savage, wolfish creatures, are the
only beasts of burden.

The animals and birds are half arctic and half temper-
ate. Sweet, dwarfish, arctic flowers here nestle in beds
of reindeer-moss, while our Alpine flora one may gather

82

APPROACHING THE COAST. 83

on Mount Washington luxuriates with stunted growths
of bushy firs and birches. So, nearly all the shells,
worms, and creeping things are the same in kind and
number as those that Otho Fabricius wrote of in his
‘“‘Fauna Gronlandica,” during his dreary life in southern
Greenland one hundred years ago.

As we approach land no capes run out to greet us, or
sheltered harbor opens its arms to embrace. An unin-
terrupted line of coast confronts the gulf. In one place
alone is the intense monotony of the outline relieved by
the Hills of Bradore, where the coast sweeps round fif-
teen miles to the eastward, and the Strait widens out.

It is a charming morning, the sun up but an hour, and
just breeze enough to move us over the placid sea.’
Flocks of grave, enormous-hook-billed puffins sweep by
us in squadrons of fifties and hundreds, or flocks of eider-
ducks fly swiftly out from the land. Coming up nearer
to this strange coast, the line breaks here and there; a
few rocksand islands start out fromthe shore. We pass
by schools of two-masted fishing-boats, with two men
apiece -hooking codfish ; we hail the fellows, but they
are too busy to look up. Things look a little more live-
ly; more islands appear, channels wind through them,
choked with fleets of fishing-smacks. But the wind
leaves us, so we put out a boat and are towed through
these narrow passages, whose walls of rock rise on each
side higher than the masts of our schooner, though not
very precipitously, for all has been worn down and sub-
dued by water. So we move along, as if on a smooth-
flowing, deep, narrow river, or a Norwegian fiord; now
we round a point, and can almost jump ashore; then a
bend in the channel takes us over to the other side ; now

84 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

we luff a little to avoid a group of Nova Scotia fisher-
men, fat, sleek, moon-faced fellows, whose boats, loaded
with fish, are busy discharging their burden, pitching up
on deck half-dead cod, which are seized in a trice by
groups of “headers,” “splitters,” and “gutters.” And
then the multitudinous smells, now coming fierce and
strong from deck and hold, anon gentle and spicy as the
cook turns the morning fry. Now the surface is
streaked with oily films, but these break away and dis-
close, six or eight fathoms below, a clear, sandy bottom,
strewed with fish offal, on which banks of sea-urchins
feed. If we look long and steadily enough, we shall see
swarms of beautiful, delicate, transparent jelly-fish, with
an occasional Clio, a winged mollusk, fully as pure and
beautiful, only more transparent. Suddenly the bottom
is obscured by an immense shoal of caplin, slowly swim-
ming just above the bottom. The rocks now reveal
green, sunny declivities; little valleys, sprinkled with
flowers; an arctic butterfly comes out to our vessel ; and
now we open upon a house; it is only a deserted. fish-
house, but a cur, keeping up an incessant barking on the
other side of the hill, lets us know that there are human
beings, as well as canine, not far off. If we may believe
it, there is a small, stunted, homely, Quebec cow feeding
on the side of the hill. Here was a clear case of unnat-
ural selection. The scenic features of this coast do not
demand a cow to grace the foreground. Her nautical
owner informs us, in sturdy Labradorian dialect, that
she had been brought up this spring. ‘I made her fast
to her moorings, and there let her bide to eat the grass,”
Her husband had broken loose from his moorings, and
was emulating the roar of the waves on the “ land-wash.”

CARIBOU ISLAND. 85

The children, more used to seals and sea-cows, had not
yet recovered from their astonishment at this freak of
Nature. :

The channel now widens out into the bay of Bonne.
Espérance, a fine open space of water, tolerably well
sheltered from storms. Two days after I got settled on
Caribou Island, in Salmon Bay, three miles east of
Bonne Espérance.

Nearly the whole coast of Labrador is lined with mul-
titudes of small islands, separated by deep, narrow chan-
nels from the mainland, with here and there a bay of
some extent, where the islands are separated far apart.
Thus, a small sail-boat can start from the mouth of the
St. Lawrence, and take an inside passage up to the
Strait of Belle Isle, and there will only be a few places
where she will encounter the outside swell. These num-
berless islets and channels are too numerous and intricate
to be accurately mapped. At least, our ordinary charts
give no accurate idea of. their location, and navigation
for the whole coast is a matter of guess-work. |

Caribou Island is the largest within fifty miles, per.
haps, of Salmon Bay. It is about two miles long and
half as broad. But it isin vain to guess about the length
or breadth of any part of this rough-and-tumble country,
so I will measure it with my legs. It is a fresh, cool,
breezy morning ; thermometer, say, at 56°. At noon it
will not be higher than 65°.

At the outset, it may as well be said that this is no
country for slippers or calfskin boots of ordinary make.
Here Jersey cowhide or native-made sealskin boots are.
the mode. With anything on but these, two minutes’
walk out-doors will wet one’s feet thoroughly, so wet

86 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

and soaked is the boggy ground. For bog-trotting, or
moss-tramping, or climbing rocks, sealskins @ la Esgus-
maux, so light and water-tight, are indispensable.

The way lies round the head of a little bay, which
meets a quiet vale, filled with grass and ferns at the top,
but half-way down, as it widens out, choked with a
stunted spruce and fir growth, or what the people call
“‘tuckme,” or * tuckermel-bush.” It is in vain that we
try to push through it, so dense the growth, so gnarled,
twisted, and grown together in one impenetrable mass
the trunks; and so flat and table-like the branches spread
out above. Here is a perfectly tight shelter, should it
rain. Many a hunter, belated at nightfall, has crept
under these bushes and made a comfortable night of it.
So the bears find good hiding-places here, and cannot be
found without dogs to scent them out. Lower down,
the valley extends into an alder-swamp, a lilliputian
growth, perhaps three feet high, choked with rank grasses
and sedges, crowding the sides of a slow-moving brook,
Here mosquitoes and black-flies swarm; we are under
shelter of a cliff, and there is no wind to keep off these
horrible pests. How they rage and torment, these myr-
iad entomological furies! Now for a frantic rush out
of this purgatory, and a tiresome climb of a hundred
feet up this cliff! It is high, but not very rough, for all
the rocks are hidden by soft reindeer-moss, and the crev-
ices are filled up with tuckermel, and the ravines that
run down its sides have their dripping, mossy walls
sprinkled over with Alpine flowers and their bottoms
carpeted with coarse arctic grasses. Only here and there
patches of the original granite show themselves, Now
and then a brown or yellow butterfly flits by, or an arc-

SALMON BAY. 87

tic bumble-bee hums and buzzes in the flowers; two
or three beetles crawl over the fern-leaves, while a few
meagre, lean-looking flies lead a sort of doubtful exist-
ence. There is none of that outburst and profusion of
insect-life that characterizes woodland life in the States
in midsummer. For the benefit of the entomologically
curious, I will state that nowhere on the coast, or inland,
at least within twenty miles of Salmon Bay, has a grass-
hopper been seen or heard of! The common red-legged
grasshopper, that is so abundant everywhere with us all
the summer, which luxuriates on the summit of Mount
Washington, and is found by arctic travellers about Mel-
bourne Island, spread, in fact, all through British and
Arctic America, is here wanting, so scanty and parsimo-
nious is the distribution of insect-life on these shores.
But I must mention the wasp’s nest I stumbled upon
one day, about as large as one of Heenan’s fists, stuck
down under the moss, ina mass of roots. Well aware
of the notorious temper of these insects, and fully con-
scious of past sad experiences, I approached the dread
precincts, extended a six-foot pole, and gave a gentle
tap—no answer; another—two individuals crawl out—a
simultaneous rush of the invader to the rear; the “ com-
bat deepens’—four more dabs with the six-footer—a
baker’s dozen issue forth and fly around, alas! how dolo-
rous and sad! They give chase for a pace or two, and
then pause, look back irresolutely, and give it up. Such
was my experience with Labrador wasps.

By this time we have topped the cliff, and far down
below lies Salmon Bay. Seven fishermen from New-
buryport find here one of the best harbors on the coast
—securely landlocked, and good anchorage in fifteen

88 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

fathoms’ mud—a beautiful dredging-ground. Large
cockles, curious pelican’s-feet, delicate nereids, clumsy
crabs, and neat, active shrimp, abound and multiply as
the sands of the sea in number. On the right is Salmon
Bay settlement, one of the most populous places on the
coast, consisting of seven families. And now the eye,
sweeping north, east, and west, takes in the vast desola-
tion of hills; relieved only by gleaming fragments of
ponds, or snow-banks of a sullen white. There is no
continuous series of ranges rising up back of one an-
other, like any well-ordered mountain group, but a
chopped sea of undeveloped mountains, whose tops seem
to have been ground down by water and ice when the
world was much younger than it is now, but which, after
this, as if a rebel horde of Titans, made seemingly inef-
fectual attempts to grow up again, and only succeeded
in spots; which, bare then, have been kept bare ever
since by arctic frosts and snows.

If we imagine we can see forests growing among
those hills, it is only because we have been told that
woods do grow in the sheltered valleys, and now and
then venture up the hill-sides. Thus the country runs
back for hundreds of miles, the hills rising five to eight
hundred feet high, bare and desolate, but the valleys are
much better wooded in the interior of the country, be-
ing warmer and more sheltered. There are no regular
rivers in Labrador, only rows of ponds—and very
crooked rows—linked by rapids, which the Mountaineers
only can navigate in their light canoes. There are no
water-sheds, no continuous valleys to unite into one

stream the thousand ponds that gather in every depres-
sion,

STONE CIRCLES. 89

But we have feasted long enough upon this rare, unique
scene: We speak not of the freshness of the breeze,
of the exhilaration and inspiration it brings, and not,
least of all, of the perfect freedom from every sign of fly
or mosquito. Now, as we return, for two miles of bog-
trotting, an hour of black-fly and mosquito fighting!
While sitting upon the hill during that half-hour’s rest
the breeze kept the flies from our face ; but how secretly
and in what untoward numbers had the silvery-legged
rascals crept into our flannel shirts, covered hat and back,
doing nothing but hold on for the wind! but now,
under lee of this wall, the plagues have the advantage.
They fly into our face, eyes, nose, and mouth; they do
not bite hard, like the mosquitoes, but the vampires suck
long and deep, leaving great clots of blood. To com-
plete the work, half a dozen frightful horse-flies of gigan-
tic stature hover about; now and then, when we are not
watching, they will settle down on our hands and bite
terribly, making a wound which does not heal for days.
It is useless to try to bear it. I make a stampede up
the rocks to the breeze, but they follow in clouds, pounc-
ing down like small-shot on my wide-awake. So run-
ning, as if for my life, one moment, and stopping to rest
the next ; now starting up a white-headed finch or soli-
tary robin, or stopping to watch a Canadian jay or hun-
gry cormorant sailing aloft, or pausing to trace out two
or three contiguous circles of bowlder-stones, which
marked the former wigwams of the Esquimaux, who used
to have bloody fights on this island with the Mountain-
eer Indians; now wading a swamp, or making détours
round miniature ponds, or jumping a narrow ravine, or
circumnavigating a growth of tuckermel—I come toa

go ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

stand on the south side of the island. It has been blow-
ing fresh for two or three days from the southwest, and
the gulf rolls in a magnificent surf, sweeping grandly upon
the pebbly beach or dashing wildly against the sea-wall.
Half a mile from shore a huge iceberg is stranded, and
the wind blows cold and damp. Farther out on the
Strait the sun flashes on four or five other fine bergs,
though it is the middle of July. And so clear is the air,
that the low blue-limestone coast of Newfoundland, forty
miles opposite, can easily be seen.

Now, where are all the sea-birds that I expected to
find filling the air, and crowding the rocks, up here in
Labrador? A lonely raven is just passing over, a few
small land-birds are chipping on the rocks, a small owl
wings his noiseless flight low over the bogs—these, with
a pair of saddle-back gulls sailing aloft, are about the
only birds to be seen. Sometimes a loon flies over the
island, or a small flock of eider-ducks settles down in a
pool. If one pushes out a little way into the Strait,
he will start up a few razor-billed auks, or see a flock of
guillemots, or their cousins, the murres. People here
call the guillemots sea-pigeons, though more like crows
than pigeons in size and color. A flock of puffins will
fly off just out of gunshot across the bows of one’s boat,
for all these sea-birds are shy and difficult to approach.
I must delay a moment on these puffins. They are
queer, grave birds, profoundly Quakerish in their habit,
wise-looking as the seven Gothamites, only wanting a
pair of good, old-fashioned, silver-bowed spectacles to
set off their enormous hook-nosed visages. Just here
they are not very abundant, but fifteen miles up the
coast, at Bradore, these peculiar people have appropriated

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a red-sandstone island. On this patch of rock, whose
soft, crumbling surface they bore in all directions, mak-
ing galleries about a foot from the surface, they have
bred from time immemorial. However wild they are
on the waves, here they suffer themselves to be pulled
forth from their holes and summarily choked by ardent
ornithologists without a squeak of resistance.

Indeed, June and July, or the first of August, is no
time to come to Labrador for birds: all the ducks are
among the inland ponds, breeding. The sea-birds that
breed here gather in one place sixty miles down the coast,
on the Bird Islands, forming the Mecatina group. There
are few to molest their nests, and they live in compara-
tive quiet. Leta crew visita breeding-place in the middle
-of June, and they can very quickly load a boat with eggs.
It is said that vessels come up here from Boston every
year, and load up with eggs to carry back to the States.

About the middle of August that beautiful and grace-
ful bird, the sea-swallow, or arctic tern, makes its appear-
ance, flying about the sea-cliffs, hovering over the fisher-
men’s boats, and keeping up an interminable screeching
and twittering; they are the most garrulous of gulls.
With them appear a few of the rarer gulls. Then the
ring-necked and semipalmated plover, and flocks of sand-.
peeps and yellow-legs gather on the flats. But the cur-
lews eclipse them all. We had had intimations of their
arrival. Already had small squadrons been seen wheel-
ing around the hill-tops, and now over the sea, and as
they advanced or retreated, their “mild mixing cadence”
now grew loud and near, and now waxed fainter and-
fainter. On the afternoon of the 1oth of August I
heard the alarm of “Curlew!” and, sure enough, over

92 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR.

across the neck, a mile away, was a flock of these birds,
darkening nearly a square mile of the sky. There must
have been many thousands in that flock, all piping and
whistling like the jingling of ten thousand sleigh-bells,
or the whistling of the wind through the ropes of a
squadron of seventy-fours, while performing a series of
evolutions of wonderful celerity and precision. The
whole mass wheeled around the hills and over the plain,
now stretching out over the bay, made up of smaller
troops, chasing each other around and through the whole
moving mass in the greatest apparent confusion and dis-
order. It was really a great sight, this marshalling of
the curlew hosts. After this grand review of their forces
they separate into small flocks, scatter over the country
to feed on the curlew-berries now ripening, or to patrol
the shore at low-water in search of stray worms and
snails. The inhabitants kill large quantities of this deli-
cious bird, and salt them down in barrels for winter use.
They cannot conjecture where they come from, but say
that the first northeast wind in late summer always
brings them.

But the sun is going down in the fog and mist driving
in from the gulf. The wind has hauled to the east, and
blows chilly and damp ; and so ended many of the thirty
fair days of the fifty I spent in Southern Labrador.

CHAPTER VI.

A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.
I. From Boston To HENLEY HARBOR.

In the spring of 1864, Mr. William Bradford, the well-
known marine artist of New York, organized a party to
cruise along the coast of Labrador, and if possible to
reach Hudson’s Strait, for the purpose of painting ice-
bergs and arctic scenery. After having previously spent
a summer on the southern coast, with no opportunity of
extended explorations, it seemed rare good fortune to
make one of a party bound for the Moravian settle-
ments, and possibly Cape Chidley.

On the 4th of June, at 10.15 a.m., the fast schooner
Benjamin S. Wright, Captain Brown, with two pilots,
Capt. Ichabod Handy of Fair Haven, Mass., for the
northern coast, and Capt. French for the southern shore,
a Norwegian mate and two deck hands, with a cook and
two cabin boys, carrying a party of fourteen gentlemen
comprising lawyers, clergymen, naturalists, sportsmen,
and pleasure-seekers, left the Philadelphia Packet Pier,
Boston. Owing to an easterly wind a tug towed us
down to the Narrows, where we spread our canvas, and
beat down to Provincetown for the purpose of buying a
whaleboat, making harbor there at 9.30 in the evening.

Spending Sunday at Provincetown, where we visited
some friends in the coast-guard, several of whom after-

wards distinguished themselves in the war of the Rebel-
93

94 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

lion, on the 6th, with a fresh northwest wind which so
effectually ruffled the ocean that nearly every man set-
tled his account there and then with the sea-god, our
course was laid for Cape Sable, which we sighted at
about 1 o’clock in the afternoon of the 7th,

The following day we bowled along at the distance of
twelve miles from the Nova Scotian coast, the wind
blowing afresh gale from the northwest, and about 2
a.m. of the 8th ran into Chedabucto Bay, anchoring four
miles from Port Mulgrave. Weighing anchor the next
day and moving up to the town, a mean little fishing-—
hamlet, while the crew took in wood and water, each one,
according to his taste, went either shopping or trouting
in the rain, or geologizing. On the following day I
walked towards Porcupine Point, a bold headland said
to be 275 feet above the Gut of Canso. The view over
the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a very pleasant one. The
Gut of Canso opens into the Gulf four miles from the
Point. The drift material consists of a rich soil con-
taining bits and masses of red sandstone, some of the
fragments containing calamites and the impressions of
delicate sea-weeds. The rocks zz sztu are a white con-
glomerate dipping at an angle of 80° and with a N. and
S. strike.

The shores of the Gut of Canso are high and bold on
the western side, but much lower on the Cape Breton
shore. The contours of the hills on the Nova Scotian.
coast are like those of a granite-gneiss region, the hills
terminating in drift “scaurs.” On the Cape Breton side
the houses are more numerous and the farms either more
fertile or cultivated with greater care. At Port Mul-
grave the inhabitants did not raise vegetables enough for

IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 95

their own consumption; and not infrequently a farmer
was seen ploughing with a single ox. Exchange was
$1.95. The people were all ‘“sesesh.” Although for
the disunion of the “ States,” nothing could separate them
from the love of whiskey and gin, as in the course of the
afternoon there was a miserable stabbing fray, witnessed
by a good many of the inhabitants, though it should be
said that there were thirty sail then in the port, from
which part of the material for the affray was afforded.

Our fishermen returned with a liberal supply of trout,
and Mr. Bradford shipped a steward, who turned out to
be an Indian soldier, and had assisted in blowing Sepoys
from the cannon’s mouth. Whether he was morally and
intellectually worse or better than a Sepoy was often a
matter of discussion on the cruise.

We were now ready to push out into the Gulf, and
the latter was now ready for the reception of the Benz.
S. Wright. For but a few days ago vessels had been
jammed in the ice immediately north of Port Mulgrave,
the ice having remained later in the Gulf and been more
abundant the past spring than for years. We were told
that it was possible for people to walk on the ice a hun-
dred miles out from the Magdalen Islands.

The next day found us off St. George’s Bay, the sport
of light, baffling winds or of dead calms, but these ena-
bled us to receive lasting impressions of the beautiful
green slopes of the Cape Breton shores, with their ex-
panse of green sward framing the square acres of
ploughed land centred by red farm-houses. These were
our last views of cultivated fields and well-trimmed glebes,
until on our return we beheld the rich red farm-lands ot
Prince Edward’s Island.

96 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

Sunday the 12th was a red-letter day, spent about the
home of the gannet or solan-goose. At seven o’clock
in the morning—and what a glorious one it was: the
air soft and balmy, our good vessel’s bows gently rising
and falling on the swell as if saluting in a measured,
dignified way the appearance of the god of day—at this
hour Entry Island, one of the Magdalens, was twelve

THE LARGEST OF THE BIRD ROCKS, AS SEEN IN 1864.
(From a Photograph by Black.)

miles off. It is a high mass of red sandstone with
abrupt sides and surmounted by two knolls ; near it
were several small islands, and a high grayish rock
deeply incised by narrow valleys plunging suddenly
down to the sea.

At noon we approached the Bird Rocks, a group
of three islets, the largest 250 feet high and from a

THE BIRD ROCKS. 97

quarter to half a mile in length, the longest diameter
extending east and west. The top is nearly flat and
slopes gently towards the south. It is formed, as seen
from the south side through a good glass at a distance
of half a mile, of red friable sandstone, with thin beds of
grit, which near the water’s edge are several feet in
thickness, while several loose fragments look like bowl-
ders, though there are no true transported rocks:on the
island. :

The islets were nearly white on top, and I supposed
this was due to the guano, but Mr. Bradford assured me
that the white frosting, as it seemed to be, was the birds
themselves; and sure enough, except a central patch of
brown and green herbage, the western end was in part,
and the eastern half of the island entirely, white with
female gannets, resting on the rock above as well as on
the larger shelves on the sides, while the small nooks and
shelves of grit were appropriated by myriads of murres.

At the report of a gun swarms of birds would rise
from the rock and flutter in the air like flies, and at a
rough estimate 10,000 were there. To the leeward
many gannets, males, were seated in the water or flying
over it, in company with a few murres—but nearly all
were as if in ceaseless motion, and busy fishing or re-
turning with fish to the avian metropolis.*

* In this connection it is interesting to read the description of the Bird Rock
in Cartier’s first voyage.

‘““Wee went southeast about 15 leagues, and came to three Ilands, two of
which are as steepe and vpright as any wall, so that it was not possible to climbe
them; and betweene them there is a little rocke. These Ilands were as full of
birds, as any field or medow is of grasse, which there do make their nestes ;
and in the greatest of them there was a great and infinite number of those that
wee call Margaulx, that are white, and bigger than any geese, which were
severed in one part. In the other were onely Godetz, but toward the shoare

98 A SUMIMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

Mr. Bradford spent a busy day in sketching the
unique scene, and his photographer, Mr. Pierce, from
Black’s studio in Boston, took four good photographs
of the rocks and birds. These rocks are the remnants
of what were once vastly more extended strata, and the
question arose in my mind whether the red soil of Port
Mulgrave and vicinity were not the dé¢brzs which had
been in part borne from the Magdalen Isles, and in part
from Prince Edward’s Island.

Since 1864, when the photograph was taken by Mr,
Bradford of which the accompanying sketch is a repro-
duction, great changes have come over the, famous gan-
net rookery of Bird Rocks. Mr. W. Brewster, who,
with Prof. Hyatt and others, visited these rocks in 1881,
says in his account: ‘In 1860 the number of gannets.
breeding on the éop of Great Bird (then uninhabited)
was estimated by Bryant at about ‘ fifty thousand pairs,’
or one hundred thousand birds. In 1872 Maynard
found this portion of the colony reduced to about five

there were of those Godetz, and Apponatz. We put into our boats so many of
them as we pleased, for in lesse than one houre we might have filled thirtie such
boats of them: we named them the Ilands of Margaulx. About five leagues
fro the said Ilands on the west, there is another Iland that is about two leagues
in length, and so much in breadth: there did we stay all night to take in water
and wood. That Iland is enuironed round about with sand and hath a very
good road about it, three or foure fadome deep. Those Ilands have the best
soile that euer we saw, for that one of their fields is more worth then all the
New land. We found it all full of goodly trees, medowes, fields full of wild
corne and peason bloomed, as thick, as ranke, and as faire as any can be seene
in Britaine so that they seemed to have bene ploughed and sowed. There was
also a great store of gooseberies, strawberies, damaske roses, parseley, with
other very sweet and pleasant hearbes. About the said Iland are very great
beastes as great as oxen, which have two great teeth in their mouths like vnto
elephants teeth, and liue also in the sea. We saw one of them sleeping vpon
the banke of the water ; wee thinking to take it went to it with our boates, but
so soone as he heard vs, he cast himselfe into the sea. We saw also beares
and wolves ; we named it Brions Iland. (Hakluyt, iii. 254.)

FIRST VIEW OF “THE LABRADOR.” 99

thousand birds (a lighthouse had been erected on the

summit of the rock and several men were living there). .
When we landed in 1881 the top of the rock was prac-

tically abandoned, although there were some fifty nests.

at the northern end, which had been robbed a few days

before, and about which the birds still lingered.”

Mr. Brewster says, however, that the common guil-
~lemot (Lomvia troile) still breeds at Bird Rocks in
amazing numbers, but that the number is rapidly de-
creasing, owing to the introduction of a cannon which is
fired every half-hour during foggy weather. ‘“ At each
discharge,” he says, “the frightened murres fly from the
rocks in clouds, nearly every sitting bird taking its egg
into the air between its thighs and dropping it after fly-
ing a few yards. This was repeatedly observed during
our visit, and more than once a perfect shower of eggs
fell into the water around our boat.”

At 6 o'clock this evening we were 95 miles from
Little Mecatina Island, and at 11 o’clock of the next
day (the 13th), we sighted land lying under a mirage
which looked like the land itself, while the snow-banks
ashore were transformed into icebergs floating in the
guast sea. This singular mirage lasted until evening.
As the land gradually “hove” in sight the mirage re-
ceded and the bergs became veritable banks of snow.
Little Mecatina was passed at 6 in the evening; its
longer diameter was north and south, and the southern
end of the glaciated island showed finely the “stoss”
side, the “struck” side gradually sloping towards the
north. The Labrador coast at this point becomes high
and bold, presenting a continuous front to the Gulf, with
an occasional “hump” rising perhaps 300 feet or more

100 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

above the general level of the land. The Island of
Mecatina is 685 feet above the Gulf, Cape Mecatina
being the highest land from Mingan to Bradore.

We dropped anchor in Sleupe harbor in Gore Island,
after the quickest voyage Capt. French had ever made.
The run from Boston had been a fine one, with north-
west winds throughout, and no fog. At sunset the
thermometer was 42°, and it grew still cooler as we ran
into our harbor, which was on the southern exposure, on
which were numerous snow-banks in the deep gulches
leading down to the water.

The rocks were red syenite, like those of Mt. Desert,
Me., with its characteristic hummocky outline and pre-
cipitous walls fronting the sea. No bowlders were seen
about the harbor, but the rocky shores were marked and
polished by the ice for a few feet above the water's edge.

The murres and saddle-back gulls were now just
hatching, while the eider-ducks were beginning to lay
their eggs. The curlew-berry was now in flower. In
the garden of one of the settlers (Michael Canté), who
were French Canadians, the rhubarb or pie plant was
just above ground, the parsnips were six inches high,
and the grass about the houses was four inches in height,
but as yet there was no verdure on the hills, the surface
being still sere and rusty, the snow having so recently
melted away. ‘The season opens here the middle or last
of May, when the snow mostly disappears. The ice left
the bay the 20th of May, and about this date the black
bear comes out of his winter quarters. It was too early
for cod or salmon, and the capelin had not appeared.

Our harbor was between two islands, and on one were
two houses, and on the other five, one of them a well-

THE EIDER-DUCK AND ITS NEST. IOI

built, neat house. About them loungéd several Esqui-
maux dogs, We dredged in ten fathoms ona rocky
bottom, not, however, bringing up any novelties, though
the animals were all of purely arctic types.

June 14 was spent in egging and in collecting insects.
Mr. Bradford secured the services of a Frenchman and
his sail-boat, and with several others of the party landed
on three islands situated four or five miles away. We
found eight nests and twenty-five eggs of the eider-
duck, with those of the murre or guillemot and auk,
besides three gull’s eggs, probably those of the saddle-
back. We also founda nest of the red loon: it was
situated on the edge of a small pond. The nest, partly
submerged, was fourteen inches in diameter and in size
and appearance like the gulls’ nests, though the latter
were placed in dryer localities. The eider-ducks’ nests
were abundant, as were those of the razor-billed auks,
but those of the murres were even less common. The
eider-ducks ten years ago were extremely abundant, but
the unremitting attacks upon their nests by ‘“eggers”
has resulted in the partial extinction of this valuable and
interesting bird. All the eiders were busy in making
their nests and in laying their eggs. The old or com-
pleted nests contained a great mass of down, and were
12 to 15 inches in outside diameter, the downy mass in
which the eggs sank being five or six inches high; the
newer nests were without down; there were about five
eggs to anest. Most of the nests which we saw were
built on low land, near pools and not far from the sea-
water, in a dense thicket of dwarf spruce trees, called
“‘tucking-bush ” or ‘‘ tuckermel.” The murres and auks,
as is well known, do not make nests, but drop their eggs

102 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

under projecting rocks, or on overhanging shelves on
high cliffs, or under blocks of granite. I found one
murre’s egg which had been laid on the ice under a huge
rock, and as I worked my way under the rock to get at
the single egg, the stupid bird did not fly, but simply
moved a few steps beyond my reach, making an odd
guttural noise. It need scarcely be added that the vicin-
ity of a murre’s or auk’s nest is filthy in the extreme.
The egg-shell of these nestless birds is very thick, so
that they may roll about or drop down without break-
ing; how they came to be so much more conical or
pointed at one end than usual is an interesting question.*
We also saw a king eider flying with a small flock of
eiders, as well as several “shags” and a northern phal-
erope.

Insect-life was now stirring; the pools abounded in
water boatmen (Cor7xa), and whirligig beetles (Gyre
nus), while a species of feathered gnat (Corethra) was
just leaving the pupa, the cast skins of the latter floating
on the surface of the pools. A lonely humble-bee was
flying fussily about, a syrphus-fly was hovering over the
flowers of the cloud-berry, and other insects were found
under stones, amongst the moss, or in the water. The
appearance of insect-life corresponded to that of south-

* “ There was one bird in particular which we watched for some time, the
proud possessor of a brilliant green, strongly marked egg—as usual, to all
appearance quite out of proportion to her own size—which she arranged and
rearranged under her, trying with beak and wing to tuck the sharp end between
her legs, but never quite satisfied that it was covered as it should be. But for
the wonderful provision for its safety in the shape of the guillemot’s egg (a round,
fiat-sided wedge, which makes it, when pushed, turn round on the point instead of
rolling, as eggs of the usual form if placed on a bare rock would do), most of
those we saw would probably have been dashed to pieces long before.” (T.
Digby Pigott’s Birds of the Outer Faroes, 1888.)

THE CORMORANT AND ITS NEST, 103

ern Maine at the end of April. The next day a white-
faced wasp (Vespa maculata) flew aboard the vessel.
The day was spent in searching for eider nests, of which
I found a dozen in the ‘‘ tucking-bush,” with thirty eggs,
and the rude nests and eggs of the saddle-back gull.
June 16th was a beautiful day, rather warm, with light
winds from the east and south, or quite calm. In the
afternoon a shower passed over from the west, and at night
the wind was northerly ; the southwest summer winds had
not yet set in, the prevailing winds being northerly. We
_ Spent the day in a search for the eggs of the “ waupigan ”
or common cormorant, and those of the shag or double-
crested cormorant; William, a very intelligent French
Canadian, taking us to their nesting-place in his row-boat.
The nests were situated on a high cliff, a sort of shelf.
We let William down over the precipice with a rope.
There were fifty-five nests in all, and over them rose
flocks of cormorants disturbed at our coming; they were
very shy and flew rapidly far off, wheeling about in cir-
cles, but not daring to come near the nesting-place.
There were five eggs in a nest; the latter were about
20 inches in outside diameter, built of thick birch limbs,
whitened, as was the rocky shelf, with the excrement of
the birds, and the entire neighborhood was pervaded
with a far-reaching and intolerable stench of decaying
fish. The eggs of the common cormorant are said to be
laid earlier in the season than those of any other bird ;
they are long, pointed, and of a dirty tea-color, some
nearly white. The shags’ nests, mixed with those of the
waupigan, were situated in another place adjoining.
They are usually laid on the bare rock, and William was
surprised to find them on the precipice. The eggs are

104. A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

smaller than those of the common cormorant, are whiter
and more pointed, and are laid later than those of any
other bird.

On our return we went by invitation into William’s
house ; his children were attractive in looks, with fine
eyes. This family and a neighboring one were the two
leading French Canadian families on the coast. They
told us that it was harder to gain a livelihood than here-
tofore, the game and fish getting scarcer. Still, one
family winter before last shot 1100 partridges. William,
by the way, told us that there were four varieties of part-
ridge: the spruce partridge, and the white or ptarmigan,
of which they distinguish the mountain ptarmigan and
the river ptarmigan, the latter the rarest ; the fourth kind
they call the pheasant. The partridges were said to be
now laying their eggs. William raised last year twenty-
five bushels of potatoes, also turnips, while barley, hav-
ing three months to grow, ripens on this inhospitable
coast. Sheep might be raised; there were no cows,
though to the westward they are kept the year through.
We were told that a walrus was killed near St. Augus-
tine within twenty-five years, and that two had been seen
in this vicinity since then. It will be remembered that
the walrus formerly abounded in the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, having been rendered extinct by the early fisher-
men on the Magdalen Islands.

We saw an egging vessel at a distance. The “egg-
ers” watch their chances to take great quantities of eggs
of sea-birds, especially those of the eider-duck and
murres. But there are now few who follow this illegal
and nefarious occupation. Twenty years ago the busi-
ness was at its height, and a schooner would load a cargo

TRANSPARENCY OF THE WATER. 105

of 65 barrels of eggs and take them to the States or up
the St. Lawrence River to Quebec or Montreal. Of late
years they would give half of what they found to the
settlers on the coast as hush-money. When collecting
the eggs they would make “caches” of them, covering
the heaps with moss; and if they were on the point of
being caught they would smash the whole cargo of eggs
rather than be seized with them. Many are the adven-
tures which the eggers have passed through, and the
stories told of them rival the tales of smugglers and pri-
vateersmen on more favored shores. They still collect
and wantonly destroy the eggs of murres.

The eggs of the eider-ducks we found to make a good
omelet, but those of the murres and gulls were too fishy
to be palatable ; the food of the murres and puffin as well
as gulls consisting largely of small fish, such as capelin
and lance fish (4 mmodytes). We saw male eiders two
years old ; they were brown with a little white; we were
told that the eider is four years in arriving at maturity ;
the guillemot only two years; the puffins and murres
becoming adult in one year. The eider-duck is easily
domesticated, and the young will follow a person to
whom they are accustomed like a dog.

As soon as our vessel came into shallow water,—and in
our boat excursions we were constantly impressed by the
transparency of the water on this coast—we could look
down for thirty or forty feet and see with distinctness the
bottom with dark masses of sea-urchins and starfish.
The water is more transparent than on the Florida coast.
Indeed the fishermen sometimes complain of this prop-
erty of the water, saying that the fish can see the nets too
readily and do not enter them. The water is so clear

106 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

that the Ctenophores, Idyia roseola and Pleurobrachia, as
well as another kind I could not secure, were beautifully
distinct far down in the pellucid depths. Fishing had
begun at this locality to-day, the cod having struck in.
It is evident that the ice having disappeared for nearly a
month the water inshore undoubtedly had grown warm
enough to allow the cod and other fish to come into shoal-
water and spawn. It was manifest that as the season
opened later and later from south to north, the move-
ment inshore would be later and later from south to north,
and this fact has undoubtedly given rise to the popular
impression that the cod and other fish migrated from the
southern to the northern portions of the coast of our
continent.

I anxiously questioned William as to the nature of the
interior of Labrador. He told me that there were plains
and terraces inland ; that there were toads and frogs and
“lizards,” which being interpreted undoubtedly means
the salamander, most probably Plethodon glutenosus of
Baird. He had been here twenty years before he saw
a grasshopper, but this was not on the coast, but in the
interior; and I know scarcely a better criterion of an
arctic land-fauna than the entire absence of grasshoppers
on the Labrador coast, since none occur in the circum-
polar regions, either treeless Arctic America, Greenland
or Spitzbergen ; but the interior wooded portion of the
Labrador peninsula supports a truly boreal or “‘ Canadian”
insect fauna, with grasshoppers.

Among the insects found were the showy caterpillars
of Arctza caja and a weevil. Of the more noticeable
flowers, there were a pink Arenaria, and a leek-like plant
which I have often seen on thesummit of Mt. Washington,

CARIBOU ISLAND. 107

The 17th we weighed anchor, and with light winds
and some rain early in the morning, but a strong north-
easterly head-wind in the forenoon, we made only twenty-
five miles during the day. The coast along our course
was of very even height, the monotonous outline being
relieved by an occasional elevation. The rock was of
syenite with its characteristic scenic features. It was of
warm, reddish flesh tints, but full of chinks and cracks,
made by the water percolating or running into them and
freezing, resulting in the cracking and disruption of large
rock masses. Then the continued action of the frost
year after year widens the chinks into gulches, with even,
precipitous sides, now filled with snow-banks ten or
fifteen feet long, and sometimes a dozen or more rods
in extent, their edges bordered with arctic flowers. The
hills were barren on top, with moss and dwarf spruce in
the cavities or ravines. Here and there were to be seen
clumps of grass, but the herbage in a Labrador fore-
ground is not grasses or sedges, but low shrubby woody
plants such as the dwarf cranberry, the curlew-berry
(Empetrum nigrum), etc., which form a dense uniform
carpet of varied but dull green hues.

On the afternoon of the 18th we dropped anchor near
Caribou Island, and on landing found Mr. Carpenter, the
missionary of these shores, who had befriended us in so
many ways while camping on this island in the summer
of 1860. He was well and prospering in his good work.
I lost no time in borrowing aspade and digging for
quaternary fossils, and was rewarded with the discovery
of several species not detected in 1860; among these
were Serripes groenlandicus, Bucconum undatum, etc.

On the evening before June 20, the longest day of the

108 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

year, I could read fine print until half-past eleven at
night. The next morning I dredged in eight fathoms
before weighing anchor, and was delighted to find several
large specimens of a delicate bivalve shell (Pandorina
arenosa); it was afterwards dredged up the coast at
Long Island in fifteen fathoms in sand and stony bottom.
It had not before been found south of the polar seas ;
its discovery so far south was interesting from the fact
that we had found it in a fossil state in sandy strata of
clay at Brunswick, Me., and had also been found in the
quaternary clays at Saco, Me., by Mr. C. B. Fuller. The
association of this shell with Mzcula expansa (antiqua)
in the brick-yard clays gives positive proof that during
the wane of the ice period the shore of Maine was the
home of a truly polar assemblage of marine animals, and
that then as now on this coast these shells were not con-
fined to deep water, but lived in shallow retired bays in
water not over fifty feet in depth.

Throughout the day we were in sight of the butte-like:
Bradore Hills, the highest of the three mountains being
1264 feet above the level of the Gulf. As these moun-
tains overlook the scene of Jacques Cartier’s explorations
in the Straits of Belle Isle, we would suggest that the
highest of the three elevations be named Mt. Cartier.

On the shores of Bradore Bay are still to be seen, it
is said, the ruins of the ancient port of Brest, which
was founded by the Bretons and Normans about the
year 1500. The ruins are situated about three miles
west of the present boundary of Canada at Blanc Sablon.
Samuel Roberton states in his Notes on the Coast of
Labrador : “ As to the truth of Louis Robert’s remarks
there can be no doubt, as may be seen from the ruins and

MOUNT CARTIER. 109

terraces of the buildings, which were chiefly constructed
of wood. I estimate that at one time it contained 200
houses, besides stores, etc., and perhaps 1000 inhabitants
in the winter, which would be trebled during the sum-
mer. Brest was at the height of its prosperity about the
year 1600, and about thirty years later the whole tribe

THE BRADORE ‘HILLS, THE HIGHEST PEAK MT. CARTIER,

of the Eskimos, who had given the French so much
trouble, were totally extirpated or expelled from that
region. After this the town began to decay, and
towards the close of the century the name was changed
to Bradore.”

IIo A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

By sundown our vessel had made only ten miles, be-
ing off Belles Amours, with a southerly and very light
breeze. The sunset was a glorious one, while the moon
rose through the haze and mirage over the snow-banks
of the Newfoundland coast. At three in the afternoon
we saw several miles ahead of us the fields of ice which
we were soon to encounter, choking up the straits, and
enhanced in apparent extent by the mirage. The Labra-
dor coast, along which we were sailing, is very bold and
bluff-like, with lower points of land reaching out to us
in a picturesque way, the remarkably even outline of the
coast being interrupted by the Bradore Hills.

The dredge was put down about two miles from shore
in from ten to fifteen fathoms ona hard, stony bottom,
with good success. Beautiful specimens of Lucernarza
guadricornis, four inches in height and of a dull amber
brown, came up in the same dredge with that superb
naked mollusc, Dexdronotus arborescens, which were of a
beautiful amber hue, dotted with white points. From
the stomachs of fishes caught by some of the party. were
extracted specimens of a rare arctic crab (Chzonecetes
opitto), which proved to be not uncommon in from ten
to fifty fathoms in the Straits of Belle Isle.

The next day, from nine in the morning until three in
the afternoon, we moved slowly through the floe-ice,
which proved to be the outskirts of the immense fields
of ice which this summer lined the northern coast of
Labrador. Mr. Bradford kept his photographer busily
at work taking views of the more remarkable forms. The
splendid green hues, so varied and striking ; the endless
variety in the water-worn forms; the weird noises, now
harsh and grating, now loud and roaring, produced by the

CTENOPHORES IN THE FLOE-ICE, Ill

attrition of the cakes of ice ground together by the slight
swell or the conflicting currents, lent unending interest
to the scene. The floes had evidently the air of tired
and worn travellers; they had been borne for at least a
thousand miles from Baffin’s Bay ; had been thrown upon
one another by storms and ocean currents, broken and
frozen together over and over again ; they were now rap-
idly melting away in the bright, warm sun, for the water
was filled with bits of clear dark ice, the fragments of large
floes. Our vessel, her sails scarcely filled out by the light
baffling breeze, rose and fell, ploughing her way through
the yielding floes, The water between the cakes was
alive with bits of animated ice, myriads of transparent
Ctenophores crowding the sea from the surface to a depth
of a fathom or more. The roseate /dyza, throwing off
the most delicate reddish tints, seemed be-
sides to reflect the delicate blues and
greens cast off by the floes; an Alcinoe-
like form, floating on its side, with blood-
red tentacles, rose and sank among the ice-
cakes, and with these in lesser numbers
was associated that beautiful spherical liv-
ing ball of ice, the Beroe or Pleurobrachia

: 2 Idyia roseola, nat-
rhododactyla. The Alcinoe-like form was ural size. *
the Mertensia ovum, a creature as fragile as it is beauti-
ful. It is of a delicate pink color, with iridescent hues ;
the ovaries bright red, the deep purple-red tentacles in
striking contrast with the delicate tints of the body itself.
From this point until we reached Hopedale in lat. 55°
30’ it constantly occurred in the floe-ice, but was rarely
seen in waters from which the ice had disappeared, as in
harbors free from ice the Mertensia would keep out of

TA
era

Lace
Pa
Arak

EE

1074

112 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

view near the bottom ; but as soon as the ice drifted in
and choked up any harbor we were in, myriads could be
seen near the surface, rising and falling between the ice-
cakes, gracefully throwing out their tentacles, which
were nearly two feet in length, and suddenly withdraw-
ing them when disturbed. No true jelly-fish were to be
seen ; the season was early for them, but the beautiful
polar shell-less snail, the Clone limaczna, with its long
wings and bright red tints, was not uncommon.

Stopped by the ice early the next morning we came
to anchor at Belles Amours, waiting for a change of wind
to allow a passage past or through the floe-ice. The
coast is high, abrupt, and precipitous. Numerous
streams well stocked with trout tumble into the sea, and
the drift deposits, of limited extent, consisted of coarse
gravels and bowlders of syenite.

We looked for insects, finding nothing of particular
interest, though noticing that the ants had just come out
of their winter quarters. Glad enough were we to finda
snail (/Tyalzna electrina), and in the mud at the bottom
of the ponds a little bivalve shell (Peszdzum) ; under
stones in the brooks were larval stones-flies and Ephem-
eree; while a little salamander (Plethodon glutinosus)
of a slate color with a paler light dorsal band ran into
the water, to my great disappointment just eluding my
grasp, as it is doubtful if any salamander occurs much
farther north on the coast than this species.

» Here the alders were still in blossom, showing that
the season had just opened, though the shadberry, the
golden thread (Copézs) and the bunch-berry (Cornus
canadensis) were likewise in bloom; on the other hand
the mountain-ash was just unfolding its buds.

THE KILLER. 113

Dredgings carried on in so shallow water as four and
six fathoms revealed pelicans’ feet (aforrhats) in abun-
dance and very fine large Serrzpes proenlandica, and with
them in the mud and sand a great abundance of nemer-
tean and other worms, and Amphipod Crustacea, with
fine examples of Cuma bzspinosa.

The principal house-owner at this fishing-station was
a Mr. Buckle, who had been out here for twelve years
from Boston. To his comfortable house was attached a
conservatory and garden. Though the scanty soil on
this barren point looked unpromising- enough, it was
comparatively rich. He had built his own schooner, a
vessel of thitty tons.

On the beach was the skull of a ‘killer’; it had re-
cently been brought ashore and was surrounded by a
number of hungry whelks (Buceznune undatum) which
were cleaning off the flesh from the bones. The killer
is the most voracious of the smaller cetaceans, and is the
bulldog among the whales. The head is very blunt, the
skull thick, the jaws powerful, the teeth longer than
those of the grampus. It is at once known when swim-
ming in the water by its high, narrow, pointed dorsal
fin, which projects five or six feet out of water. It at-
tacks with great boldness and pertinacity the right and
finback whales, gouging out from their lips and side
lumps of flesh, and, as Captain Handy told me, is espe-
cially fond of the whale’s tongue.

The next day we walked inland, following up the
stream which empties into the Gulf at Belles Amours.
We, however, took the wrong side of the brook and failed
to see the cascade where the stream, as we were told,
falls down over a precipice forty feet high; but trom a

114 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

hill perhaps five hundred feet high, which overlooked the
country, we could trace the course of the-brook for about
two miles, where it ran down a steep ravine, with ponds
on either side, from which flowed streams sending thin
and broken sheets of water over steep precipices. The
lake from which the stream issued was perhaps a mile
long, situated on high land, and a foaming stream poured
into it from the northwest, while farther on in another
depression was probably a second lake like the one in
view. Such is an ordinary Labrador stream—a chain of
ponds connected by rapids or waterfalls. There was a
dreary sameness to the surface of the country, relieved,
however, by a few snow-banks. During our ramble we
heard the familiar liquid notes of the wood thrush, and
saw some coots flying over the pond. In the afternoon
the wind hauled into the eastward and was followed by
rain.

The 24th was misty and drizzly ; the wind east veering
to the northeast. We dredged all the afternoon, part of
the time scraping a coralline bottom. An arctic sea-cu-
cumber (Penxdacta calczgera) was common in five fathoms
in mud, with the largest Serripes yet met with. The
most interesting form brought up was a beautiful hydroid
(Coryne mirabilis) growing on the red sea-weed (Ptzlota
elegans). It was anchored by its stalk, with bell-shaped
medusz attached, which were provided with four pink
eyes and short, thick, knotted tentacles, the pendant
proboscis being very long, club-shaped and of a pinkish
hue.

While lying at anchor a few boat’s lengths from shore
we were visited by two or three weasels, which must
have swum off to the vessel. They were exceedingly

BELLES AMOURS. ITS

tame, approaching within a foot of my finger even when
it was kept in motion.

On one side of our harbor was, as at Caribou Island, a
sandy beach where the fishermen could haul their nets
for lance. The Newfoundlanders would come here in
their clumsy boats from a distance of eight miles, where
their vessels were at anchor, and seine for lance fish.
They made a great deal of noise about it, though there
were only two boats; one man would stand up in the
stern paying out the net, while the full boat’s crew would
row rapidly around the fish, and another man standing up
to his waist in the water hauled in the net; in this way
four barrels of fish are often caught at a single haul.

Mr. Phoenix, one of our party, here caught a young
salmon eight inches long. The next day (the 25th)
saw us still weather-bound with thick fog and rain, clear-
ing up towards the evening. In codfish caught at a
depth of fifteen or twenty fathoms we found large fine
specimens of the lobworm (Avrenzcola piscatorum) and
a fine polar shrimp (Crangon doreas). ‘To-day I found
the first Cyanea or nettling jelly-fish, the species which
grows on the banks of Newfoundland by the end of
summer, two feet in diameter, with long, trailing ten-
tacles sometimes six fathoms in length; it is these
feelers, filled with microscopic darts or lasso-cells, which
become entangled with the lines and poison the hands
of the fishermen. As yet not a common jelly-fish, the
Aurelia aurzta, had been seen.

The next day we were released from our prison; a
fresh northwest wind cleared the ice from the shore, and
our good ship made a fine run to Henley Harbor; time
from 6 A.M. to 3.30P.M. As we sailed out of the harbor

116 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

we could see that the low point running out into the
Gulf from the Laurentian background of syenite was the
western extremity of the basin of Cambrian red sand-
stones and grits which extend between Belles Amours
and Anse-au-Sablon. Skirting the coast within a mile
or two of these interesting series of rocks, they are seen
to rise to a height of five or six hundred feet, forming
the coast line, but with a contour tame and monotonous
compared with the syenitic hillsof Bradore. The belt is
a narrow one, and while sailing past the shore we could
look up through the harbors and bays to the low coni-
cal hills of Laurentian gneiss in the interior. Passing
by Bradore Bay the lofty buttes of Bradore are seen to
rise up from the low foreground of red sandstone. We
then passed within sight of Greenly Island, where in 1856,
during a severe southwest gale, so sudden and common
in the strait, thirty-one vessels for want of, good anchor-
age and shelter were driven upon a lee shore. Parra-
keet Island then hove in sight, a favorite breeding-place
for the parrakeet or puffin, with a single house on it,
the hospitable mansion of a member of the ubiquitous
Jones family, where in 1860 a party from our camp on
Caribou Island received board and lodging for which
only thanks would be accepted.

We then sight Blanc Sablon. The land here is high
and descends to the sea in five very distinct terraces, of
which the second is much the highest. There were
huge bowlders of grit on the beach; the raised beaches
were packed with bowlders and the terraces in general
direction appeared in perspective, as if dipping up the
strait; like river-terraces they were parallel to each
other, but the lower one gradually dips down and loses

THE PRIMORDIAL SANDSTONES. 117

itself in the water, while another slopes in the opposite
direction. The higher terraces appear as if wooded or
green. There were indeed three shades of green : in the
lower terrace the debris is covered with a pale green
herbage ; the older vegetation is darker, while the upper
rusty green tint is very dark.

At Blanc Sablon, which was originally so named by
Jacques Cartier, the settlement consists of twenty
houses ; they were painted white and from the vessel
appeared like masses of floe-ice stranded on the shore,
Of the houses four are “rooms,” or fishing-establish-
ments.

We then pass the fishing-settlement of Forteau, with
a lighthouse on the point, besides about twenty houses,
and a Catholic church. Off the lighthouse is Shallop
Island ; the harbor is two or three miles deep, walled in
by vertical cliffs, furrowed and streaked by rain and frost.
Into the harbor empties a salmon stream ; one man here
seems to have the monopoly of the salmon fishery, put-
ting up from twenty to sixty barrels a year ; they are salted
and sent to Europe.

Now as we.pass on, the bay opens and at its head
we can see the Laurentian formation, with its low, ob-
tusely pointed gneiss hills; but the general surface of
the Labrador coast is very uniform, while the opposite
shores of Newfoundland now recede and appear to be
much lower. The strait is about eleven miles wide in
its narrowest part.

Sailing on but half a mile off shore at Anse-au-Loup,
we can plainly see that the Cambrian rocks are red and
gray sandstones—that the strata, almost horizontal, dip
a little to the west, descending to the strait by three

118 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

rock-terraces or shelves. A large brook here plunges
in a broad sheet of foam straight down into the sea. The
east side of the harbor of Anse-au-Loup is much higher
than the western, the surface is irregular, and the but-
tressed steeps recall the Palisades of the Hudson. Then
we pass along a beautiful green glacis, and on the
northwest face of the bluff are five terraces, with the
sandstone strata slightly inclined. Here on the lowest
bluff are to be seen four terraces (Fig. 2).

In the bay east of Anse-au-Loup, whose shores seemed

= : EWN

A Dy

A,TERRACES AT BLANC SABLON; 8, AT ANSE-AU-LOUF; C, TERRACES SEEN
FROM THE MOUTH OF A BAY EAST OF ANSE-AU-LOUP.

to be well wooded, we can again look through to the
original broken Laurentian rock, and the Cambrian
sandstone (Fig. C) runs out into a low point terminat-
ing in a low, shelving, green glacis. On this point is
the fishing-hamlet of Semedit (a corruption of Saint
Modeste), with but two houses.

The wind freshened off the cliffs, and now sailing on,

BELLE ISLE. 18 fe)

the rough and fissured syenitic coast is in marked con-
trast to the Cambrian shores we had just left. Going
farther on we pass from syenitic to gneiss rocks, which
rise from the water in long swells.

Belle Isle, the Isle of Demons of the early navigators,
now heaves in sight ; the Labrador coast is more sub-
dued, the shores sloping to the water's edge. There are
no islands along the coast, and within five miles of
Henlev Harbor the rock becomes entirely gneiss in char-
acter, and we lose sight of the rough, hummocky syen-
itic hills, though masses of flesh-red syenite are seen
resting upon the dark gneiss rocks, forming a sea-wall.

Now that notable landmark, the Devil’s Dining
Table, appears to view, and we soon distinguish Henley
and Castle Islands, the two latter like two flat oblong
blocks laid by Cyclopean hands on a foundation of rock.

CHAPTER VII.

A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.
Il. HENLEY HARBOR TO CAPE ST. MICHAEL.

As we entered Henley Harbor the scene was unique.
The strait was clear of ice, though a few days earlier
the harbor had been packed with it, and remnants were
stranded along the shore or carried hither and thither
with the tides. The outlines of some of the pieces were
beautiful; many were painted with green tints while
the sun was high, but later in the afternoon the greens
were succeeded by bright azure blues, contrasting with
the almost cobalt blues of the distant Laurentian hills.
The entrance to Henley Harbor is very fine, the sea-
cliffs being over 200 feet high, while behind are the pe-
culiar outlines of the Laurentian gneiss, rising in long
swells like whales’ backs to a height of perhaps five or
six hundred feet. Henley Harbor lies under the lofty,
precipitous basaltic cliffs of the Devil’s Dining Table,
which caps Henley Island. We sail through a fleet of
Newfoundland fishermen, whose low, thick masts, strong,
clumsy rigging, and ironed and planked hulks—for they
were sealers, and had not stopped to doff their ice-armor
—contrasted with the beautiful model, slender, tapering
masts and spars of our fleeter craft. Their decks were
crowded with men, women, and children, dogs and
goats, for these people had, like the old Norsemen,

brought their families and stock with them for a sum-
120

THE SEAL FISHERY. 121

mer’s stay on the coast. Ashore, under the dark, beet-
ling crag, lay the fishing-hamlet of Henley Harbor.
The houses were small and mean, the flat roof of some
covered with turf, the grass or moss growing on them,
while the fish-houses and “stages” were of the meanest
description.

After coming to anchor we were boarded by the cap-
tain of one of the sealers, a brigantine of perhaps 140 tons
burden, lately in from Carbonear in Conception Bay.
Her bows and also her sides were planked and heavily
ironed to resist the ice in the spring sealing in the Gulf.
The captain had, immediately after discharging his cargo
of sealskins and blubber—-and the smells rising up
through the hold and companion-way proved the fact ad
nauseam—only delayed long enough in port to put in
130 bushels of salt, and then cleared for the Labrador
coast without stopping to strip off the outer planking.
The captain was an intelligent, stalwart, English-born
man only twenty years old, who had been to sea for six
years. He was frank and communicative, and in_ half
an hour gave us some insight into the mysteries of fish-
ing and sealing. He had inherited the business, his fa-
ther having been a sealer for fifty years. He owned
the vessel and had brought along a cook; he took, pas-
sage free, eleven families, numbering 130 souls, men,
women, and children, with goats, dogs, cats, and provi-
sions for the whole party, and was to land them at some
harbor on the coast north of the Strait, where they
might spend the fishing season in their rude summer
houses, called “tilts.”

During the voyage up the women are stowed aft and
in the hold, and in a storm—and when are there two

122 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

continuously pleasant days on this coast ?—the hatches
are battened down, the food is handed to them through
a hole in the cabin, and then they are left to take care
of themselves as best they can until the storm clears off,
when the hatches are removed, and the forlorn passen
gers can take a breath of fresh air.

The captain does not take an active part in the fish-
ing, but makes his profits by charging for freight on the
fish. If the season is a good one and his vessel is soon
filled, he goes back to Newfoundland and charters more
vessels to carry back all the fish which have been caught.
The season lasts from the end of June until about the
20th of October.

The season for the seal fishery during the past spring
was from March 25th until June 4th. The Gulf, of
course, was filled with ice, no water being in sight from
shore. A successful “catch” of seals is “better than
gooo.” Each vessel carries fourteen boats, which are
piled up on deck; four men man a boat; each man is
provided with a gaff or boat-hook and a piece of ratline
three and one-half fathoms long. On coming up to
where the seals are lying, the crew land on the ice. The
sealer runs up to a seal lying near its hole, which may be
only a rod or so from the vessel or boat, clubs it—and
it is easily stunned and killed with one or two blows—
sculps it, then peals off the skin and blubber, leaving
the carcass on the ice-floe. Each man can tie up five
sealskins, and drag them to the vessel, and sally out
again, rushing ahead and racing with the other crews of
“bloodhounds.” The scene is one of excitement and
peril, the ice constantly endangering the vessel, which is
liable to be “ nipped” and to founder, leaving the ship-

A

THE SEAL FISHERY. 123

wrecked sealers to burn their vessel and make their way
ashore over the ice. One of Mr. Bradford’s most suc-
cessful paintings represents a sealer ‘‘ nipped” by the
ice, the crew abandoning her after having set fire to their
vessel, and walking with mournful steps over the ice in
the direction of land. The delicate blues of the ice,
the sullen, neutral tints of the sky, the red glare of the
flames breaking out of the burning ship, and the warm
tints of the costumes of the men in the foreground,
vividly portray a most tragic scene, enacted only too
often on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

To return to our statistics: a ‘“‘crew” of sealers on
the ice is composed of fifty men ; each one, if successful,
securing five seals. Two hundred and fifty pelts may
be brought back after each sally from the vessel. In
this way, when the seals are abundant, from 2500 to 3000
sealskins are taken in a single day, gooo making a cargo.
The shares in the enterprise are £60 each man. The
captain takes half, “leaving the men in the lurch,” as
our informant said, which being interpreted means that
the men realize little or no profits from the voyage.

A sealskin is worth $4.00, a full cargo, perhaps, sell-
ing in the rough to traders for $30,000 or $40,000 ; the
profits on a full cargo are therefore considerable, but the
men’s “half,” being distributed among a large number,
does not amount to much for each man. This spring
(1864) the seal fishery was a failure.

The young seals are killed by knocking them on the
head with a boat-hook or club, and the old ones by
shooting them with heavily loaded old muskets. The
hunters make holes in the ice and then watch for their
heads to appear above water. Of all the different kinds

124 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

of seals, the Greenland or harp seal is the most fero-
cious.

The summer at Henley Harbor was a very backward
one ; the salmon had not yet appeared at the mouths of
the bays and rivers; nor had the cod and their natural
food, the capelin, moved in from the deep water. The
enormous extent of floe-ice which skirted the coast had
lowered the temperature of the sea; at the same time
the ice-fields had prevented any icebergs from entering
the Strait. The prevailing winds were cold and easterly ;
the cold climate, the strong tides and the three-knot
Labrador current passing around the cape into and
down the Strait of Belle Isle render navigation here
uncertain and dangerous.

June 27. The light southeasterly wind brought into
the Strait the fog which had lain all the day previous
outside of our harbor, and inland the clouds rested on
the hills; the day being dark and lowery. In the morn-
ing some of us rowed three miles up to the head of Pitt’s
Arm, in Temple Bay, a deep fjord penetrating the high
gneiss hills, into which pours, over a stony channel, a
rapid trout stream about five yards across. The sandy
beach was an ancient sea-bottom containing deep-sea
shells.* On each side of the mouth of the brook were
two terraces; on the upper terrace, which was about
forty feet above the sea, were two winter houses. I par-
ticularly observed the appearance of these houses. One
was 21 X15 feet in size, the walls of upright, thick boards,
the frame of poles; the flat roof was constructed of poles

* The shells were Buccinum undatum, a variety with two ribs on the whorls;
Saxicava rugosa, Mya uddevallensis, Macoma proxima, Serripes groenlandica,
Natica clausa, of large size, and a branching polyzoon, Celleporaria surcularis.

A WINTER HOUSE. 125

placed near together and covered with birch and hemlock
bark, the strips, which were a foot wide, being placed
crosswise; the eaves were scarcely five feet above the
ground, and the floor was in part of boards and in part of
turf. The door, hung on iron hinges, and closed with a
wooden latch and string, was only four and a half feet
high, and there was a single window, 16X15 inches.
Within were three beds and a settle. The lumber for
these shanties had evidently, by the piles of sawdust near
by, been sawn upon the spot and taken from the Labra-
dorian forest of firs near at hand, which measured twelve
inches through at the butt, and were about twenty feet
high. In their branchesa robin and a sparrow were flit-
ting about. The willow bushes were here five feet
in height. On the sides of the sandy terraces were
blackberry and raspberry bushes, and currants, shadber-
ries, and golden thread just in blossom, while the alders
were still in flower.

I dredged in water about fifty fathoms deep, in
Chateau Bay, bringing up, among molluscs, fine large
Leda pernula, Astarte bankstz, Lyonsta arenosa, Car-
dtum tslandicum ,; rare sandstars, and young and old
arctic crabs (Chzonacetes, opilio).

The 28th was almost wintry in its cold, changeable
weather. A northeast storm raged, with a few drops of
rain anda little snow in the forenoon, while after dinner
there was a thick snow-storm, the hill-tops being whit-
ened with snow for several hours, which, however, disap-
peared by the evening. The water in the harbor was
intensely cold, and the Mertensia and Clione, those
beautiful creatures of the icy seas, abounded.

The forenoon was spent-in examining the trap rocks

126 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

on the harbor side of Henley Island, and in shore-col-
lecting. The rock-weeds or fuci do not grow luxuriantly
on the coast of Labrador, but are stunted and dwarfed,
like their more highly-born relatives of the vegetable
kingdom ashore. Below tide-mark, however, though
the tide on the Labrador coast rises and falls only two
or three feet, the Devil’s Apron or Laminaria is seen,
but not so common and large as on the coast of Maine.
Life between tide-marks is scanty compared with the
New England coast. We never detected the common
whelk that gives the purple dye (Purpura lapzllus) ;
but the two Littorinas (LZ. rudzs, less commonly L. Zzt-
toralis) were common; these are circumpolar forms,
abounding at the water’s edge at Greenland.

In this region scarcely a sea-bird was to be seen, and
rarely even a gull; but on one occasion three ducks,
while a lonely raven flew about the cliff. Insect life
was scanty, and with the animals and plants showed
in its appearance a strange intermixture of what at
home would have been characteristic of early April and
late May. Frogs are seen here, we were told: in the
garden the turnips were just up.

Thirty years ago there was but a single house at
Henley Harbor, and none at Red Bay, where now there
are thirty. The fish and birds here, meanwhile, have
vastly decreased in {numbers. The fish are principally
cod, salmon, and herring. Old Captain French, our
pilot, never saw a hake on the Labrador coast, and only
two haddock, though both kinds are abundant and
troublesome to cod fishermen at Bay Chaleur, on the
New Brunswick shore.

# Detained another day by head-winds and rain in the

DREDGING. 127

early part of the day, the wind in the evening hauled
around to the S. W., giving us a fine evening sky. I
dredged in the morning in the rain over the side of the
vessel in four fathoms, the bottom rich in the red sea-
weed (Péz/ota), the Desmarestia, and the sea-colander
(Agarum turnerz), and besides a portly queer-spined
amphipod (A mphzthonotus cataphractus), which carried
its brood of young, also bristling with spines, a fine large
Crangon boreas with other bright red shrimps came up.

NEBALIA BIPES. (Enlarged six times.)
In*the afternoon we sailed out two or three miles to the
mouth of the harbor, and dredged in from ten to twenty
fathoms on a hard, pebbly bottom, evidently the contin-
uation of the beach, and showing that the land was for-
merly at least from one hundred to three hundred feet
higher than at present ; besides Lyonsza arenosa, Kenne-
rlia glactalis, and other shells and crustaceans, the interest-
ing Nebalia bipes was taken: it was also found in as shal-
low water as fourfathoms. This form is less than half an
inch in length and is found throughout the Arctic Ocean,
iscommon on the coast of Norway, and its family is now

128 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

regarded as the sole existing type of a distinct order
(Phyllocarida), whose gigantic fossil prototypes, some of
them nearly two feet in length, occur in the paleeozoic
rocks in America and Europe.

The next day also we were wind-bound, but the gale-
was from the southwest ; the wind blew very fresh, hav-
ing a good sweep over the Gulf, the breakers ran high,
as nearly all the harbors in Southern Labrador, ze., south
and west of Belle Isle, are exposed to gales from this
direction. We put out our kedge anchor, and fre-
quently had to haul in a part of the cable to keep the
vessel off the rocks. We should have put out to sea
and taken advantage of the gale to go on our course up
the coast, but were afraid of running upon a sunken
rock at the mouth of the “tickle” or narrow passage
forming our harbor.

A part of the day was spent about and upon the
Devil’s Dining Table. This is a mass of columnar basalt,
which has been described by Lt. Baddely in the Transac-
tions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec
for 1829. The height of the rock above the sea is 225
feet, to the base of the pillars of basalt 180 feet; the
height of the columns themselves being 25 feet. The
columns are quite regularly prismatic and of nearly the
same size and nature as those of the Giant’s Causeway.

Ascending the terrace, carpeted with the mountain
trident, I climbed up the cliff over the basaltic steps,
by the only means of ascent situated on the eastern side,
where the columns had been worn away by a little
stream, on top of the flat table, which was 125 paces
broad at the widest part. The ends of the prismatic
columns occasionally protruded through the dense

TERRACED BEACHES. 129

matted covering of curlew-berry or Empetrum. The
air was cold, chilly, reeking with the sea-drift, and the
gale buffeted my face as if a demon were trying to throw
me over the cliff, down to the sea-margin of former days.

From the summit of the table the view was an inter-
esting one, though the atmosphere was very hazy. Belle
Isle was shut out of sight by a thin bank of fog or thick-
ened vapor which lay on the seato the eastward. A few
miles up the shore was another cliff of basaltic columns,
the bases of the pillars wrapped in snow. There are in
this bay eleven sea-terraces which mark the former levels
of the sea, eight of which could be seen from the top of
this rock. On the west side the terraces slope towards
the north, while on Castle Island they slope towards the
southwest. The most distinct example of these terraced
sea-beaches lay at our feet, forming the western shore ot
Henley Island (on which the Devil’s Dining Table is
situated). This magnificent beach rises 180 feet above
the sea-level, and when the sea covered it the waves
washed the base of the basaltic pillars, as indicated by
the débris of broken columns forming the talus at the
foot of the cliff on which I stood. This beach is com-
posed of three terraces, and the two lower ones widen
out into delta-like expansions on the northwest end of
the island, which are free from the usual covering of moss
and curlew-berry, and are so distinctly marked with
windrows of pebbles and gravel that it would seem as
if they had been but yesterday thrown up by the waves.

Greville’s Fort*, as we may name it, the ruins of which

* According toa writer in Harper’s Magazine for May, 1864, who describes
this fort and gives a plan of it, the fortifications were, supposed to have been

130 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

are quite distinct, was built on a broad terrace not far
above the sea. On the mainland, north a little east, are
three beaches with two terraces, which were beautifully
marked, and corresponded with the two lower terraces
at our feet, though covered with the rich deep green
of the Empetrum leaves. Pitt’s Arm and Chateau Bay
are also terraced, the beaches themselves of unequal size
and height, but the terraces, as we should expect, are of
even height throughout, as they mark the former level
of the sea. One of the beaches on Chateau Bay was
remarkably steep, composed of large, sea-worn bowlders,
and overhanging like a precipice the winter houses below.
Indeed, all along the Strait of Belle Isle from the Meca-
tinas to this point, wherever there is sand, gravel, or
bowlders, the sea has, when at higher levels, rearranged
and sorted them into. terraced beaches or sea-margins,
The future geologist who visits this coast will have an
interesting task in measuring the heights of these ter-
races and comparing them with those of Northern Lab-
rador, of Arctic America, of Greenland, and northern
Europe. These beaches are also seen in inland river-
courses, and by every pond and Jake; they are not, as
along the coast of Maine and Massachusetts, concealed
by vegetation, bushes or forest growths; but here, owing
to the absence of bushes and trees, they were as distinct
as if the Labrador peninsula had been upheaved but a
year ago. Darwin has studied the formation of the ter-
races along the coast of South America, where the ele-
vating forces were undoubtedly volcanic, but the nature
of the causes which in the northern hemisphere have re-

constructed by the French Canadians, by whom it was abandoned in 1753;
another author states that it was built by the Acadians.

TERRACED BEACHES. 131

sulted in the secular elevations and depressions of the
land, such as took place during and after the glacial pe-
riod, is purely conjectural, and belongs to the domain of
theoretical geology. To study the causes we must first
learn the facts, hence the careful examination of the os-
cillations of the eastern coast of America from Aspin-
wall to high polar latitudes is of the first importance.
The measurement and comparison of the ancient sea-
beaches on a coast like that of Labrador and Arctic
America, where they are so easily perceived, will well
repay the labor and time involved.

Robert Chambers’s interesting work on the ancient
sea-margins of Norway and Sweden gives valuabie data
for comparison with those of the opposite coast of Lab-
rador, and from:the rough observations which have been
made it would seem that the oscillations were about the
same, both in height above the sea, and in time, on each
side of the North Atlantic. I have also seen well-
marked terraces in Puget Sound which are beautifully
marked, and these should be carefully measured and
compared in height with those in the arctic region and
Labrador. It was with no little interest that we ob-
served the old beaches on the Labrador coast, and we
shall note their occurrence in the following pages wher-
ever seen.

We remained on the top of the Devil’s Dining Table
until the sun had set and the darkness began to creep
over the scene below. Whether his Satanic Majesty
was concerned in the transformation which then came
over the scene we will not undertake to say, but as the
sun went down the rocks and hills beneath seemed to
diminish in height; an undefined, subtle, neutral tint

132 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

spread over the landscape; a brownish haze due to the
vapor in the air came in from the sea and settled over the
hills far and near, and as the twilight came on the hills
were still more dwarfed in size, when the chill southwest
wind from the Gulf, the coldest that blows over this ex-
posed point, sent us back to our vessel, where the ther-
mometer at 8 o'clock in the evening was 44° F.

The fishing-hamlet of Henley Harbor consists of a
few dwelling-houses, some of them inhabited during the
winter, with fish-houses and light wharves here called
“stages.” The winter houses are built of thick boards,
with flat tarred roofs, the sides of the houses being well
battened. The domestic animal here is the dog, New-
foundlanders—seven of them at one house—brought up
by the fishermen for the summer: there were no Eskimo
dogs or Eskimos at this point, though in the last century
they here congregated by hundreds. The fish-houses
were rude structures of one low shed, roofed with turf
and built on piles, reminding us somewhat of pictures
of the ancient pile-dwellings of prehistoric Switzerland.

The fisherman’s sail-boat is a ponderous, clumsy affair
called a “jack.” It is twenty-five or thirty feet long,
with not much breadth of beam, rudely built, with short
masts, and small sails stained red or black, or with both
colors; the oars are of spruce, and very large and heavy,
and the stern of the boat is provided with two stakes,
such as whalemen use for sculling.

I interviewed a Mr. Stone, one of the settlers, regard-
ing the fisheries and hunting at this point, and he gave
me the following facts: At the height of the herring
fishery in August—and it should be borne in mind that
this fish is only a summer visitant, not spawning on the

THE FISHERIES. 133

Labrador coast, but passing up, as Hind in his work on
the Labrador peninsula states, as far as Hudson’s Strait
—Stone has caught 200 barrels in a season. He has to
pay twelve barrels for a hogshead of salt, the price of
which is now (1864) very high. He secures 800 quin-
tals of fish at 18s. a quintal, which amounts to £720 for
a successful season’s work. He can cure the fish on this
coast during the short summer, and is now building a
shed for this purpose.

Of salmon 180 quintals are taken in a good season ; they
are pickled and sell at the rate of $5.00 a quintal (112
Ibs.), so that he would realize about $900 from this fish-
ery; but considering that he had a family of ten chil-
dren, it is not probable that on the average he more
than comfortably supports his family, and in many sum-
mers the fisheries on this desolate coast are a failure.
And to show what little chance there is to retrieve his
fortunes by the products of the winter’s hunting, he told
me that last winter nothing was shot about Chateau Bay
from Christmas until the first of February. During the
entire winter but a single partridge was shot, while at
the same time they were very abundant at Blanc Sablon,
showing that possibly these birds are somewhat migra-
tory, going in flocks from one point to another in search
of food. There are now neither beaver nor otter, nor
silver nor black foxes to be had; only two or three
wolves were shot, and two deer. When I asked him
what the people would do if the hunting and fishing con-
tinued to fall off, he replied hopefully, and in his fisher-
man’s dialect, ‘Oh, we'll have a spurt by and by.” He
added that the S.W. wind was in’summer “the coldest
wind that blows.” Winter comes on in November; by

134 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

the roth to the 20th of this month the lakes are all
frozen over, and by the 2oth the harbor is frozen far out
into the Strait, while in winter they can go out in
sledges on the ice to Belle Isle.

The people here in general were well-mannered, though
rough and out-spoken, asking freely of our stores, and
commenting as freely on what they considered poor
returns in trade.

To return to the Devil’s Dining Table, whose geology
is interesting: it is a high ovate mass with vertical sides
and a flat top, which slightly inclines towards the south-
west, and consists of two layers, showing that the rock
is the remains of two separate eruptions, the lower con-
sisting of regular prismatic five-sided columns, each
about two feet in diameter, fluted on the sides and curi-
ously worn by transverse impressed lines. The basaltic
mass rests upon the upturned edges of strata of Lauren-

‘an gneiss which have been penetrated by dikes of sye-
‘ite. North of the basaltic cap, the underlying rocks.

rena

CASTLE ISLAND FROM THE WEST; uw, RED SYENITE; 4, GNEISS ; ¢, BASALT (THE
DEVIL’S DINING-TABLE) ; @, RAISED BEACH.

are least disturbed, being reddish gneiss-like or foliated
syenite, crumbling and quite fissile, dipping at an angle
of 50° south, 25° east; just beyond, this reddish rock
runs into the usual dark Laurentian gneiss of the region.
Upon submitting a specimen of the basalt to Mr. J. S.
Diller, lithologist of the U. S. Geological Survey, he tells
me that it is a doleritic basait.

At the southeast end of the island, along the shore

E Devit’s Dininc TABLE. (From a photograph by Bradford.)

“WITH, TH

—

HENLEY HARBOR AND Caste ISLAND,

To face page 134.

CASTLE ISLAND. 135

looking out towards Belle Isle, the flesh-colored syenitic
rocks present a rough and broken front to the ceaseless
swell of the Atlantic, rising from seventy-five to a hun-
dred feet above the waves, the beetling crags broken and
pierced by deep ocean caves; with jutting headlands and
little pebbly beaches nestling between them—all the
characteristic scenic features of this syenite, whether at
Nahant, or Mt. Desert, or on the Labrador coast.

The southern end of Castle Island repeats the geology
and scenery of Henley Island; but a little farther down,
away from the sea-cliffs, the syenite and gneiss meet, and
seemed splashed together, like two masses of paste or
dough which has been stirred up and baked. In places,
both rocks were interstratified, dipping north and south
in much disturbed strata, but with a general inclination
towards the north.

The first of July saw us released from our prison; the
day was clear and delightful, and a light southwesterly
breeze bore us along a remarkably bold and picturesque
coast. About two miles from our harbor is another trap
overflow capping and, at the southwest end, concealing
from view the syenitic base; at the northern end the
basalt is columnar.

We soon came up to our first iceberg, a magnificent
pyramid of ice perhaps a hundred and fifty feet high,
white as Carrara marble, smooth, as if fresh snow had
fallen on it during the past night, lending it a virgin
whiteness, here and there brought more clearly into re-
lief by the subtle azure blue reflected from the sea.
Across its base ran several suggestive cracks, and though
we sailed within two hundred yards of it, it was rather
risky, and we remembered Scoresby’s stories of the dis-

136 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

asters attending the overturning and breaking of floating
bergs. Captain Handy, whose life-long experience as a
whaler in arctic regions made him a good judge, re-
marks as we are passing that a berg will not usually injure
a vessel unless a piece of ice falls upon it, but that the
waves will swamp a boat. At Resolution Island he
rowed past an immense berg, so that it could almost be
touched from the boat, saying to himself, ‘‘ It won’t last
three weeks ;” he had gone scarcely three ship’s lengths,
when, with a report like the discharge of a park of artil-
lery, it burst into a thousand pieces, many still forming
large bergs; the boat was put head-to, and nearly filled
with water, but there was no further danger.

Off Cape Charles the coast grows more broken and
hummocky, more so than west of Chateau Bay. This is
partly owing to the fact that we look directly up into the
fjords and bays, and that the headlands run out towards
us. We pass Battle Island, a comparatively low island,

HARBOR. C, CHARLES BAY,

with the “ice-loom” or mirage resting over it. We were
glad to pass Battle Island Harbor, which has a bad repu-
tation, or, to use an Anglicism, is a ‘‘nasty” place. The
entrance is very sinuous, the turns short, and the vessel
must answer her rudder quickly when going in. Our
fishermen enter it late in the season, as “it is a place
that holds fish late.” Perhaps half of the harbors here
are unknown, and the fishermen seldom have occasion
to enter the innermost ones.

THE ICE-PACK AND ICE-BLINK. 137

The ice-pack which we were soon to encounter lay
north and east of us, with the “ice-blink” over it. We
pass Outer Battle Island, and the ‘Two Sisters,” bare,
low islands of nearly white gneiss rock. We now sail
into the ice-pack, and are gradually surrounded by floes,

OUTER BATTLE ISLAND SEEN FROM THE SOUTHWEST; 4, CARIBOU ISLAND.

though they are not near enough to impede our progress.

The shore of Caribou Island—for there are two of this
‘name on the coast—is of a singular pale gray shade from
top to bottom. The people ashore, struck by our model
and spars, so unlike the other craft on this coast, set the
British flag to ascertain our nationality.

CARIBOU ISLAND, BEARING TWO MILES WEST.

We pass St. Lewis Bay, a large broad indentation,
with its north shore evidently syenitic, as the sea-wall is
high, and the rocks rough and fissured, and more broken
than lower down; the headlands of syenite probably ex-
tend out from the gneiss mainland.

The ice-floes become larger and more hummocky than
any we have seen before. A humpback whale now pre-

CARIBOU ISLAND, BEARING WEST.

sents a broadside view of himself, with his angular hump,
small fin, and as he ‘“‘sounds,” reveals the pale underside
of his tail and flukes.

138 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

At Spear Point the outline of the coast is very rough ;
at the entrance to Spear Harbor, which isa shallow bight,
there is a high, sugar-loaf island ; two black-sailed “ jacks”
are entering it. Cape St. Francis is a bold, syenitic head-
land. Over Square Island, which now comes in sight,
being fifteen miles ahead, there is a fine mirage, with
castle-like, shadowy forms resting on the rock. We are
now sailing between the ice-pack and the shore, one
nearly as solid in appearance as the other, The wind is
still off shore, but should it change to the eastward the
ice would come in upon us and choke up the bays and
harbors. Behind us is a pale bluish haze which passes
into a well-marked mirage, and as we sail on it raises the
higher points of the land beneath and expands above
with weird, strange effects. Beyond us the mirage mag-
nifies the larger floes into huge bergs.

NORTH SIDE OF FISHING SHIP HARBOR.

In St. Francis Harbor isa ‘‘room” and a “look-out”
house ; a small bay beyond appears to be filled with ice.
The coast at Fishing Ship Harbor is unusually rough
and broken, like the waves of a chop-sea ; and there ap-
peared to be two terraces at this point, the upper one
very high, but whether of gravel or of rock was difficult
to distinguish. The wind now become very changeable
and baffling, veering from one point to another ; and our
progress was compared by the Captain to sailing up
the Potomac. Passing by perpendicular sea-cliffs, anda

OCCASIONAL HARBOR. 139

bold headland on which are dead spruce trees, the rock
on the north side of Occasional Harbor changes its char-

let

OCCASIONAL HARBOR.

acter, becoming a gray, Labradoritic syenite, like what
we afterwards found on Square Island.

CHAPTER VIII.

A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

Il]. FROM CAPE ST. MICHAEL TO HOPEDALE.

Carre St. MicuHaet rises from the sea in the boldest,
most vertical cliffs we had yet seen; they are perhaps
from two to three hundred feet high and pierced by
five caves, one very large and deep, and another oven-
like. In one of the bights indenting this promontory
there are four irregular but well-marked rock-terraces in
the gneiss cliffs. On a following headland the syenite
is seen to be interstratified with much-distorted gneiss
strata, and penetrated by a deep fissure with remarkably
fresh and angular sides. At the head of the bight is
quite a forest of spruce. We are now off St. Michael’s
Bay, at the mouth of which is Square Island, with Sugar
Loaf Island just beyond, and now the contours of the
land-surface again begin to be rough and broken.

We run in here to make a harbor, and as we enter it
a pleasant breeze blows off shore; it is refreshing in its
warmth and in the balsamic flavor of the spruce and
firs of the interior. We are now in a completely land-
locked little box of a harbor in Square Island, the three
“tickles” or narrow passages leading into it not in sight
from where we were to lie moored.

While our vessel, which had come in by the wrong
tickle, was, by a process of towing, and at times by
taking advantage of slight puffs of mind, slowly work-

140

SQUARE ISLAND HARBOR. 141

ing into her deep little harbor, where she anchored in
thirteen fathoms, some of us landed, and what a scene
lay before us! On every square rod of flat rock on the
steep sides of the harbor was a Newfoundlander’s “ tilt”
or summer house. The sides made of logs or plank, the
roof of turf, a square chimney of wood and mud, the
four corner-posts projecting above. They were scattered
about on the rocks like bee-hives, under the shelter of
the cliffs on a low promontory, while the landing-places
or ‘‘ stages” were supported on long poles.

In the miniature garden-lots some of the children
were turning the sod with rude spades, others were
bringing soil from the naked rocks about into protected
.places where they were to attempt the cultivation of a
few turnips and cabbages. On the shores of the harbor
was a narrow margin of grass enriched by the drippings
of years from the fish-flakes which, supported on stakes
like those on the Maine coast, ran down in parallel rows
to near the water’s edge, where were ground-flakes, or
floors of poles lying on the ground. The sides of the tilt
were here and there ornamented with a sealskin tacked
against the wall. The houses of the “‘long-shore-men,”
or those of the permanent residents, were clapboarded
and a little better looking than the tilts. It was warm
and truly delightful ashore, the wind coming from over
the hills and mosses ; the thermometer was 70° F., and
we learned that for two days it had been unusually
warm and pleasant.

The insects formed an assemblage which in northern
New England would be regarded as a mixture of April
and early June forms, Corethra and 7anapus, two gnats,
which in New England are April forms, mingled with

142 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

saw-flies which appear with us early in June. The leaf-
rolling moths had not yet appeared ; a few bumble-bees
were humming their familiar tune, but, as we thought, in
a subdued minor key.

Just before sunset we climbed a steep round hill, rising
perhaps 500 to 800 feet above the harbor, and what a
strange, peculiar scene was spread out before us! Far
inland to the westward there was a fire in the woods,
and the smoke filled the air towards the interior and was
carried far seaward; the sunlight passing through the
smoke gave a strange appearance to the glowing western
sky, the transformed light falling bronzed and red upon
the broad bay dotted with “skiers,” or small low islets;
and tinging the distant hills, one of which, a mountain
mass of gneiss, seemed to be over a thousand feet high.

In the evening it grew cool and damp: a large cake
of floe-ice higher than the rail of our vessel floated down
upon us and stranded on the shore. All through the
night there was a continual sound of running water
dripping in streams from its under side, the gurgling and
trickling keeping one awake.

The next day was cloudy, with a southeast wind, so
that we could not venture out of our harbor. I went
with a party of trout fishers from our vessel to a chain
of lakes containing, besides a few small trout, eels and
sticklebacks. The insects were more abundant in the
sheltered valleys than along the shore. In the shallow
ponds were chrysalids of the stone-flies and case-worms,
the latter having been found -in the larval condition at
the Mecatinas. There were also pupal dragon-flies,
and under the moss and green herbs on the side of a

GEOLOGY OF SQUARE ISLAND. 143

little rill, earthworms, groundbeetles, cutworms, and
the maggots of the crane-fly.

Here mingled with an Empetrum-like plant was the
Andromeda polrfolra, with bumble-bees probing its deep
flowers ; sedges were in flower, one like our Carex penn-
_sylvanica and perhaps representing it in the Labrador
flora; the leaves of the hackmatack or larch were half
an inch long, but the birches and mountain-ash were
not yet fully leaved out; blue and white violets were
sprinkled among the low sedges, while the flowers of
the cloud-berry were now dropping off. The Viburnum
lantanotdes was scarcely full-leaved; the bunch-berry
(Cornus Canadensis) was either in bud or else with
small green flowers. The gold-thread, or Coptis, was in
full flower; the fire-weed (Lfzlobcum augustifolium)
was but six inches high, the buds not yet apparent.

Robins were singing in the old familiar way, and the
white-crowned sparrow was flitting about as if thor-

oughly at home and rather enjoying the desolateness of
the scenery.

The geology of Square Island harbor is varied bg the
presence of a peculiar dark syenite due to the labrador-
ite which replaces the flesh-colored feldspar .of the syen-
ite to the southward, while there are large masses of
dark green actinolite with a little quartz, and some iron
pyrites. This peculiar eruptive rock is weathered into
high rounded conical sugar-loaf hills, which lends a
peculiar feature to the scenery of the coast. At certain
points this rock passes into a finely-grained gneiss, with
the scenic features of that rock, but yet combined with
an added feature due to its granitoid character; the
rock crumbles rather easily, and on the shores of the

144 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

harbor and lakes, blocks of all sizes, angular or weather-
worn, fall down, disrupted by the frost. No boulders,
i.e. travelled rocks, were to be seen. The masses of
labradorite are translucent and opalescent, but still not
of the precious variety, of which, however, I afterward
purchased fine specimens from the Moravian missionaries
at Hopedale. No drift or glacial scratches were to be
seen about here, and none had yet been observed on the
coast, though they were of course always in my thoughts,
and I was. disappointed at not finding any, attributing
their absence to the rapid weathering of the rocks on
this coast.

The deep broad bay at whose northern entrance
Square Island is situated must have been filled with
glacial ice, as the skiers or low islets of gneiss dotting its
surface had evidently been ground down and moulded
into their present forms by land ice.

The rock terraces observable here were interesting ;
they were ten or twenty feet high, with the vegetation
growing at the foot of the little vertical precipices. On
their upper third the hills about our harbor were bare,
where in similar situations in the Strait of Belle Isle the
rocks would be covered with a thick:and matted growth
of Empetrum and reindeer moss. The steep precipitous
sides of the hills facing the harbor plunge naked and
dark into the water, and from their summits we can look
directly down upon the decks of the vessels at anchor,
overlooking the “ tilts” and “stages” on shore.

In the afternoon the vicissitudes of a dredger in such
a harbor as this were well illustrated. I put my dredge
down at the depth of thirty fathoms at the mouth of a
“tickle,” and the results were plenty of a little snail

THE SEAL FISHERY. 145

(Margarita cinerea), the dead shells tenanted by little
hermit-crabs; the two varieties of Mya truncata, two
beautiful ten-armed starfishes (So/aster papposa), beau-
tifully roseate in the centre, as well as at the middle and
tips of the fingers; the omnipresent knotted sand-star
(Ophioglypha nodosa) with fine gray and red shrimps,
and mingled with the deep-water forms were two littoral
species, the common edible mussel and the Letéorzna
vudzs. Another hard pull—and dredging in thirty
fathoms by hand, in these days of donkey engines and
steamers, with all the paraphernalia of the modern
dredge, is no fun—over a rocky bottom and not a thing
in the dredge was a disappointment, while the third
pull off a steep precipice brought up the dredge filled
to the brim with a soft ooze, containing only two or
three worms and a few dead shells.

On Sunday, the 3d, services were conducted by Rev.
David A. Wasson, one of our party. About twenty of
the fishermen came aboard, and after the meeting we
found them very communicative, the sole topic of con-
versation, that which is the staple talk on these shores,
being the fisheries, both of the cod andseal. One sealer
of 120 tons during a cruise of three months laid ina
cargo of 148 tons of seal’s fat obtained from 4700 seals.
Last year (1863) twenty to thirty sealing-vessels were
lost in Green Bay, and six hundred men were obliged
to abandon their vesséls and walk home, ‘with nothing
but their boots,” on the ice which was packed in towards
the shore. A few remained aboard. March was an open
month, while April was cold and frosty; ‘‘the ice was
packed in 25 or 30 feet, making it bad for the sealers.”

On inquiring of an old Newfoundlander why they

146 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

had been driven off of their own fishing-grounds and
obliged to spend the season on this coast, he replied,
“Oh, it was the French. Our fishermen have been on
this coast for seventy years. It was after the treaty
that the French began to fish from Cape St. John
around to Cape Ray, and for forty-six years we have
come up here in this way. By this treaty the French
were not allowed to take anything away from the shore,
nor to cut timber above a certain size, and were not,
and still are not allowed to reside on the island of ‘New-
foundland. They leave from fifty to seventy men to
take care of the fishing establishments or ‘rooms,’ an
officer being set over every ten men to keep them in
subordination, while a doctor is stationed at each ‘room.
The men live like dogs, cooking out of doors; they are
allowed the first catch of fish for themselves. They
cook Sundays—after early morning prayers—and work
the rest of the day.” It is needless to add that the French
are looked upon as intruders by the English settlers.
The Newfoundlanders themselves, at least the poorer
families, are obliged to fish on credit, running in debt
for their outfit, which is worth £190, including salt.
When the season is over and the fish is sold, they may
clear £15, as they often obtain 350 quintals of fish.
The “longshoremen,” of whom there are here seven
families, are sadly improvident, often giving up fishing
towards the last of the season and idling ; hence as the
result, when the traders have failed them, they are re-
duced, as happened last winter, to actual starvation.
Owing to the lack of fresh meat and vegetables they are
afflicted with the scurvy. One man thus suffering
showed me one of his legs, which was swollen nearly

4

THE WALRUS. 147

twice the size of the well one, and covered with purple
spots. I asked them how they spent their time in the
winter, and they said: “Oh, we get a stick of firewood”
—and it is not much more. But a single deer was shot
here last winter by these thriftless people, while the Es-
kimo, who came down from “the nor’ard” in their dog-
sledges, shot fifteen.

The walrus at times appears as far south as this harbor,
one having been shot about fifteen years ago. It evi-
dently made an impression on the minds of the “long-
shoremen,” as the circumstances of its appearance were
treasured up for years after. It lifted its head above the
water near a boat with a single man in it, who was nearly
frightened out of his wits, as he “thought it was the
devil.” His web-footed majesty sank beneath the waves
to reappear to the same man three-quarters of a mile
away, who was not too much terrified to throw as a
peace-offering to the monster a herring, which it swal-
lowed and then disappeared.

By daylight this morning the ice began to come into
our snug little harbor, brought in by an east wind; it
drifted in during the day, completely surrounding the few
vessels at anchor; though it was a warm, pleasant day,
and the thermometer was 70° at noon, by night it grew
cold, reaching 39°. The ice often comes in through the
narrow ‘‘tickles,” and becoming imprisoned, remains
until a strong west wind blows it out. In this way large
icebergs frequently come in, as the tickles are about thirty
fathoms deep, there being no friendly bars at the en-
trance to detain these unwelcome visitors. On one oc-
casion, a Saturday night, as a man told me, an iceberg “as
tall as a steeple” floated in as if to make a safe harbor,

148 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

and became anchored within fifty yards of his ‘‘ stage.”
Just after he and his family had gone to bed, the berg
broke to pieces—‘“‘ foundered ”—and nearly swamped his
boat, but did not carry away his stage, which was built
upon a rock, though the waves washed a row of punch-
eons off from a neighbor’s stage and entered the house,
driving out the occupants.

Of the personal appearance and habits of the majority
of the summer residents there is not much to be said.
Living in dirty, forlorn tilts, smoked and begrimed with
dirt, the occupants in some cases thoroughly harmonize
with their surroundings: their features and hands are
smoked as dark as the herring they eat, and their rough
life is more or less demoralizing; but certainly law and
order are well maintained on the coast, and no cases of
immorality came to our ears.

The Fourth of July saw us still ice-bound. We could
easily walk ashore over the floe-ice; some of the floes
were higher than our vessel’s rail, it being next to impos-
sible to force our boat through the too narrow “ leads’
between the cakes. Our surroundings were thoroughly
arctic ; the harbor choked with ice-cakes, while the high,
dreary cliffs, rising on every side, made the outlook so
polar and frigid that only a live white bear in the fore-
ground was needed to enhance the resemblance.

This glorious day was celebrated by the imprisoned
party as best they could. At nine o’clock in the morn-
ing a salute was fired from twenty-four gun-barrels, the
largest number we could muster. The exercises of the
forenoon consisted of a prayer by Rev. Mr. Wasson, and
an oration by amember of the legal profession, Mr. Ham,
followed by the John Brown song. For our dinner we

CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY. 149

had a fresh salmon and canned peas, excellent after-
courses, washed down with champagne brought out
with especial reference to the, occasion by Mr. Phoenix.
The evening was thick and foggy, and at sunset the
American flag was again saluted and cheered, and the
ship’s bell rung, due response being made by the people
ashore and by the crews of the other vessels, while the
captain of one of the Newfoundland vessels politely
sent up rockets, Roman candles, and burned Drum-
mond lights. The effect of the fire-works in the fog and
mist, the glare reflected from the ice into the sky and
upon the surrounding cliffs, the cheers and shouts, which
were prolonged to after eleven o’clock at night, all made
a scene, we venture to say, never before witnessed by
- Labradorians.

Before dinner a party was equipped and armed to the
teeth to go on land and look up a black bear which was
seen ashore yesterday. I joined them with my insect-net.
We pushed and shoved through the ice, at times haul-
ing the boat over some refractory floe. A cloudy, misty
day is anywhere unfavorable to insect life, but on this
coast scarcely an insect is then to be seen, so I turned
my attention to the tilts and jacks, A raccoon’s skin
was shown us, and we were told that four or five years
since two white-bear cubs were captured near here and
carried into St. John’s, while a large white or ‘‘ water
bear” was shot last week up at Tub Island. This proved
not to be a fish story, as Mr. Bradford afterwards secured
there a good skin which was destined to adorn his New
York studio on Tenth Street. A white bear’s skin with-
out the head is worth more than that of a black bear,
for which six dollars is asked.

150 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

The next two days were climatically repetitions of the
Fourth, a light easterly wind holding the ice in the har-
bor. Going ashore over the cakes, we spent the day in
entomologizing, and here the first grasshopper occurred,
found floating in the water of a pool; at first I thought
it was a wingless form called Pezotetézx, from the short-
ness of its wing-covers, but it proved to be an allied
winged form; two other wingless specimens were the
next day found on the hill-side ; a thousand-legs (zus)
also occurred under the leaves and sedges.

The highest hill in sight from the deck of our vessel
was measured by Captain Handy from sextant observa-
tions, and found to be 397 feet above the harbor; a hill
behind it rose to a height’ of over 400 feet ; another
higher hill, used as a lookout, was about 800 feet high ;-
the mountain across the bay must therefore be not less
than 1,000 feet high, while those in the interior, near the
head of the bay, seen from the lookout, were probably
not less than 1,500 feet in height. Looking out to sea
from this high elevation the ice was everywhere in view
with leads between the floes, and here and there a vessel
caught in them, besides two broad, massive bergs ap-
parently forcing their way through the ice-field. On the
top of this hill we were in a region of transported rocks,
genuine ice-borne bowlders, which could be seen on allt
sides dotting the tops of the neighboring hills; they were
of all sizes, an occasional rocking-stone among them;
one huge rock was nearly forty feet long and fifteen ‘feet
high. Many were overgrown and partly concealed by
the matted growth of the curlew berry ; bowlders are
also seen scattered over the bottoms of the shallow
ponds, and in the brooks and streams. They appear to

FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 151

have travelled but a short distance from their native
rock, as they are mostly large and angular, though some
are well rounded. The hill-tops, as well as the sides,
have been moulded by ice, voches moutonées being as dis-
tinctly marked here as in New England, and the ice
must have moved from the north, a little west ; but owing
to the weathering of the surface of the rocks in this
severe climate, no grooves could here be found to
determine the exact course of the ice. The ranges of
hills; however, and the longer diameter of the ice all
have a N.E. and S.W. course, while the bays and fjords
ran in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and this was the
course in general taken by the land-ice. _

Going ashore again after dinner and following up the
chain of lakes, I saw a prostrate canoe or paper birch a
' foot in diameter, and another one, also lying down, but
smaller, only eight inches thick—good-sized trees for
Labrador: also spruce trees ten inches through. In the
ponds the cow-lily was just beginning to bud, though
not yet reaching the surface; a little cyclas-like bivalve
(Prstdium steenbuchtc), hitherto only known to occur in
Greenland, was common in the mud at the bottom of a
brook, while a slug (Lzmax agrestzs) was found ashore,
under a stone, just laying its pellucid eggs; and in an-
other brook was found a fresh-water sponge. A robin’s
nest containing three eggs with young nearly ready to
hatch was detected on the bough of a spruce, and it is
most probable that this bird raises but a single brood of
young on this coast. Under a hummock of moss and
_ sedges lay concealed a dormouse’s nest. The curlew-berry
was still in blossom, its flowers like those of the blue-
berry, but of a beautiful pale purple. About the inner-

152 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

most lake were, besides spruce, balsam firs and larches,
the latter.six inches thick ; the Kalmza glauca, or arctic
laurel, as it may be called, was just beginning to flower.
. The 6th closed cold and damp: the northeast wind had
packed the ice in our harbor thicker than ever, while the
thermometer went down to 38° F. The fishermen, how-
ever, managed to seine a few cod and herring.

The morning of the 7th was the coldest we had expe-
rienced, as the ice formed around our vessel between the
cakes of floe-ice. After a good deal of exertion a-few
of us managed, after much tugging and pushing and
forcing the ice-cakes apart, to get ashore in a boat; but
we had, on returning, to leave our boat ashore and walk
back to the vessel. Here I found, my fingers numbed
with the cold, the caterpillar of probably Arctza guenseliz
on the larch, which also occurs on the Alps, the moun-
tains of Norway, and in Greenland and Colorado. It
was a truly mimetic or protective form, as on first sight
it looked like a bunch of moss so common on these trees.
At noon it began to rain, and a regular northeast storm
set in. Through the next two days (the 8th and oth) we
were still ice- and wind-bound, with cold, rainy weather.
Sunday the roth was a repetition of the three preceding,
although part of the day the wind was from the south-
west. The fishermen reported a fight outside of the
harbor between a whale and a killer and sword-fish, in
which the whale got worsted, turning exhausted upon
his back. The night ended in rain, which continued
through the next morning; the wind was at first south,
then southwest, and at night again returned to its fa-
vorite quarter, the northeast, with very cold weather.
During the day there were some strange cloud effects, the

THE COD-FISHERY. 153

higher belt of clouds moving from the southwest, while
below the fog scudded in from the east. After supper a
squall from the west struck us: this carried the ice off-
shore some distance, but from the lookout we could see
the ice-pack closely hugging the shore to the northward
of our harbor, and we beheld a few icebergs, huge cubi-
cal blocks, rising above the ice-pack. We hope to get
out to-morrow, as several vessels have come in which
left Henley Harbor on the day we did, and which have
been ice-bound in Fox Harbor, just above us.

The people complain of the lateness of the season:
the ice holding so late and in such an immense and
unusual quantity is, they say, “killing the cod-fishery.”
We had found a few days previously what we supposed
to be young capelin an inch long, with the tail still heter-
ocercal, and they are now coming inshore to breed. This
interesting little fish, so valuable as bait in fishing for
cod, remains near the coast through the winter in deep
water, and is often found in the bay.

The ice having temporarily left the harbor, we could
again dredge, and we had excellent success; the number
and variety of marine animals, all purely arctic in type,
being very pronounced.

Here, more abundantly than elsewhere, though in
deep water, occurred large sea-anemones (Metrzdium
marginatum) and gorgeous sea-pinks (Urézcena crasse-
cornis), with slashes of red on a flesh-colored ground,
and as beautifully painted as any carnation, besides
shrimps with not less delicate flesh-red and vermilion
tints. The colors of arctic marine animals are some-
times pale and lifeless, but more often of rich salmon and
flesh tints; passing into deep red. Why deep-sea forms

154 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

when highly colored are always of some shade of red is
not yet well understood, but such is the case with holo-
thurians, starfish, sandstars, crabs, and shrimps, as well
as polyps and molluscs, whether living at the depth of
100 or 1,000 fathoms. This evening a trader came into
port, which had been in eleven harbors since leaving us
at Salmon Bay.

The 12th was another of the long, long, weary days
of the fortnight spent in watching and waiting for our
release from this now detestable harbor, more like a
rocky cage than a haven of rest. I went a-dredging
and lost my dredge at the first haul on a rocky bottom,
which added to the aggravations of the weather, and
left but one other for the rest of the summer's work.

The bay was now full of capelin; cod were also be-
ing netted as well as salmon, which is said to disappear
from here about the 15th of August. Salmon, by the
way, were here worth 4ocents apiece ; at Henley Harbor
we paid fifty cents for one. The cod are now breeding,
as the spawn is full and ripe, and their livers are poor
and lean. Now the “stages” presented busy scenes, as
there was a ‘“‘spurt o’ fishing” ; one day seven quintals of
cod were pitched out of the boats upon the wharf; here
the men leave them, turning them over to the tender
mercies of their wives and sweethearts, and it is to be
hoped that the gentler sex on this coast are not in other
respects so fierce and sanguinary as when left alone with
the cod. The “headers,” in petticoats tucked up so as
to show their homespun stockings and stout shoes, their
sleeves rolled up and in their hand a formidable knife,
in an instant seize the cod’s lifeless corse, and with a
dexterous stroke behead it; the body is thrown to the

THE FLOE-ICE, 155

”

‘gutter ;” the woman or maiden thus styled slits up the
belly, tears out, like an augur of old, the entrails, but
doesn’t stop to inspect them, throws the livers into a
hogshead, and the disembowelled fish to the “splitter ;”
another girl or woman grown, known by wearing a mit-
ten on the left hand, who attacks the fish on the reverse
side from the “gutter,” makes a deep cut along each
side of the back-bone, dexterously but with her mittened
sinistral hand shies that important part of the fish’s
skeleton into the harbor, while the fish, after receiving
this threefold treatment, is emphatically slapped into a
sled-barrow and carried to the other end of the low
shed to be salted, when it is ready for the flakes.

While on shore we saw at one of the houses a musk-
rat’s skin, which had a much better, finer fur than those
at home.

On the 12th the wind veered from the north to the
northeast, and it lighted up so decidedly towards noon
that we hoped to get to sea. After dinner, Mr. Brad-
ford went out in the whale-boat to get a view of an ice-
berg, which he sketched from afar off. It was sur-
rounded by cakes of floe-ice, which assumed a wonderful
individuality. One in particular impressed itself on my
memory: it was a lily done in ice, which nodded and
swayed to and fro in the gentle ocean swell like a
veritable flower moved by a summer’s breeze ; another
was like a woman’s torso: and so passed in review a
series of animal and plant-like forms of every conceiva-
ble shape, while mingled with the white ice were smaller
pieces of dark, colorless ice which may have been sev-
ered from some arctic glacier. But before the artist’s
study was fairly made, the insidious northeastern breeze

156 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

deployed a few skirmishers from the edge of the pack and
soon brought the whole floe upon us. Down it came,
borne by the wind and the Labrador current, at the rate
of three or four miles an hour. It closed in at Cape
Bluff to the north of us. We ran before the wind, soon
leaving in the distance the twin bergs, with their myr-
midons of the floe. On entering the tickle we found
ourselves completely surrounded, well-nigh cut off from
our harbor, but by dint of tacking and pushing the cakes
to one side with our oars, and running over some smaller
floes which gnashed and ground harshly on our boat’s
bottom, we got through just in time to escape being
completely shut out. Not so, however, a boat’s crew
which had hurried out to pull up their salmon - nets,
and who did not appear until long after we had boarded
our vessel.

Our box of a harbor was again jammed full of ice,
eight vessels riding at their hawsers, all ice-bound. And
now looking through the pellucid water between the
cakes of ice, our old arctic friends the Mertensia and
Clione, welled up from below, seeking the surface, as
cold and calm as the ice itself.

As the sun went down the fog succeeded the ice; but
it hung low, leaving the blue sky above us, screening
our craft even from the shore and in part from the
neighboring vessel. Before the twilight fell the rays of
the sun, then an hour high, passing through the mist
gave rise to a ‘“‘fog-eater,” a broad, diffused rainbow,
which was dispelled as the moon rose and peered in over
the sides of the screen of fog.

Among the late arrivals was a Newfoundland fishing-
smack which had two crews aboard, and with them six

ICEBERGS. 167

women, all unmarried, two of them mere girls, who lived
in the same cabin with the men, but stowed away in
dark holes and corners of the apartment. They were
paid from £10 to £10, 7s. for the voyage of five months,
or a little over a dollar a week, and their work was to
“head,” “ gut,” split, and salt the fish. Everything about
the interior was forlorn, dirty, greasy, and not a soul
aboard had apparently washed for weeks.

We remained one more day in Square Island Harbor,
the 14th, which ended in a thunder-shower and a west-
erly squall, which cleared the harbor of ice and gave
promise of release from our two weeks’ imprisonment.
It was warm and sultry in the forenoon, the westerly
wind bringing in swarms of mosquitoes and black-flies,
especially annoying while I was ashore beating the herb-
age and bushes for insects.

On the 15th we slipped out of our stone jug at
Square Island, and with a mild southwest breeze, which
freshened in the afternoon, we gaily picked our way
through the ice and amongst the icebergs up the lane
between the shore and the ice-pack, now fairly shoved
to the eastward some miles from land. At noon, after
making about ten miles, we lay to near a superb marble-
white berg, weather-, rain-, and wave-worn, broad at the
base, indented by a deep bay, into which the sea-swell

rushed and foamed. Wasson and Phoenix got out their

boat and rowed around it; Bradford made studies in oil
of its many phases, its blues so impossible to thoroughly
catch, as well as its ineffable purples. Another berg was
like a huge block of city buildings, the foundations hun-
dreds of feet beneath the waves; another was a huge

158 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

pyramid stranded near an island, and looked like a gla-
cier descending its precipitous sides.

As we go on through the watery lane huge floes swing
off shore and are borne down past us by the strong
Labrador current; the bays are still choked with ice
which the southwest wind is forcing to the seaward.
The ice is remarkably hummocky; worn into the most
fantastic shapes. The coast has the same rude, broken,
tossed, and disquieted appearance as about Square Island,
but with more of the high conical sugar-loaf islands of
Labradorite rock, such as we were now to see all the
way to Hopedale.

At Seal Island the “‘Domino gneiss” of Lieber ap-
pears, protected seaward by high islands intermixed
with low gneiss ‘‘skiers,” and as we press on the shore
becomes much lower, the coast-line straight and but
little broken; but as we approach the Isle of Ponds
the shore seaward becomes high and bold, perhaps 300
to 400 feet, with lofty sea-cliffs. These are formed by
the dolerite or trap rock which has penetrated and over-
flown the gneiss. The scenery of these trap overflows
is quite novel. The seaward side of Spotted Island is
of trap rock, and on the west the gneiss rock is low and
very slowly slopes towards the channel which separates it
from the Isle of Ponds; there are also two or three trap
islets which rise out of the water. Going ashore and as-
cending one of the trap hills, perhaps the remnants of
some old volcanic crater which rises out of the sur-
rounding gnciss, I can take a view of the whole island,
see other trap hills rising out of the gneiss plain, which
is studded thickly with shallow pools and lakes sunk in
the peat, and is low and flat compared with the coast ten

DOMINO HARBOR. 159

miles to the south; while northward this low land or
basin stretches away for several miles, while twenty or
thirty miles inland the country rises into high hills and
mountains, the highest summit rising perhaps 1,500 feet
above the level of the sea. This range or group of peaks
was probably the Mealy Mountains situated on the
northern side of Sandwich Bay.

The low plain before us evidently belonged to a dis-
tinct geological system from any that we had yet seen;
it rested in a depression or basin of Laurentian gneiss,
and was called by Lieber the “ Domino gneiss,” and
probably belongs to the Upper Laurentian system.

The plain is worn smoothly, and slopes gradually
toward Domino Harbor; scattered over it are patches of
large cobble-stones, which indicate that it was once a
raised ocean-bottom, now at least 125 feet high, which
reached to the base of the angular masses of trap rock
capping the gneiss elevation. Strip off the scattered
masses of matted growth of curlew-berry and cranberry,
and the smooth, wave-worn, pebbly surface would seem
as if but yesterday won from the dominion of the sea.

Domino Harbor, or Domino Run, as it is called on the
chart, is a broad, deep fissure which nearly divides the
island in two, the shores vertical though not very high,
with fishing-houses along the western side, under which
were moored seven brigs with their sails “ unbent,” the
bare masts rising but slightly above the cliffs. Not a
tree or bush is to be seen in any direction, only low
spreading masses of willow, belonging to two species:
one of them just beginning to throw out its catkins ; the
other, with small, acute glaucous leaves, had done flower-
ing. Running over the leaves of the willow was an

160 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

arctic ground-beetle (Cavabus groenlandicus), which had
not before been found south of Greenland.

Here was the best summer-house we had yet seen,

well built and tolerably attractive ; two pleasant, wom-
anly faces within, and a spaniel lying in front of the.
door. Captain Duff, the proprietor, had a spacious
wharf or stage and a well-kept fish-house, while he had
_arranged the white quartz pebbles in an attractive way
to form a drying-floor or flake, instead of using poles;
and the walk from the stage to the house was neatly
made of short poles, forming a corduroy-path. Another
toad was here seen, which some one had brought from
the head of the bay; the man said that they were only
known to be found here and in St. Michael’s Bay. We
also were told that a polar bear was killed here two
months ago.

We reached this harbor early in the afternoon, and
some of the vessels which we had passed on the way
after awhile came in and dropped their anchor near us;
others sailed on all night, but gained nothing in the end.
We astonished the natives and fishermen as we sailed
past their slower craft—of which we passed to-day about
thirty ; some would ina flattering and good-natured way
hold out a rope’s end, asking to be towed. They told
us they had seen ninety sail that day in the sound lead-
ing to the harbor.

In dredging at the slight depth of only seven fathoms,
to my great joy that interesting and hitherto purely polar
holothurian (J/yrzotrochus rinkit), came up; with it
were associated the short arctic mya (JZya truncata), the
Iceland cockle (Cardzum islandicum), the Greenland
Aphrodite, the polar starfish (4 s¢terzas polarts), the inevi

DUMPLIN HARBOR. 161

table knotted sandstar (Ophzoglypha nodosa), and other
forms only previously recorded from Greenland.

The evening was rarely beautiful for this coast ; the
ice was out of sight, and the way seemed clear for a good
run on the morrow.

The 16th proved all that we could have desired in
point of wind, weather, and absence of ice. A fresh but
warm northwest wind, sometimes almost blowing a gale
off-shore, bore us a distance of forty-five miles. The
thermometer at nine o’clock was 64° F. inthe shade; at
ten o'clock 84° in the sun, and at one o’clock p.m. 73°
in the shade. Our way led through a broad sound in-
side of the outer islands, and then across the-mouth of
Sandwich Bay. At two p.m., however, our further ad-
vance received a check. We had crossed the mouth of
Sandwich Bay and were approaching the Horsechops on
the north side of the entrance to the bay, when the wind
drew in from the north and headed us off, so that we ran
back to Dumplin Harbor. As we entered we nearly ran
aground; and then in trying to escape that disaster, we
came near having a collision with a schooner’s stern on
the other side of the narrow entrance. On this.occasion
our pilot, Captain French, nearly lost his head, and it
has been my lot on several occasions to sail with pilots
who lost their presence of mind at just the critical
moment when their senses should be ready at an instant’s
call. Thorough knowledge of the rocks, shoals, and
headlands of a coast is not always united with the high-
est order of executive ability ; but on the whole, no fault
could be found with the management of our vessel ; she
was a Wellfleet oysterman, built by Donald McKay ; her
lines were beautiful, but she was not adapted for the

162 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

perils of this coast and of semi-arctic navigation. We
pushed on cautiously and too slowly for the impatient
company aboard, but we all reached home safely, and
ran into no great danger.

Within two hours after we had dropped our anchor a
fleet of thirty-seven vessels of all descriptions—top-sail,
fore-and-aft, and three-masted schooners, brigs and brig-
antines, and hermaphrodite craft—were at anchor ina
line; they came in one after the other in single file, all
having been headed off by the ice as we had been; and as
they approached us, we, or rather our goodly vessel, was
the recipient of admiring looks and complimentary ejac-
ulations in Newfoundland dialect, the amount of room
on deck and the cleanliness of our craft being the par-
ticular points of remark: and there was somewhat of a
contrast, which appealed feelingly to our nostrils when
we returned their calls. In the hold of one vessel I was
delighted to see the head and flippers of a veritable wal-
rus. This wasalone needed to complete the experiences
of arctic voyaging of the past three weeks. They found
the creature, a young one twelve feet long with tusks
four inches in length, about fifty miles from shore near
the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle; it was found
dead, having been harpooned, and had evidently floated
down in the floe-ice from higher latitudes.

An interesting feature of the day’s sail was the raised
beaches which marked the former level of the ocean.
Twelve very distinct ones were seen from the vessel
while on her course. At Spotted Island were two low
but very regular beaches, perhaps forty feet high. Ona
small islet to the north, between two trap hills, was a
beach which extended up to a height of perhaps from

IIUNTINGTON HARBOR. 163

150 to 200 feet above the sea, and divided into three ter-
taces, With very steep escarpments. On Stony Island,
towards the east, was a small short beach between two
trap hills, and a much higher one was on the northern
side; on an island perhaps twenty-five miles north of
Domino Harbor was a beach at least 100 feet high and
facing west. Indeed it looked as if the entire coast and
islands had just risen from the sea, while above the for-
mer level of the ocean, when at its highest point, the
hills were strewn with bowlders.

We now passed larger banks of snow than had _ here-
tofore been observed : one in Mullein Cove on the south
side of Cape North appeared to be nearly a quarter
of a mile long. Cape North is a bold headland, fully
400 feet high, faced with rude, jagged trap rocks, and
within composed of gneiss; and on the south side a
low raised beach, with large trap islands opposite, called.
Greely Islands. We then pass Cape Noble, with its
overhanging cliffs and a fine deep harbor; near it are
“ The Sisters,” two low, flat islands, one with a trap dyke
passing through the middle, the other one half black trap
rock, the vegetation on it of a bright green, clinging to
the black debris of the volcanic rock. from this point
we could again see the ice to the northeast moving out
tosea. After passing Long Island head, which seemed
to be of red syenite and about 400 feet high, we sailed
by Huntington Island, a noble mass of volcanic rock
perhaps 500 feet high, with an evergreen growth seen in
the bays indenting its shores.

On the mainland a large fire was raging, probably
set by the Indians; the sky to the westward and all
about us was lurid with the smoke. Here also we felt

164 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

the full force of the Labrador current which hugs this
shore, running at the rate of three knots an hour, its
effects not much weakened by the outer islands. The
water at the surface was perceptibly fresh, brought down
by the rivers and streams emptying into these bays.

Going ashore in our harbor (Dumplin) we found the
beautiful dwarf arctic laurel (Kalmza glauca) just in
flower; associated with it was a narrow-leaved Ledum
in full bloom, and very distinct from the Labrador tea
(Ledum latifolium), which was only just beginning to
flower ; besides, it is more procumbent and lives on more
exposed surfaces than the broad-leaved species. In one
sheltered spot was a thick growth of spruce, mostly
dwarfed, though one stump was seen to be thirteen
inches in diameter. Dredging in four fathoms did not
bring to light any novelties. On the north side of the
island there was a good deal of ice. Before sunset the
sky cleared in the west ; there was a fresh westerly breeze
through the night, and a good prospect. of a fair day on
the morrow. Salmon trout were caught here, and the
sea-trout are at places common enough ; but the shallow
lakes do not abound in fish, although the deep lakes
among the mountains of the interior were said by Davies,
at the time he wrote, to be well stocked with them.
Pike’s Harbor was three miles. above us, and Tub Island
was also in sight.

From this point we could see the famous Mealy
Mountain range, composed of lofty hills said by ex-
plorers to be from 1,500 to 2,500 feet in height ; we
judged their height to be not much less than 2,000 feet ;
they are certainly considerably higher than the moun-
tains of Mt. Desert, Maine, the highest peak of which is

RAISED BEACHES. 165

1,500 feet. This range runs in a general northeast and
southwest direction between Sandwich Bay and Hamil-
ton Inlet, and it well deserves to be accurately measured
and mapped. To the highest peak of this range we
have given the name of Mt. Cabot, in honor of John
and Sebastian Cabot. The position of Dumplin Harbor
was ascertained by Captain Handy by reckoning from
observations of the sun at noon to be in lat. 53° 48’;
long. 56° 23’. |

The 17th was a fine day, with the wind from the
south, sometimes hauling east ofsouth. Weran twenty-
five miles across the mouth of Sandwich Bay to Tub
Island, well known to the fisherman on the coast, and the
farthest point reached by American fishermen ; it is high
and steep, and so named for its resemblance to a tub ly-
ing bottom-side up. Beyond this harbor the Labrador
coast is the Ultima Thule of America ; and here the ser-
vices of our coast-pilot, Captain French, were to be sup-
plemented by native guides. We now had high expec-
tations of making new discoveries in the entomology,
marine zoology, and geology of the northern coast of
this little-known region., Tub Island was found to be
in lat. 54° 12’, long. 56° 4o’.

One of the most remarkable headlands on the coast
is the eastern end of Horsechops Island; a lofty basaltic
cliff with a human profile, the nose distinctly Roman
and the forehead retreating. On the north side of the
island were three raised beaches, at least 100 feet high.
Inshore the land was very high (the highest portion 398
feet by the chart), with the snow lying on it in extensive
fields.

A white bear was shot two years ago, on an island a

166 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

few miles south of Tub Island, under the following cir-
cumstances: A man was walking along the shore with
his little girl ; they separated ; she saw the bear and ran to
her father; the bear also ran, and plunged into the water,
where the man shot him. I was particular to inquire as
to the occurrence of this animal, and from all I learned,
it appears to be more or less of a permanent resident on
the northern Labrador coast, though I at first supposed
that it only occasionally strayed from the arctic regions ;
it would seem as if its range overlapped that of the black
bear, the two species being found in the same localities
north of Belle Isle.

We visited American Island, which is a little west of
Tub Island, and colonized during the summer by a man
named Williams; it is of light-colored gneiss, with ex-
tensive broad trap dykes and irregular masses of the same
volcanic material. Williams was distinguished from
other of his countrymen by having married a full-blooded
Eskimo-woman. They had no children of their own,
but had adopted, strange to say, a mountaineer or Nas-
kope Indian child. The poor thing had been ‘“ burnt”
by frost during the past winter, and still suffered from
her exposure. On our way to the island we saw the fia
of a killer projecting four or five feet above the water,
moving rapidly to and fro in a school of grampus, as if
engaged in combat with the latter, which were recog-
nized by their small fins, only a foot high, which some-
times broke the surface of the sea.

From Tub Island we could easily see the land twenty
miles distant on the north shore of Groswater Bay or
Hamilton Inlet, Tub Island being at the southern en-
trance; it is, however, forty miles across the mouth of

SEA-FOWL. 167

this great inlet, the largest and deepest bay in the
coast.

Unfortunately we did not go up Ivuctoke Bay, or
Hamilton Inlet, as it is variously called, though well
meriting a thorough exploration, since it is the largest
and deepest fiord on the Labrador coast. Its general
shape may be seen in the map of Eskimo Bay. The
principal settlement is Rigolet, a Hudson Bay Com:
pany’s post.

The ice-belt was reported “as thick enough to walk
on” a few miles to the westward, and the wind blew chilly
and damp from that direction. Day before yesterday
the floes were close in shore. Here we saw more sea-
fowl than’ had been observed of late, a few puffins,
murres, guillemots, and a,pair of eider-ducks, Years
ago these bays swarmed with fowl, where now they are
well-nigh deserted. In ‘Old Man’s bight,” Captain
French twelve years ago saw the wild goose in immense
numbers. We did not. seea goose upon the whole coast ;
and now since they have been so closely hunted they are
rare and shy. The captain again and again expressed
his astonishment at the amount of ice upon this northern
coast; he had never seen it before north of Belle Isle,
and from all accounts it has been the coldest season, with
the most floe-ice, experienced for nearly forty years.
The cod had not ‘struck in” at this point yet; a few
capelin had been seen, but the fishery had not ‘yet begun,
while last year long before this date there was “ plenty of
fish.”

This morning at Dumplin Harbor Mr, Mann caught
a Chionobas differing very slightly from C. semzdea, but
in Mr. Scudder’s opinion specifically different from that

168 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

species, whose only habitat then known was the summit
of Mt. Washington. It has since been observed in the
Rocky Mountains. Here also we found the beach-pea
(Lathyrus marttimus) just flowering.

July 18. We left Tub Island at 5 o’clock in the morn-
ing, and crossing the mouth of Hamilton Inlet were
obliged to put into Sloop Harbor, twenty-five miles dis-
tant. The southwest wind freshened after dinner and
blew off shore in the evening, but we were prevented
from reaching Cape Webuc or Harrison by the ice, some
of which floated about our vessel while at anchor. It
was, however, waning; large cakes breaking into pieces
with a report like a volley of firearms.

The northern shore of Groswater Bay—Hamilton or
Ivuctoke Inlet, as it is variously called by the French,
English, and Eskimo inhabitants—is in places very high
and rugged, owing to the presence of trap dykes and an-
cient volcanic overflows capping the hills of gneiss.
Huge dykes of the black rock ran in ruffled crests over
the hills of pale, gneiss-like, huge black walls. ‘‘ Black
and White” isa notable island, conico-pyramidal in form,
the western end of black trap rock, the eastern end com-
posed of the pale gneiss common on this part of the
coast. There is a similar but less conspicuous and lower
island to the eastward. One dyke in particular, seen just
before entering Sloop Harbor, was of basaltic columns
in horizontal, quite regular, prisms. The highest hills ap-
peared to be about seven or eight hundred feet in height,
though this may be too high an estimate ;* but owing
to the great outbursts of black basalt capping the light

* Cape Harrison is estimated on the chart to be 1,065 feet high.

‘* BLACK-AND-WHITE ”’ ISLAND. 169

SS Se eee

a = —

Northern Coast of Hamilton Inlet, four Miles distant, bearing E.

RS a ee SOS

Coast near Indian Harbor. A, Indian Harbor.

Coast hills, 500 to 800 feet high, on north side of Hamilton Inlet, bearing
5 one mile north.

“White and Black” Island near Indian Harbor: a, black basalt; 4, whitish
gneiss.

eee

ce

Two parallel dikes, one forming the crest of the hill; one-half mile x. w.; 4, 4,
white gneiss.

Three trap dikes; 1, the top of ‘‘ Black and White” Island forming the west-
ern slope. 4, 6, white gneiss.

Northern shore of Hamilton Inlet, the extreme point to the right. a,
basalt; 4, white gneiss.

gneiss hills, and running in ridges or forming great

splashes on the face of the hills, and sometimes entire

hills, like craters, the hills are transformed from what

170 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

would otherwise be quite tame clevalote into high, bold,
wild-looking peaks.

We went into Indian Harbor, which is an island from
ten to fifteen miles from the mainland, forming the
northern side of the entrance to Hamilton Inlet, to find
a pilot for Cape Harrison, but none could be found.
Near here is Ice Tickle, where the ice is usually de-
tained later than elsewhere. Around one high head the
murres are very abundant; it was evidently a favorite
breeding-place for them; indeed all through the polar
regions we imagine that these sea-fowl (murres, dovkies,
sea-pigeons, and guillemots) are somewhat local, breeding
about certain high headlands and inaccessible crags and
cliffs; while the puffins select points where they may.
burrow and mine in the crumbling rock.

Around the head of this harbor, and especially well
marked on tne southwest side, is a noble beach at least
150 and most probably 200 fect high, lodged between
two hills; its shingly surface was free from vegetation,
and it looked as though the waves had receded froin it
but the night before; it was divided into two steps or
terraces, the lowermost perhaps about 50 feet above the
harbor. It wasaconstant source of regret that there was.
no means at hand of accurately measuring the height of
these beaches: not an aneroid barometer was aboard, and

THE COAST BETWEEN CAPE HARRISON AND SLOOP HARBOR BEARING TEN MILES
WEST.

I was quite unprepared for their accurate study. Indeed
almost no attention has been given to the subject of
ancient sea-margins in the United States, the terraces of

INDIAN HARBOR. 171

the Great Lakes having been measured more accurately,
since they are much more distinct than those on the
coast. But on my return after this experience with
Labrador raised beaches, it was easy to detect them in
the vicinity of Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, and Boston, as well
as on the Maine coast, though on the New England
shores they are difficult to distinguish on account of the
vegetable growth and forests which conceal them and
prevent their ready recognition.

Huge bowlders of syenite, some oval and very round,
were scattered about on shore, the smaller ones well
rounded by the waves, while the bottom of the harbor is
paved with cobble-stones, as we ascertained by dredging.
The summits of the hills surrounding the barbor were
formed of a pale, whitish, foliated syenite, with scattered
specks of hornblende, while lower down on the sides
the rock was a very dark gneiss, slightly porphyritic. I
found here a dwarf willow new to me, the flowers purple,
of nearly the same tint as the flowers of the cloud-berry.
A species of field-mouse, which we failed to capture, was
common here, its nests lined with mouse-colored fur.

The head of the harbor was said to be haunted by a
ghost ; we did not attempt to secure it or to lay it, but
a more substantial, though still a fleeting treasure,
was the huge, glacier-like snow-banks in the vicinity
of the haunted spot, which were perhaps 20 feet thick,
very hard on the surface, and much soiled: too hard, per-
haps, to retain even the traces of the footprints of a Lab-
rador spirit—whose tread, judging by the average Labra-
dorian, must have been a firm one. One of the banks
appeared to have slidden into the water, and from its
edge a miniature berg had broken off and was floating

172 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

away. So well marked were the ice-worn hills about us
and elsewhere on this coast, that this snow-bank seemed
but the dwarfed descendant of the great multitude of
glaciers which had so recently filled the innumerable
bays, fjords, and “tickles” of this coast. That this is
not a mere fancy is shown by the following facts :

Mr. Lieber, the geologist of the U. S. Coast Survey
Eclipse expedition of 1860, which went near Cape Chid-
ley, the point we hoped to reach, speaks of walking over
a snow-bank on the flanks of Mt. Bache, which ‘ was a
miniature glacier,” while ‘‘a regular moraine was piled
up along its edges.” Captain Handy told me that on
Savage Island, just north of Hudson's Strait, he saw in
August ravines full of ice; and on Button Island as
late as September 20 he found snowin the ravines. He
called them glaciers, one patch of snow being five hun-
dred feet long’ and two hundred feet broad. On Reso-
lution Island, only one hundred and twenty miles north
of Cape Chidley, he saw glaciers extending into the wa-
ter, from which small icebergs fell into the sea; and
Captain Hall describes the Grinnell glacier on Meta
Incognita, which was two miles long, and discharged
icebergs into the sea.

The next day the wind was against us, being north
and very light. The day was warm and pleasant, but
towards sundown cloudy, and as usual, as soon as the sun
goes down it becomes cold and chilly. Though the floe-
ice had now disappeared, a large number of bergs were
to be seen outside slowly travelling down the coast,
some of the smaller ones stranded a few miles from the
shore. After this date, and beyond Cape Webuc, we
were not troubled by the floe-ice; for weeks we had

TRANSPORTATION OF BOWLDERS BY FLOE-ICE. 173

watched the progress south of this enormous expanse of
floating ice, the stream being not less than a thousand
miles long and over a hundred miles in breadth, more
or less interrupted, of course, by “leads” and cpen water.
It will be remembered that in former years the “ float-
ing-ice” theory prevailed, geologists almost universally be-
lieving that the polishing and grooving of the rocks and
distribution of drift or diluvium were produced by floe-ice
passing over the submerged land. Thistheory has been
almost wholly abandoned, though south of the edge of
the great continental glacier floating-ice may have trans--
ported morainal material southward and dropped it over
the Middle and Southern States. It was therefore with
much interest that I watched day after day the effects
upon the coast of such a mass of ice as beset us for a
period of nearly a month in summer. This immense
body of floating-ice, as we have elsewhere stated,* seemed
directly to produce but little alteration in the appear-
ance of the rocks on the coast; in fact, the only imme-
diate effects of waves and shore-ice action were observed
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Little Mecatina Island,
where there is no true arctic floe-ice. At Domino Har-
bor, as well as the harbor we were now in, the rocks
had been disrupted, and the land descended in rock-
terraces to the water’s edge, and to a point at least two
hundredand fifty feet below it. This singular appearance
I attributed to the action of the ice-fort, or winter-ice,
which has been well described by Dr. Kane. Now
why should not the floe-ice while in motion along

the shore have ground down the jagged and angular

* Observations on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine, Memoirs
of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1, pt. ii. Boston, 1867.

174 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

points presented to the ice-current? If our slightly-
built vessel could navigate these ice-laden waters, lie
in harbors filled with ice, and not even have the paint
worn off her hull, how could she have escaped the least
of all the tremendous effects which are by some theorists
attributed to floating ice? Moreover, no bowlders or
gravel or mud were seen upon any of the cakes of floe-
ice, nor on any of the bergs, many of which were flat-
topped, like ordinary cakes of floe-ice. If they had
-been thus laden, they had dropped all burdens of this
nature nearer their birthplace in Davis Strait, or the re-
gions farther north. The icebergs in nearly every case,
when closely observed, bore evidence of having been re-
peatedly overturned as they were borne along in the cur-
rent, often with old water-lines presenting different an-
gles to the present water-level. The floe-ice was hum-
mocky, which is a strong proof of its having come from
open straits in the polar regions, the cakes looking as if
they had been frozen and refrozen, jammed together,
and then piled atop of each other by currents and storms
long beforé their advent upon this coast. The only dis-
coloration noticed was probably caused by seals resting
upon and soiling the surface. It should however be
mentioned that one bowlder was said to have been seen
by a member of our party upon an_iceberg off Cape
Webuc.

Finally, as we shail see farther on, the few ice-marks
and grooves detected by myself and others on the Lab-
rador coast show plainly that the country was once cov-
ered by land-ice, that it filled the bays and fjords, and
moved into the sea at right angles to the course of the
Labrador current, which flows parallel to the shore

GLACIAL MARKS. 175

north of Belle Isle. Moreover, we would impress upon
the mind of any lingering believer in the sole agency of
floating-ice, that the surface of Greenland is covered with
a glacier or rather a mer-de-glace, from which ice-streams
press ‘through the fjord into the sea, and that there are
innumerable glaciers on the land-masses throughout the
Arctic Ocean west of the Labrador peninsula, which are
constantly grinding down, polishing, and grooving their
rocky beds. Their work is perennial: that of the floe-
ice is confined to the rocks at the shore of the sea, and
there it virtually ends; the after effects of the floating-
ice being so inconsiderable as not to rise to the dignity
of a geological agency.

And so there was a ceaseless charm and interest in
the problems in geology, physical geography, and biology
which suggested themselves to us, whether clambering
over the hill-tops, shuffling over the shingly pebbly
beaches, now raised hundreds of feet above the sea, or
chasing the arctic butterflies and moths, or dredging
polar starpoles and the innumerable marine forms peo-
pling these waters.

Life was monotonous enough to the others, as they
felt bitterly disappointed at their failure to reach the
higher Moravian stations and the promised headland of
Chidley, from which we could look over Hudson’s Strait
and the waters of the Greenland seas; but so far as I
was concerned, the opportunity to study the glacial
marks, the raised beaches, the insects, and other life-
forms, were so many crumbs of comfort to offset the
general feeling of disappointment. It would be next to
impossible to properly explore this coast in a single sea-
son without a steamer and small steam launches for work

176 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

in the bays and fjords; thus independent of wind and
ice, one could run outside and do in good weather deep-
sea dredging, scrape the bottoms of the shallower bays
and reaches, measure the raised beaches, geologize, botan-
ize, and entomologize, and reach the better breeding-
haunts of the water-fowl, and do something toward col-
lecting the nests and eggs of land-birds. A well-
equipped party in a steamer could, in four months spent
on this coast, add vastly to what, on the whole, is perhaps
the least-known portion of northern America. With
the ample knowledge of polar life and nature we now
possess as a basis of comparison, here is a most interest-
ing field of exploration for our rising naturalists; it
would at all events be an excellent training-school in
physical geology and biology.

This day was entirely devoted to insect-hunting, and
I found myself in a new world so far as the insect fauna
was concerned, many truly polar species abounding.
The spiders were thoroughly arctic, dark, dull - colored
creatures, occasionally venturing out from their retreats
under the growth of curlew berry, or under stones; sim-
ilar forms afterwards occurred to me in just such places
on the summit of Mt. Washington, on Gray’s and
Pike’s Peaks, showing that the Alpine summits of our
mountains are but outliers, zrial islands, so to speak,
detached zodgeographically from the frozen regions of
the north.

On a steep, southerly exposure of the harbor, where a
long glacis sloped toward an angular precipice, which
overhung patches of vegetation, between the worn and
polished naked rocks of the shore, we started up a few
butterflies and moths. To my genuine surprise and de-

ARCTIC MOTHS AND BIRCHES. 177

light, there fluttered, half skipping and half-flying, over
the lichened bowlders a butterfly I had never before
seen, the high arctic bluet, (Polyommatus franktiniz),
heretofore only known to occur in the arctic world, and
discovered by the naturalist of Franklin’s voyage. I
also netted an Argynnis, not hitherto discovered so far
south ; it was likewise a polar form.

The moths were all arctic species, and when at rest
so harmonized in color with the lichens and other vege-
tation in which they nestled as to entirely deceive me.
And yet what was the use of practising, even uncon-
sciously to themselves, this deception? ‘The answer was
not far off—there was a shore-lark, or some such bird,
flitting about and running over the rocks, busily search-
ing for just such moths as these, and the only hope of
safety for the insects from their sharp eyes was in their
resemblance to the lichens.

The only tree seen here was the dwarf birch, Betula
nana, those who have seen this Lilliputian tree on the
summit of Mt. Washington will well remember its
humble stature and little round leaves. No tree per-
haps ever underwent greater modification by climate
than did the ancestor of this species, and we cannot well
doubt but that all these dwarf arctic trees and shrubs, so
closely allied to their congeners in the north temperate
zone, only escaped utter extinction by adapting them-
slvees to the extremes of their arctic surroundings, It
will be remembered that the oak, gum, and tulip tree,
the sassafras and maple, the cypress and sequoia, once
flourished in what is now Greenland in growths as luxu-
riant as the forests of the Gulf States. When the ice-
period was ushered in, and climate and other circum-

178 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

stances changed the inhabitants of that tertiary polar
land, of which Greenland and Spitzbergen are the rém-
nants, they were either entirely effaced, or emigrated
southward, becoming the ancestors of our American
plants and animals, or, as in the case of a few forms,
maintained their ground but changed into the present
arctic animals and plants. ;

The afternoon was spent on the opposite side of the
harbor, where there is an ancient sea-beach at least two
hundred feet high, with four terraces, well defined by
the windrows of pebbles left by the retreating waves—
how many thousand years ago, a wise man would hardly
dare to guess. On the two lower terraces the willows
grew in irregular rounded patches; there were two spe-
cies, one growing to a foot in height, their tops of the
same length, as if clipped off with scissors; the other
species was still more prone, creeping low in the rein-
deer moss and curlew-berry, or spreading vine-like over
the rocks. Their catkins were being investigated by
bumble-bees of two kinds, one or both truly polar.

During the 20th a cold northeast wind blew ; the har-
bor was open to the wind and sea, so that our vessel was
pitching through the livelong day, making everybody’s
headache, and sending nearly all to their bunks to sleep
through the discomfort. No ice, however, was brought
in by the wind, which showed that the coast was clear
whenever the wind should be fair. The icebergs, how-
ever, are seen marching ceaselessly down the coast at a
distance of ten or fifteen miles out at sea.

The wind and swell did not prevent the fishermen
from seining for capelin, so essential as bait in fish-
ing for cod. When the seine is hauled the fish are

COD AND CAPELIN. 179

bailed out with scoop-nets. At such times these active
little fish throw off from their gleaming sides all the
colors of the rainbow. The cod were seen through
the transparent water hovering about the outskirts of
the school, snapping at any which became separated
from their fellows, and following them so near the boats
that the men would drive them away with their boat-
hooks. After capturing one school, they would row
about near shore on the watch for another. The seine-
boats differ from others in being narrow and long, from
twenty-five to twenty-seven feet in length.

We here saw specimens of a variety of cod, called
“duffy,” which may be the same as Professor Wyman’s
‘“bull-dog cod.” Its head is blunter, the under-jaw is
shorter, while the fish is darker than ordinary cod; the
fishermen pronounce them “no good;” it is possible
that such as are taken are simply deformed individuals
of the common species. We found, however, that at
Hopedale these fish were comparatively common, and
taken with the gig by the Eskimo.

We left Sloop Harbor early in the morning of the
21st with a light easterly breeze, but we made only five
or six miles, playing ‘about the icebergs nearly half the
day. The gigantic steps or terraces carved by the shore-
ice out of the lofty rocky shore of the islands about
here were very remarkable, especially when we saw
them in sections. We counted some thirty bergs to-
day. While Mr. Bradford was industriously painting
them, a party of us went in a boat to Tinker Island,
a lofty rock far out to sea, its sides sheer precipices,
whose bases were washed by the ceaseless Atlantic
swell; a yawning chasm nearly divides the island in

180 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

two, and by entering the fissure we could effect a land-
ing, and climb up to the heights above. The rock and
all its belongings, with the sea-fowls flying about or sit-
ting by thousands on the projecting shelves, reminded
us of the pictures, so familiar in childhood, of similar
scenes in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The
tinkers and murres breeding here were in immense
numbers, the females on the rock shelves, and their con-
sorts resting on the waves, or flying overhead to the
leeward. This island was situated several miles from

TINKER ISLAND, BEARING TWO TO THREE MILES WEST.

land, remote from other islands, and consisted of a hard,
coarse-grained granite, the feldspar predominating and
of two kinds—one flesh-colored orthoclase, the other
smoky labradorite ; it was weathered into regular steps
and shelves, and huge blocks had been detached by the
frost, the angles having been rounded by the weather ;
near the water’s edge the waves had worn it into smooth
declivities. The east wind blew chill from the direction
of the ice-pack, which could be seen a few miles off en-
closing a number of large bergs. The pools of water
onthe higher portions of the island were inhabited by
case-worms, and it was evident, by the feathers at the
bottom,that the murres used them as wash-basins. Ina
deep, narrow chink between the rocks I found a murre’s
egg, while the tunnels made by the puffins wound
through the scanty soil. I started up a blue fox, which
was running toward me with a murre’s egg in his mouth ;

CAPE WEBUC. 181

on my throwing a stone at him he dropped his egg and
scampered off. I hallooed for nearly ten minutes for
some one with a gun to come and shoot him, and kept
him in sight ; with more of curiosity than fear he would
stop at intervals to look at me, keeping a safe distance
off and barking, until he disappeared. Soon Mr. Was-
son came up; we pursued finding him on the other side
of the island with another egg in his mouth. Mr. Was-
son gave him his death-wound, though he ran some
distance with the egg between his teeth before he
dropped dead. His flanks and belly were white, the
rest of a slate-blue color, his legs very long, and tail long
though not very bushy; the more remarkable features
were his short, rounded ears, as if cropped. Mr. Wasson
also shot a Labradorian falcon, which Professor Baird
afterward wrote him he thought might be an immature
stage of Falco candicans. On this exposed spot the
cloud-berry had nearly done flowering ; the cochlearia,
growing from two to six inches high, was in bloom,
while a pretty, gentian-like flower was found here which
was not observed elsewhere.

We laid to all the short night, as Mr. Bradford wanted
to paint icebergs, getting up at three the next morning
to secure some noble ones. Then we soon ran down
and doubled Cape Webuc or Harrison, which is a lofty
gneiss headland, faced with syenite, its northern face
seamed with vertical trap dykes with an N.E. and S.W.
direction. Ragged Island now bears N.N.W., and,
as its name implies, is exceedingly rough and jagged,
and evidently composed of syenite, as are nearly all
these headlands, being probably outflows of crystalline
_tocks capping the Laurentian gneiss. We next came

182 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

in sight of high rounded mountains near the shore,
which appear to be not less than twelve hundred feet
high; far back of them were several peaks, which rose
above a mass of clouds partly enveloping them, and
seemed to rise five or six thousand feet into the heavens,
The highest peak is Mt. Misery, and Captain French

MOUNT MISEKY, OR ALLAGAIGAI, 2,170 FEET, DUE W. OF CAPE HARRISON BY
CHART.

says that in clear weather the group seems very near
when viewed from the southern side of Hamilton Inlet.
I do not doubt but that this peak, which was obscured by
clouds for two days after, was not less than two thou-
sand feet high.* The view of this mountain, so trans-
formed by the clouds hovering just below its peak, was
the grandest coast view of the voyage.

Towards the end of the day we ran into Stag Bay,
some twenty miles north of Cape Harrison, after a pilot.
Dredging in this harbor at the depth of ten fathoms was
not very fruitful, except in some fine varieties or species
of the very variable genus, Aséarée, including A. banksit
and A. compressa, and a Gammarus new to me. The
harbors on the Atlantic coast of Labrador have rather
barren rocky bottoms; sea-weeds are scanty, the shores
are so steep; and there are so few large streams emptying
into the bays, that no sediments are carried down from
the land to form muddy or sandy bottoms. If the
floating-ice theory were true, we should have expected

* My guess I found to be a good one, as I find Mt. Misery is put down in the
chart under the name of Allagaivaivik, with a height of 2,170 feet.

SHORE-COLLECTING, 183

to find plenty of sediments borne from the polar seas :
hence the absence of such submarine deposits in these
protected harbors, as well as out to sea, so far as we
could learn,—which, however, are choked with ice during’
June and July,—is a significant fact. When we lay out-
side we were never becalmed, or saw the time when we
could get a chance to dredge over the vessel’s side:
and:as we have already said, such work can only be
thoroughly done by a well-equipped steamer.

Since leaving the Strait of Belle Isle there has been
little chance of collecting the littoral species; indeed,
that broad stretch of shore and flats between high and
low water mark, which is so characteristic of the Nova
Scotia and New England shores, is here well-nigh abol-
ished ; the tides rise and fall not much over four, or at
the most five or six feet, while the rocks plunge directly
into the sea, and there is only a narrow border of fucus
hanging sparsely from the rocks, between tide-marks,
with little life,—indeed, the only species I noticed be-
ing the common shore-snail, Lz¢éorzna rudzs, and the
little amphipod crustacean, Gammarus mutatus. The
same poverty of littoral animals obtains on the Green-
land shores, and it may be thus readily understood why
the starving members of the Greeley party could find
nothing to eat along shore but scattered sea-weed and
“shrimps,” the latter undoubtedly the Gammarus muta-
tus, which is common on the shores of the polar seas.
The best spots to dredge are the patches of shelly bot-
toms situated in eddies at the inner end of a “tickle”
leading out from a deep harbor, where the tides and
currents have no power; for where the dead shells are
gathered, the living ones are mixed with them.

184 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

The whole of the 23d, which was cloudy and rainy,
was spent in search of a pilot for Hopedale. A boat's
crew, myself included, rowed some seven or eight miles.
to Roger’s Harbor, where in a quiet basin connected
with the sea by two narrow “tickles,” were about fif-
teen vessels—schooners and barks. We went aboard
one, and it was indescribably filthy, above and below ;
from the cabin arose a dreadful stench; the women
aboard, with one exception, harmonized in point of per-
sonal appearance with their surroundings. We asked
for a little saleratus, and were kindly given some made
from the spruce.

This island is of syenite, its feldspar flesh-colored, and
the shore is in its scenic features like that of the rocks at
Nahant or Mt. Desert, with a few small beaches, the
slopes leading down to them of an intense green. The
cod had not yet “ put in.” Last year on the 26th they
took a hundred quintals the first day they appeared.
The fishermen talk discouragingly of this year’s pros-
pects, and seem to be pushing ‘up to the nor’ard”
more rapidly than usual. In fact, for three years New-
foundland fishermen have gone for fish beyond the
Moravian settlement of Nain. Add to the lack of cod-
fish, the failure of the spring’s ‘‘swile,” “sile,” or seal
fishery, and they were doomed to fare pretty hard that
winter.

We found we had not gone far enough to find Tom
Bloomfield,* the man we were in search of, but were
near the house of Cole, a half-breed, part Englishman
and part. Eskimo, with an Eskimo wife and half-breed

* See 21 on the map of Eskimo Bay. Cole’s house is 22.

EXTINCTION OF THE ESKIMO, 185

children. The captain rowed over, and by the merest
good luck found young Cole, who agreed to pilot our
vessel up to Strawberry Harbor, twenty-five miles dis-
tant, where there were said to be two Eskimos who
would be glad to show us the way from there to Hope-
dale, since they were desirous of going there, but had
no boat, and would otherwise have to wait until the
autumn.

Never shall I forget the grandeur, the utter desolation,
and the purple glories of the sky and shore as we rowed
back that evening down Stag Bay, which is a wide
sound, bordered with lofty terraced hills, the last rays of
the setting sun lighting up the heights of the Webuc
Range, as we may term it, up whose slopes gradually
rose the purplish tints ushering in the darker shades of
the twilight.

Young Cole came aboard the vessel in the evening
after we bad returned, in a large jack, which was teed
over; it had a small punt on it, beside his wife and
child, upon whom he depends to help him row back
should we be fortunate enough to reach Strawberry
Harbor by noon.

It seems that. there were formerly a few Eskimos
living in this region, but they have died off rapidly
within a few years past. They had gone with the eiders,
the geese, and the sea-fowl, the walrus and the fish ;
their game and their race had been banished, like then,
to the arctic regions. Our pilot, Captain French, said
that there was now but one Eskimo where there used to
be twenty. Their disappearance here seems due partly
to natural causes, to the absence of abundant game and
birds, and partly to contact with the civilization of this

186 «& SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

coast, unless their close winter houses induce chest
troubles: any other diseases are unknown. But what-
ever may have been the cause, they are rapidly melting
away, disappearing by entire families. They have prob-
ably faded away before the Nascopi Indians, who are
better armed, and their permanence at Hopedale and
northward may be due to the absence of the red Indians
from that part of the coast. But the Innuit or Eskimo is
a doomed race. Whether they are the remnants of the
paleeolithic race (which good authorities doubt) and for-
‘merly ranged over northern Europe during the earlier
stone age, and extended in America as far south as the
border of the great continential glaciers, and were a few
centuries ago driven northward by the red Indians, is a
problem ; but probably long before the red man entirely
disappears, the Eskimo will be represented by but a few
thousands in the high northern regions.

Cole was not much inclined to leave home, as the
salmon were just about striking in ; and, as he said, they
only remained three or four days, and he might lose
them, since only his father, who, as we understood, also
had an Eskimo wife, would have to attend to the nets
single, or rather—as his better Eskimo half would work
‘man-fashion with him—double-handed.

At the mouth of the stream where they lived were
several huts tenanted by salmon fishers. About them
lounged a number of full-blooded Eskimo dogs, which
are quite superfluous in summer, but useful in winter,
when they can draw sledges at the rate of a hundred
miles a day should the travelling be good.

The early morning of the 24th of July found us with
our pilot aboard ready to start for Strawberry Harbor; but

GAME. 187

there was a dead calm. However, at about 10 o'clock a
_ north wind sprang up, so that we put to sea and sailed
until within eight miles of Strawberry Harbor, when it
blew hard and became too thick to run farther; so we
put back three miles and ran under a lee-shore, where
the northeast wind blew a cold, fierce gale, with fog and
yain. Our vessel dragged her anchor, which was down
at a depth of twenty fathoms, so that the larger one was
dropped down, making ninety fathoms of cable to haul
in on the morrow.

Our pilot wasa very intelligent half-breed who could
read and write, his wife also a half-breed Eskimo. He
said that the ice had only cleared off the previous week,
and up to that time since March they have steadily had
in Stag Bay cold easterly and northeasterly winds. Near
where we anchored was Cole’s brother, who had built
himself a new house. Yesterday he took six and to-day
eight salmon in his nets, which were stretched across the
mouth of a little brook. He shot eleven deer during
the winter, one of them sufficient to supply the family °
with food for two weeks. They had plenty of deer and
other game when too late in the season for obtaining
fur ; he predicted an abundant supply of game during the
coming autumn. We will give his statement regarding
the varieties of foxes here, which may be taken for what
it is worth. There are four varieties of foxes which he
said crossed among themselves, i.e., the red and white,
which are the two most common ones; then the patch
fox, which is blue with red on the rump, and the black
fox. Whether the red and white or arctic fox interbreed
we do not know; the blue fox is undoubtedly the white
fox in its summer pelage; the short ears and long tail

188 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

sufficiently distinguish the arctic fox and its varieties
from the red or Virginian species. They had never
seen the walrus about here. The spruce-trees up in the
interior are quite large, Cole said, some of them reaching
a diameter of thirty inches at the butt; but the birches
are small, none large enough to make canoes.

Of the red Indians of the interior but little could be
learned. The reader will find the best account of them
in Hind’s Labrador, while the subjoined extract will
convey some idea of the Labrador Indians as they were.*

*«* As for the interior parts of the Labrodore, it is wholy occupied by the
northern Indians before taken notice of, who live and depend mostly on fish
and deers flesh; woolves, foxes and otters, affords cloathing; and as these are
to be had by traps, and guns, and other contrivances, their necessities nor
ambition dont prompt them to desire many things from us: our twine, fish-
hooks, ice chizzels, ketles, and small wares, make up the ultimate of their wants.
As for guns, powder, and shott, their are numbers of them don’t know their use.
The moulted fowls at proper seasons, and what else may be had with the bow
and arrow, procure enough for change of dyett, who live in great plenty other-
wise, do reduce these peoples wants into a narrow compass.

‘The skirts and borders of Labrodore are hilly and mountainous on every
side (a small part excepted); but the interior parts is covered with lakes and
morassis to a wide extent, which affords an easy communication into all our
principal rivers; but as above, these people have their food and rayment on so
easy terms, that hardly one in twenty have ever taken the trouble to go to ours,
or any of the French setlements. Indolence and idleness has a good share in
this indifference: but surely tis a mark of great wisdom in them.

‘* However, those few that has frequented the setlements, begin to like our
commodities better; their women like our nicknacks and guegaws, and the men
begin to love brandy, bread, and tobacco, so that a little address and manage-
ment will bring these happy drones out of this profound lethargy. You'll say
these people would, from their manner of life, have increased faster than the
other indians; but the reason I gave before has, in some measure, prevented
them; and now it will be a good motive to apply themselves in earnest to the
use and defence of the gun, who, by the aid and convenience of our setlement
at Richmond Fort, will be enabled to keepin a body, and repell force by force,
without being divided, or under a necessity to travell a great distance from
their familys, by having all those things brought to their own doors.

“All the hilly and mountainous parts of Labrodore are occupied by the
Usquemews, from the bay of Saint Lawrence on the southern, eastern, and

THE MOUNTAINEER INDIANS. 189

They are called Montaignais by the French Canadians,
Mountaineers by the English, but referred to the Nas-
copi tribe by the more intelligent of the latter. The
tribe is a branch of the Algonkin stock, and is the only
tribe known to inhabit the Labrador peninsula. They
are more commonly met with at Rigolet, the trading
port of the Hudson Bay Company up the Hamilton In-
let (Aivektok Bay); they are also described by Hind,
who encountered them at the mouth of the Moisie River,
which empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Along
this part of the coast they are rapidly diminishing : last
winter many of them starved to death—several hundred,
according to Cole’s statement.* It now appeared that
the large fire, the smoke of which we saw before reach-
ing Dumplin Harbor, was from an area of over forty
square miles situated back of where we were lying at
anchor, and it burnt up some of the traps belonging to

northern borders, and all along the east main to 56° and 57° latitude, and on all’
the islands adjacent, who are the seamen and fishermen on salt waters, as those
are on inland lakes and fresh water rivers. Both one and other getts great
quantities of deer; but whales, seels, and sea-horses, are the principle support
of the Usquemews; wether these retreat and retire to any distance from the sea-
side uppon the approach of winter, or are wearid with their long summer day,
andcreep into their winters cave to rest, this is certain, we never saw but once
or twice a single Usquemew in many years experience in the homeward bound
passage, altho we have been detained by contrary winds at all their haunts.

‘The interior parts of Labrodore affords good shelter, and woods plenty for
the northern Indians, who dress their victuals as we do; and dry’d fish supply
the want of bread; they are very nasty in their persons, as all the Indians are,
but not offensive in their filth, as the Usquemews.” (Coat’s Geography of
Hudson’s Bay, pp. 88-90.)

* “Returns of the Hudson Bay Company show that about 4,000 Indians
frequent the company’s posts throughout the whole of Labrador; and this ac-
count probably includes nearly their whole strength; nineteen twentieths of
them are nominally Roman Catholics.’ (Encyclopedia Brittanica, article
Labrador.) Undoubtedly since this count was*made their number has con-
siderably diminished.

190 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

Cole’s brother. The fire was ascribed to Indians, who
probably set the woods in a blaze to drive out the game ;
it was preceded by two unusually warm and dry days,
at the time when the wind turned westerly and we were
let out from our prison at Square Island.

The icebergs were still neighborly, two large ones in
the offing, one like a church steeple, the body submerged.
beneath the waves, while the other suggested the form
of a huge squirrel sitting on his haunches with his tail
over his back. According to Cole the snow and ice
clears off from the coast at this point about the 2oth of
June; at least that is the date when he leaves his winter
house for his residence on shore; the first of October,
when the snow begins to fall, he moves back into the
interior.

The early part of the next day it stormed, blowing
almost a gale from the north, with heavy rain; we still
held on to our rather exposed anchorage under a high
point of land; not the least bight or indentation near at
hand for harborage. In the afternoon the weather
moderating, we got under way, and reached Strawberry
Harbor at ten o’clock in the evening. On our way here
we were boarded by an Eskimo in his kayak, who had
been living in this bay during the summer. We first
caught sight of the little craft two or three miles astern.
It looked as it came up, bows on, like a large puffin sitting
on the waves ; soon we could see the paddle describing
a trajectory such as the wings of a puffin might make, and
eventually we could recognize the-human apart from the
kayak, though an Eskimo seems an integral portion of
his kayak,—one as human as the other. We throw
over a rope, the kayak disgorges the Eskimo, the latter

STRAWBERRY HARBOR. I9Ir

deftly climbs up over the rail hand-over-hand, and then
we take aboard the kayak.

Whether the little box of a harbor we swung in was.
called Strawberry* because it was but little larger than
that berry, history does not record; but it was the queer-
est of the queer harbors we had entered, and by this
time the monotony of leaving one harbor in the -morn-
ing and entering its counterfeit presentment the same
evening had been a matter of remark by the grumblers
aboard. There was not room enough to swing by our
cable, so we made fast to the rocks ashore, which rose
in cliffs reaching nearly to our topmasts. Another ves-
sel shared these narrow quarters with us. She had had
tolerably good luck in fishing, her hole being packed two
or three feet deep with codfish.

Deep and seemingly inaccessible to outside life as
Strawberry Harbor promised to be, the next day, which
was nearly calm and sunny, with a little breeze from the
east, the mosquitoes, swarming from land and peering
over into our den, swooped down upon us and made life
miserable. Ashore with my insect-net, they fairly drove
me off the hunting-ground, which proved to be richer in
arctic insect life than any yet experienced.

So with the plants, showing that this spot was warmer
and more protected than any harbor we had visited for
the past two weeks. In the gulches and ravines the
mountain-ash, alder, and willows grew to the enormous
height of three feet ; the white spruce-trees were perhaps
twenty-five feet high and one foot in diameter near the
ground. This species of Abies, called in Maine the “ cat”

* This harbor is very near Ford’s Bight or Nisbet’s Harbor, and about ten
miles from Anderson’s house, 16 on the map of Eskimo Bay.

192 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

or “skunk spruce,” from its peculiar odor, is a more
hardy tree than the black spruce and grows farther
north. We have seen it growing luxuriously in Aroos-
took County, Maine, but it is rarely found farther south
than Mt. Desert. Violets were in bloom, and one or
two were new to me; Ledum palustre was now out of
flower, while the Labrador tea (Ledum Jlatzfolium) was
still in blossom, as were the bunch-berry, the mountain-
trident, and the golden-thread; Kalmza glauca was
nearly done flowering, and the green fruit of the curlew-
berry was of full size ; evidently the short Labrador sum-
mer of six weeks had come.

The rocks about us were syenitic, with numerous thin
trap dykes, both vertical and horizontal ; some of them
had weathered away, leaving deep vertical fissures ; where
the horizontal dykes had disappeared, great blocks of
syenite had fallen down, giving a dismantled appearance
to the shore. The south side of the harbor ran in rock-
terraced heights to an elevation of nearly five hundred
feet, the huge rocky shelves falling away seaward as if
laid and smoothed with cyclopean hands. Climbing
about over these hills was almost impossible; streams
rushed foaming down the ravines, some in sight, others
only known by their rumbling, stifled roar under the
bowlders concealing their bed.

We learned that some Eskimos were spending the
summer on an island hard by, and we tried to get one
to pilot us to Hopedale, but were unsuccessful. Land-
ing on another flat islet near by, where this or some
other Eskimo, with perhaps his family, had been sum-
mering in his tent or tepic of seal-skins, as evidenced by
the circle of stones used to weigh down the bottom of

SALMON. 193

the tepic; the marks of his temporary sojourn were in-
dubitable, as witnessed by the stones which had been
used to prop up his tent, the feathers and bones of sea-
fowl he had shot or snared, and by the scattered seal
bones and skins and other unmistakable signs of Eskimo
occupancy and of Eskimo personal uncleanliness.

July 27th and 28th we had a severe gale from the
north, with snow and rain. All through the day. the poor
women on the other vessel had to do their cooking on
deck without shelter. On the 28th the thermometer
went down to 34° F., and we had nearly two inches of
snow on our deck, while on the hills above us were
drifts a foot deep which lasted for a day or two, as meas-
ured by Mr. Willis, who explored on the following day
the heights above us, and reported tracks of foxes in the
snow. ‘Two deer were also seen by some fishermen.

On the. 2oth it cleared off, and at sunset the wind
changed to the west. At last we picked up an Eskimo
pilot for Hopedale. He had been partly educated, and
was living with a Norwegian who had been on the coast
for eleven years, during seven of which he was in the
employ of the Hudson Bay Company, his pay being
fifty dollars a year. He brought us two salmon of a
species I had not before seen, and which proved to be
Salmo tmmaculatus of Storer.

He nets more of these, which he calls salmon trout,
than of the true salmon, fishing for them with a twenty-
foot net. The salmon come in usually on the 22d of
July, and continue to run up the streams until about the
2oth of August. The ‘salmon trout” is found nearer
. Shore, while the large true salmon is more abundant at
the mouth,of the bay than ten miles inland, where our

\

194 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

Norwegian friend lived. He heard to-day, as he re-
marked to us, a wolf howling, and supposed it had killed
a deer, as ‘after feeding upon one they usually begin to
howl.” During the winter he shot ‘fifteen deer, enough
for the winter’s supply of fresh meat. We found here
fresh traces of the polar bear, an Englishman, named
Tom Oliver, having shot a small one last winter.

Part of this day was spent ashore, and on the side of
a deep ravine we recognized an old acquaintance in a
low white golden-rod like a familiar White Mountain
species. The star-flower ( 7rzentales amerzcana), also a
dwarfed yarrow ((/zllefolcum) and an Andromeda were
seen to-day in addition to the flowers we picked before
the storm; also a dandelion-like flower. More land
shells (including the slug, Lzmax agrestzs) were found
here than at any other point we visited; they occurred
under spruce bark and chips in the damp verdure: all of
them (Pupa hopprt, Helix fabriciz, and Vitrina angelica)
were Greenland shells, never before found south of that
arctic land, and this fact bears witness to the interesting |
intermingling of Greenland life, animal and plant, with —
the Canadian or boreal forms indigenous in the forest-
clad interior. There are in Labrador two climates, the
arctic on the coast, the boreal or north-temperate in the
interior, The Greenland and arctic forms occurring on
the coast are the remnants of the glacial or arctic flora
which were formerly spread over the entire territory of
British America, New England, and the northern cen-
tral United States during the supremacy of the ice, and
which were, so to speak, pushed out to sea by the migra-
tion northward of the temperate forms, only retaining
their hold on the treeless and exposed islands and head-

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(Alter Reichel.)
To face page 194.

THE COAST NEAR HOPEDALE. 195

lands of this coast, which in nearly all respects are arc-
tic and circumpolar, though Hopedale is in the latitude
of Dublin.

Another Greenland shell, a little fresh-water bivalve
(Pistdium steenbuchiz) not before known to live south
of Greenland, was common in the pools, from which
were arising caddis-flies and an Ephemera.. A worker
bumble-bee was also seen here for the first time, not-
withstanding the cold weather of the past few days.

Here were again to be observed the signs of the for-
mer depression of land which marked the height of the
Leda-clay epoch (the Champlain epoch of the books) ;
beaches at least 100 feet high, with two terraces, the
lower one from fifteen to twenty feet above the sea-level.
The afternoon of July 30th saw us safe in the harbor of
Hopedale. <A fresh, fair, west wind blowing all night
let us out of: our snug little haven at Strawberry. Our
pilot simply knew the way to Hopedale, and some of
the more dangerous rocks along our course. The wind
was so fresh that our cautious captain took two reefs in
the mainsail, but it only blew strongly out of the bay,
being an off-shore wind, and the force of the breeze di-
minished sensibly as we went out to sea. The mountains
and hills around our harbor and perhaps for a distance
of ten miles northward, some of them 800 and 1,000 feet
high, were spotted with snow, the remnants of the past
storm. As we approached within twenty miles of
Hopedale, the outer islands at the mouth of Kippokok
Bay were seen to be more or less hummocky, some of
them high and rounded, evidently composed of the lab-
radoritic syenite, while the mainland at the head of the
bays was of Laurentian gneiss. Still as we advance

196 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

northward the whole country, or at least the coast, grad-
ually rises higher above the sea, which made me more
than ever anxious to see how it culminated in the wild,
crater-shaped, snow-streaked lofty mountains near Cape
Chidley ; but it was not to be our good fortune to reach

that promised land.

CHAPTER IX,

A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

IV. HOPEDALE AND THE ESKIMO.

Asout: an hour before we reached Hopedale, we
passed a high sugar-loaf-shaped island, ‘‘The Beacon,”
with four well-marked terraces carved by the weather or
shore-ice when the sea stood at different levels in the
ages gone by, as the land halted in its upward rise. This

ROCK TERRACES ON ‘‘ THE BEACON,” 700 FEET ELEVATION, NEAR HOPEDALE,

was the landmark for the Moravian vessels from London,
and by, boiling water on the summit it had been ascer-
tained to rise 700 feet above the sea. The rock was evi-
dently that variety of syenite containing labradorite and
green hornblende. In the interior a few miles distant
was to be seen a high elevation, broad and massive at the
base, but conical or nipple-shaped at the summit, and
rising perhaps 1,500 feet above the sea.

As we entered, on a Saturday afternoon, the harbor

of Hopedale, which is situated at the head of a deep,
- 37

198 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

broad bay or sound, we nearly overhauled the Moravian
supply ship “ Harmony,” just out from London. She
was a bark of 300 American tons, very neatly kept, thor-
oughly well-appointed, and well-officered and manned,
her chief officer, Captain Linklater, a Scotchman. As
she approached the harbor and before we discovered the
mission building ashore, she fired a salute from two nine-
pounders, at the same time sending her flag up to half-
mast : both announcing her arrival and signalling disas-
ter—the death in London of Rev. Mr. Latrobe, Secre-
tary of the Society of the United Brethren. A salute
from a small gun near a flagstaff on the rocks not far
from the mission, and an irregular volley from the fowl-
ing-pieces of the Eskimos answered ; then a dory and a
kayak put off from shore, followed by a heavy, clumsy
boat with a square block tiller, which bore the three mis-
sionaries, clad in seal-skin frocks with capotes, who
greeted the others aboard with a-kiss on each cheek.
The boat’s flag was also at half-mast, as the oldest mis-
sionary, Superintendent Kruth, had died at Hopedale
but a few days previous. The “ Harmony” had brought
over besides a missionary who had been absent for two
years, the agent or supercargo, Herr Lintner, who had
been educated as a civil engineer, and wasthe son of the
owner of the vessel ; he visits the three mission stations,
and reports to the Society at home as to their condition
and progress.*

* This was the only vessel which visited Hopedale while we were there.
Since that date this part of the coast has been visited by fishermen from New-
foundland and Nova Scotia, attracted northward by the greater abundance of
codfish. Dewitz states that up to the year 1879 nearly 2,200 vessels had visited
Hopedale, from 500 to 600 annually reaching the port, while in the year 1879.
800 vessels touched at Hopedale, and on one morning 72 vessels lay in Hope-
dale Bay. :

ESKIMO WOMEN, 199

Meanwhile we were boarded by a large delegation of
the squat, square-faced aboriginals ashore, full of curios-
ity and interest, quite ready to accept any offering from
our dinner-table, or even the scullion’s waste-pail, and
examining our spars and deck with approving glances.
We returned the visit, and it may be confessed that we
fully reciprocated their interest in our surroundings when
we inspected their own.

There are six Moravian settlements in Labrador, the
oldest being Nain, which was founded in 1771 ; Okkak
was founded in 1776; Hopedale in 1782; Hebron and
Zoar in 1830. Hopedale is situated in lat. 55° 25’,
Nain in lat. 56° 25’, Okkak in lat 57° 33’,and Hebron in
lat. 58° 50’. At these stations there were in all, in 1860,
twenty missionaries and about 1,400 Eskimos. Rama
was founded a year or two after our visit.

The new science of anthropology was not so generally
cultivated in 1864 as now, and we took no notes of the
height of the Eskimos at Hopedale and elsewhere ; but
in “Science” for July 29, 1887, we find the following’
statements by Mr. W. A. Ashe as to the mean height
of the Eskimo at North Bluff on Hudson Strait, taken
from measurements of ‘‘60 families,” the exact number
of persons measured not being stated. The men aver-
aged 5 feet, 3.9 inches, and the women approximately 5
feet, in height.

And here it may be said that the condition of the
women, whether the effect of their semi-civilization and
Christianization or not, was certainly not that of subjec-
tion, but of normal equality. They were certainly
sharper at a bargain than their’ husbands, and within
doors, at least, appeared to be mistresses of the mansion.

200 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

The women’s dress differs from that of the men in the
long tail to their jacket-like garment ; some wore an old
calico dress-skirt over the original Eskimo dress,—a .
thin veneer of civilization typical perhaps of the educa-
tion they had been receiving for the past few generations,
which was not so thorough-going as not to leave external
traces at least of their savage antecedents. But may this
not be said of all of us? Foronlya few centuries ago our
ancestors were in a state of semi-barbarism, and the An-
glo-Saxon race can date back to Neolithic Celts and
bronze-using Aryan barbarians. However this may be,
the Eskimos at Hopedale were a well-bred, kindly, in-
telligent, scrupulously honest folk, whereas their ances-
tors before the establishment of the Moravian mission-
aries on this coast were treacherous, crafty, and murder-
ous. To be shipwrecked on this inhospitable coast was
esteemed a lesser evil than to fall into the hands of wan-
dering bands of Labrador Eskimos. The natives have
evidently been well cared for by the missionaries, kept
from starvation in the winter, and their lives have been
made nobler and better. Even in an Eskimo tepic life
has been proved to be worth living. Fishermen and
cruisers are (1864) not welcomed here, and it was not
until a day or two had elapsed and the object of our ex-
pedition made known that we were cordially welcomed.

There were four missionaries at Hopedale: Brothers
Shutt, Kreuchmer, Vollpracht, and Samuel Weiz, the
latter, who died in 1888, a good botanist and interested
in the zoology of the coast. They were now living
with their families under one roof in the new mission’
house—a red-roofed yellow building of wood, of two
stories and a half, a large, convenient, warm house—

ROM a

A Furi-gLoopep Eskimo Faaty at Hopepatr, LaBrapor, 1864.

(From a photograph by Bradford.)
To face pige 229.

THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF TREES. 201

there being seven buildings in all, including the unfin-
ished new chapel; at a distance from the others was a
small powder-house. The servants in and about the sta-
tion were Eskimo, neat, cleanly, and intelligent. There
was plenty of lumber, judging by a pile of spruce-logs,
which were about fifty feet long and twenty inches in
thickness at the butt.*

We were also told that the Eskimos had built and
manned a schooner of fifty tons. The mission is in part
a trading-post, but at present is paying only half its ex-
penses ; the missionaries dealing in, furs and curiosities,
which they sell in London. Mr. Weiz kindly gave me
a list of the plants and vertebrate animals of Labrador,
accompanied with notes, and his herbarium was very
complete in the plants of Okkak, which he said was
warmer, more protected, and bad a more luxuriant flora

* The northern limit of trees on the Labrador coast appears from the state-
ments of L. T. Reichel to be not far north of Hebron, as he says that while
the extreme northern part of the coast is treeless, the bays south of Hebron
are well wooded with spruce and larches, and south of this point with birches.
Although situated considerably more to the south than Greenland, the winter
is longer and the cold greater than in Greenland, since the southern extremity
of Greenland is warmed bya branch of the Gulf Stream, while the winter
climate of the Labrador coast is lowered by the floating ice borne by the
Labrador current from Baffin’s Bay. In Greenland the water becomes open
in April, while in ‘Labrador the bays are not free from ice till the first of
July. On the other hand, the summer months are considerably warmer
than in Greenland, and hence there is a forest growth, since the interior of
Greenland is buried in ice. In Dewitz’s pamphlet it is stated that in the deep
bays between Zoar and Hopedale birches occur, also willows, stunted bushes of
the mountain-ash, and alders, until south of Hopedale the vegetation passes
into the forest flora of Canada. But we observed that the outer islands are
nearly bare from Cape Harrison to Hopedale, the shrubs and stunted trees
mentioned only growing in protected valleys. Dewitz adds that there are rem-
nants of forests on the coast, but that the missionaries have been unable to
plant forests, and they think that the existing forest growth owes its origin to
an earlier, warmer period.

202 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

than Hopedale. Mr. Vollpracht told me that a large
fresh-water snail (Lzmncea, near elodes) was abundant in
a lake at Okkak. The collection of birds’ eggs was a
good one, and they also had skulls of the polar and
black bears and of seals, which they sold to us. I also
purchased a valuable collection of insects, principally
butterflies and moths, obtained at Okkak. We visited
the rather large cemetery, well laid out and fenced in,
situated in a level spot where the soil was deeper than
elsewhere: at one end were the graves of the mission-
aries, over which memorial slabs were laid; a large
mound marked the last resting-place of Superintendent.
Kruth, while among the others was an infant’s grave;
at the opposite end of the yard were the short graves of
the Eskimos.

There were six little gardens, each perhaps belonging
to a separate family. They were laid out like those in
the fatherland, with clumps of spruce and larches, em-
bracing a summer-house, a rustic seat, and a grass-plot.
There were also rows of hot-beds, where they rear let-
tuce from plants raised in the house, yielding them salad
in May. Turnips were well forward, onions were in
bud, currant bushes two feet high were in blossom, as
well as potatoes, which were six inches high, and the
rhubarb was quite luxuriant in its growth, its flowers
having been open for some time.

The Eskimos were ready enough to traffic, though
slow at first to bring out their wares, which consisted of
birds’ eggs, principally those of robins and murres,
models of kayaks and oomiaks, as well as sleds in
bone and seal-skin. From one of them, named Caspar,
a lame boy who had lived ten years in Hamilton Inlet

EVENING PRAYERS. 203

and knew a little English, I was told that a narwhale
was seen many years ago on this coast. It appears that
this polar animal occurs now as far south as Hudson’s
Strait. Captain Handy told me that on the north side
of Hudson’s Strait the narwhale commonly goes in
herds of thirty. Malmgren, a Finnish author, says that
the narwhale leaves Spitzbergen in summer for more
northern and colder latitudes.*

None of them, however, had ever seen a walrus, but
the white bear was said to be not uncommon; and he
mentioned the wolverine as occurring in the neighbor-
hood. Showing Caspar the picture of the lobster in my
Gosse’s Zoology, he said it, with the shore crab, was not
found here, but south of Grosswater Bay (Hamilton
Inlet) ; the salmon (kavishilik) were taken in nets; he
was also familiar with the starfish; which he called
ougiak.

At sunset the chapel bell rang for evening prayers,
and all left their work or houses and made their way to
the sanctuary. The men and women sat separately and
at opposite ends of the room, even entering by a sepa-
rate door; and the oldest members of the congregation
sat back on the higher benches, probably to overawe the
juveniles on the front seats ; although these must have
been duly restrained by the presence of the seven mis-
sionaries who sat against the opposite wall on the right
side of the leader’s desk, their seven wives on the left.
The service was brief, lasting twenty minutes, consisting
of an invocation or address in Eskimo, and a few chants
to German tunes, the congregation joining in the music

* Wiegmann’s Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte, 1864, p. 96.

204 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

of the organ, which was well played by an Eskimo boy.
From the chapel all dispersed to their quarters, and the
settlement long before dark was buried in profound
silence.

Sunday, the 31st July, was a warm, sunny day, unfor-
tunately as much enjoyed by the mosquitoes and black-
flies as by us. In the forenoon we went to the'service,
which was simple and brief, the natives not being
wearied with a long discourse ; like the yesterday even-
ing prayers it consisted simply of an invocation or ad-
dress, congregational singing and the litany, and in half
an hour the assembly dispersed.

The day was observed by the natives and all others
with more reverence than we have noticed in Lutheran
countries. The evening by invitation was spent aboard
the “ Harmony.” Captain Linklater, an unusually in-
telligent man, was, as he told us, six weeks on his voy-
age from London here; he generally first sights Cape
Webuc, though steering for ‘“‘ The Beacon” below Hope-
dale.

In sailing from Hopedale to Nain the “ Harmony”
takes an inside course. Above this point the coast is still
more deeply indented by bays and fjords, their mouths
checked with islands which extend fifty miles or more out
to sea. The captain is ordered by the company or gov-
ernor to take two Eskimo pilots from each port; he gen-
erally leaves them to return when fifteen miles out from
harbor, as they are unacquainted with the rocks and
shoals. Navigation to Nain is represented to be difficult ;
at one place the vessel has to double two points closing
in one beyond the other. The captain while in harbor is
gradually making charts of the coast, which at best can

THE FLOE-ICE. 205

only be approximative ; the missionaries have also, by as-
cending the highest points near their respective stations,
taken the bearings of the islands about, Captain L. by a
patent log taking the distance between them.* For ninety
years a “ Harmony”’—the name being handed down
to: successive vessels—has made its annual voyage to
Labrador, the missions having been established in Green-
land in 1733 and first on this coast in 1771; during that
time but two men have been lost from the vessel, one
of them having been drowned by upsetting in a kayak.

From the hills east of the station the ice-field could
be seen about ten miles out to sea, but bergs were visible
all along the coast. Captain Linklater on this voyage
encountered more ice than in any previous year of his.
service. He found the field to be eighty-five miles wide ;
and from careful observations during a number of years
judged the rate of travel of the floe past the coast at this
point to be at the rate of twenty-seven miles a day, or a
little over a mile an hour. During this summer the ice
had, as we had observed, been running down the coast
from June 22d to August 22d, though it actually began
earlier and must have continued later than that. That
the ice finally disappeared by melting rather than by
sinking we believe, though the fishermen on the coast
maintain that it finally sinks. The extent of the ice-fields
therefore off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland
must have been this season not much less than 80,000
square miles; the effect of such a wet blanket on the
coast may well be imagined.

* The results of these surveys were embodied in a MS. map by the Rev. S.
Weiz, and it was this map which was kindly loaned me by the Secretary, Mr.
Latrobe, of the London office, and used in compiling the map of Labrador in
the present volume.

206 <A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

August 1st was spent in geologizing, as it was cold
and cloudy, with an easterly wind. The island on which
Hopedale is situated is of the ordinary Laurentian gneiss,
which behind the mission house is curiously contorted ;
it is fine-grained, distinctly banded, with veins of quartz
and of granite; at one point it dipped about 60° W.
with a N. W. and S. E. strike. There are a number
of trap dykes, in places like slightly winding stairs or
steps descending to the water's edge, justifying the
term ¢raf applied to this rock, which is from the Swedish
trappa, meaning a series of steps or stairs.

The rocks are water-worn and terraced to the tops
of the hills. Behind the mission house is a raised beach
of large, loose, rounded sea-worn bowlders, generally two
feet in diameter, and mostly concealed by the growth of
Empetrum ; it is narrow and slopes down to a little
bight east of the Eskimo village, and its shores are formed
by what proved to be araised sea-bottom. To our great.
surprise and delight this beach above and between tide-
marks abounded in multitudes of deep-water shells with
other fossils ; and I spent half the day in picking them
up, renewing the search the next day. That it was an
old sea-bottom which had been raised at least from 75
to 100 feet, if not more, was proved by the habits of the
shells, now living at the depth of from 15 to 20 fathoms
off shore, and also by the quantities of nullipores encrust-
ing the shells and pebbles, showing that the beach had
not been disturbed since its elevation. Indeed it struck
me, though I have no essential proof, that the coast of
Labrador is now slowly rising, and this is also the opinion
of Campbell (Frost and Fire).

Returning to the vessel towards night, an active trade

‘0% aSey ovf ef (*paoyperg, fq ydesSojoyd v wooly) ‘SaSNOY] NALNIA, VITHL ANV OWINSY ‘aATVGadOL] LV MATA

KAYAKING. 207

was carried on with the Eskimos to our mutual satisfac-
tion; we bartered our old clothes for sealskin boots,
mittens, and miniature kayaks, etc.

The two next days were warm and sunny, with westerly
winds, and the time was mainly given to the entomology
of the island, though the mosquitoes were excessively
annoying. On the hills were the Chionobas butterfly, so
wonderfully mimicking the colors of the lichens on the
rocks. The little blue butterfly (Polyommatus Frank-
Liniz) was very abundant here, resembling some moths
when in flight.

We made long calls upon the missionaries, finding
them very cordial and pleasant,’ with much love of natural
history. They returned our visit, and their wards, the
.Eskimos, swarmed over our vessel like flies. Always
good-natured, without exception rigidly honest and up-
right, they were a continual source of interest and amuse-
ment. They lent us their kayaks, which are framed of
spruce wood and covered with sealskin, and rather wider
and therefore safer to row in than Greenland kayaks,
which are framed with bone. I found it easy enough to
paddle in them, but difficult to keep the bows steady on
the course, each stroke of the double-ended paddle caus-
ing the bows to go too far one side; they are by no means
so safe, however, as a birch canoe. Some of the passen-
gers and our crew paddled for a distance of one. or two
miles, and after a little practice made good kayakers.

One day while rambling over the hills near the station
I came upon a fissure in the rock, marked by a pole,
and loosely covered with a few flat stones, It contained
two skeletons, presumably of an Eskimo man and woman.

I hastily put the skull and bones into the bottom of

208 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

my butterfly-net and covered them with grass; on my
way past the chapel I came plump upon a wedding party
going away from the doors. The bride led the party,
clad in her old-time costume, with the addition of acalico
skirt; at the distance of a few paces followed the groom,
while the friends straggled along behind. Without being
asked too curious questions I carried my precious freight
aboard, glad—to use a sepulchral simile—to kill two
birds with one stone, ze. to secure the last remains of
an old-time Eskimo couple and to see a young and living
couple so recently united.

At Hopedale we understood the oldest person, the
patriarch of the colony, to be a woman of seventy years:
we saw her—a picture of ugliness which still haunts
our memory. There were three Eskimos who were sixty
yearsold. A man becomes prematurely old when forty-
five years of age, as the hunters are by that time worn
out by the hardships of the autumnal seal fishery.

CHAPTER X.

A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

V. THE RETURN VOYAGE TO BOSTON.

On August 4th we bade farewell to Moravians and
Eskimos; and with deep regret that it was not possible
for us to go farther north, at least to the 6oth parallel
of latitude, we weighed anchor and ran with a fresh west
wind abeam to Thomas's or Maggovik Bay, where the
Norwegian Andersen lives in a well-wooded bight.
Andersen told me he had seen only one sort of caribou,
and did not. know of a “ barren-ground” as distinguished
from a ‘‘wood” caribou. He also said that the white
and blue fox littered together, but that the blue variety
was very rare. After dredging a while in fifteen fathoms
on a muddy bottom, where the interesting JZyrzotrochus
was common, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon Mr. Brad-
ford went with a boat’s crew on a trading trip to
Thomas’s house. The wind being dead ahead we had
to row all the way up, nearly thirty miles, and back, reach-
ing the vessel at one in the night. We took a late sup-
per at Mr. Thomas’s hospitable house, and enjoyed a cup
of tea with goat’s milk and good bread. The house was
comfortably situated near some quite sizable spruce-trees,
with a flourishing garden near by. Mr. Thomas (for the

site of his house see 17 on the map of Eskimo Bay) is
209

210 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

a trader in furs, of which he had two or three hundred
dollars’ worth on hand, and he professed to have more
than he wanted to live on. This little trip gave me
some idea of the country inland, as Thomas's Bay is
thirty miles deep, forming a broad sound, with few is-
lands except at the mouth. Both sides of the bay are
thickly wooded, with mountain summits rising bare and
gray through the covering of dark green coniferous trees,
the birches or poplars not being abundant enough toen-
liven the sombre hues of an evergreen Labrador forest.
The contours of the ridges and hills were regular, the
country was rather low, the scenery on the whole monot-
onous; and such, I conceive, are the features of the in-
terior of the Labrador plateau, though diversified with
lakes and deep river valleys. Both sides of the bay
were terraced: on the north side were three long and
regular terraces ; those on the south side were less regu-
lar and much shorter ; one formed a point of land per-
haps a hundred feet high and. descending into the water
by three terraces. Farther up, the slope of the hill was
paved with large sea-worn bowlders, for the most part
covered over and hidden by the vegetation. At the
mouth of the bay are also three naked terraces, the:
longer one winding up, following the shore, a growth of
trees partially concealing it from sight. The return row
down the bay and the sunset effects were extremely fine.
I cannot attempt to describe them. How the scenery
at this point appeared toa better artist in words than
myself may be realized by the following extract from
one of Rev. Mr. Wasson’s papers in the Atlantic
Monthly of May, 1865:

‘In the early afternoon a dense haze filled the sky.

A LABRADOR LANDSCAPE. 211

The sun, seen through this, became a globe of glowing
ruby, and its glade on the sea looked as if the water had
been strewn, almost enough to conceal it, with a crystal-
line ruby dust, or with fine mineral spzcude of vermilion
bordering upon crimson. The peculiarity of this ruddy
dust was that it seemed to possess Jody, and, while it
glowed, did not in the smallest degree dazzle,—as if the
brilliancy of each ruby particle came from the heart of it
rather than from the surface. The effect was in truth
indescribable, and I try to suggest it with more sense of
helplessness than I have felt hitherto in preparing these
papers. It was beautiful deyond expression,—any ex-
pression, at least, which is at my command.

‘Such a spectacle, I suppose, one might chance to see
anywhere, though the chance certainly never occurred
tome before. It could scarcely have escaped me through
want of attention, for I could-well believe myself a child
of the sun, so deep an appeal to my feeling is made by
effects of light and color : light before all.

“But the atmosphere of Labrador has its own secret
of beauty, and charms the eye with aspects which one
may be pardoned for believing incomparable in their
way. The blue of distant hills and mountains, when ob-
served in clear sunshine, is subtile and luminous toa
degree that surpasses admiration. I have seen the Cam-
den Heights across the waters of Penobscot Bay when
their blue was equally profound ; for these hills, beheld
over twenty miles or more of sea, do a wonderful thing
in the way of color, lifting themselves up there through
all the long summer days, a very marvel of solemn and
glorious beauty. The A2gean Sea has a charm of at-
mosphere which is wanting to Penobscot Bay, but the

212 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

hue of its heights cannot compare with that of the Cam-
den Hills. Those of Labrador, however, maintain their
supremacy above even these—above all. They look
frozen sky. Or one might fancy that a vast heart or
core of amethyst was deeply overlaid with colorless
crystal, and shone through with a softened, lucent ray.
Such transparency, such zzéense delicacy, such refine-
ment of hue! Sometimes, too, there is seen in the deep
hollows between the lofty billows of blue, a purple that
were fit to clothe the royalty of immortal kings, while
the blue itself is flecked as it were with a spray of white
light, which one might guess to be a precipitate of sun-
shine.

“This was wonderful ; but more wonderful and most
wonderful wastocome. Itwas given me once and once
again to look on a vision, an enchantment, a miracle of
all but impossible beauty, incredible until seen, and
even when seen scarcely to be credited, save by an act of
_faith. We had sailed up a deep bay and cast anchor in
a fine large harbor of the exactest horse-shoe shape. It
‘was bordered immediately by a gentle ridge some three
hundred feet high, which was densely wooded with
spruce, fir, and larch. Beyond this ridge to the west
rose mountainous hills, while to the south, where was
the head of the harbor, it was overlooked immediately
by a broad, noble mountain. It had been one of those
white-skied days when the heavens are covered bya uni-
form filmy fleece, and the light comes as if it had been
filtered through milk. But just before sunset this fleece
was rent, and a river of sunshine streamed across the
ridge at the head of the harbor, leaving the mountain
beyond, and the harbor itself with its wooded sides, still

A LABRADOR LANDSCAPE. 213

in shadow. And where that shine fell, the foliage
changed from green to a glowing, luminous red-brown,
expressed with astonishing force,—not a trace, not a
hint of green remaining! Beyond it the mountain pre-
served its whited gray ; nearer, on either side, the woods
stood out in clear green ; and, separated from these by
the sharpest line, rose this ridge of enchanted forest.
You will incline to think that one might have seen
through this illusion by trying hard enough. But never
were the colors in a paint-pot more definite and deter-
mined,

“This was but the beginning. I had turned away, and
was debating with myself whether some such color, seen
onthe Scotch and English hills, had not given the hint for
those uniform browns which Turner in his youth copied
from his earlier masters. When I looked back, the
sunshine had flooded the mountain, and was bathing it
all in the purest rose-red. Bathing it? No, the moun-
tain was solidly converted, transformed to that hue! The
power, the simplicity, the translucent, shining depth of
the color were all that you can imagine, if you make no
abatements and task your imagination to the utmost.
This roseate hue no rose in the garden of Orient or
Occident ever surpassed. Small spaces were seen where
the color became a pure ruby, which could not
have been more lustrous and intense had it proceeded
from a polished ruby gem ten rods in dimension. Color
could go no farther. Yet if the eye lost these for a mo-
ment, it was compelled somewhat to search for them,—
so powerful, so brilliant was the rose setting in which
they were embosomed.

“One must remember how near at hand all this was

214 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

——not more than amile or two away. Rock, cavern, cliff,
ail the details of rounded swell, rising peak, and long-
descending slope could be seen with entire distinctness,
The mountains rose close upon us, broad, massive, real
—but all in this glorious, this truly ineffable transforma-
tion. It was not distance that lent enchantment hcres
It was not /ent,; it was real as rock, as Naturc; it con-
fronted, outfaced, overwhelmed you; for enchantment
so immediate and on such a scale of grandeur and gor-
geousness—who could stand up before it ?

‘In sailing out of the bay next day, we saw this and
the neighbor mountain under noon sunshine (lat, 55°
20’). They were the handsomest we saw, apparently
composed in part of some fine mincral, perhaps pure
labradorite. In the full light of day these spaces
shone Jike polished silver. My first impression was that
they must be patches of snow, but a glance at real spots
of snow corrected me. These last, though more dis-
tinctly white, had not the high, soft, silver shine of the
mineral. Doubtless it Was these mountain-gems which,
under the magic touch of sunset light, had the evening
before appeared like vast rubies, blazing amidst the rose
which surrounded them.

“And this evening the spectacle of the preceding
one was repeated, though more distantly and on a larger
scale. Ph thought it the finer of the two. Far away
the mountain height towered, a marvel of aérial blue.
while broad spurs reaching out on either side were
clothed, the one in shiny rose-red, the other in ethereal
roseate tints superimposed upon azure; and _ farther
away, to the southeast, a mountain range Jay all in
solid carmine along the horizon, as if the earth blushed

AN ARCTIC PTEROPOD. 215°

at the touch of heaven. ... All the wildness and
waste, all the sternest desolations of the whole earth,
brought together to wed and enhance each other, and
then relieved by splendor without equal, perhaps, in the
world,—that is Labrador.”

Nearly all the next day was spent in beating down
the coast, finding ourselves at evening off our old haven,
Strawberry Harbor, which we did not enter, but re-
mained outside of it, holding on to the rocks in twenty-
five fathoms with our kedge. We lay over the edge of
a submarine precipice, or, as I supposed, a rock terrace
or shelf like those ashore ; for just before anchoring the
lead reached a depth of forty fathoms, showing quite
plainly that the terraced character of the rock, which
extends up the shore for a distance of perhaps 300 or
400 feet, also extends beneath the ocean to a depth of
at least fifty fathoms or three hundred feet, thus con-
clusively proving that the coast had once been much
higher than at present, and also showing how httle the
floe-ice had smoothed down ‘the ocean-bottom near
shore.

The next day we reached, but did not double, Cape
Webuc (Harrison), as it was called, in the afternoon, and
Mr. Bradford spent every available moment in painting
icebergs. In the calm water we met with great num-
bers of that interesting and curious arctic pteropod,
Limacina helictna ; drawing up some in a bucket and
placing them in a glass of sea-water, the beautiful move-
ments of these delicate forms could be seen. They were
like winged sweet-peas—the shape of the body and color
suggesting the resemblance. It had not previously been
recorded as occurring south of the Greenland seas. The

‘216 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

fishermen, who had never seen them before this summer,
said that the cod fed on them, and injured the fishery,
but all this was the merest nonsense. We lay to among
the icebergs all night, Bradford vigorously and indefat-
igably at work every spare moment, up at three o'clock
in the morning, and painting the next day until a fog
closed down upon the scene early in the afternoon.

The succeeding day (the 8th) we ran into Sloop Har-
bor, where we dredged in ten fathoms and drew up an
interesting arctic Isopod crustacean.

On the oth we entered Indian Harbor, where lived
a Mr. Norman, who was carrying on an extensive fishery
here, though this year it was, as everywhere else, a
failure, the men at Sloop Harbor having to go thirty
miles for bait. The salmon fishery was also pronounced
equally abortive, only two hundred tierces having been
netted in all Hamilton Inlet, whereas that amount is
usually taken at a single point.

The scenery here—trap-hills. and dykes giving some
strange effects—was unusually picturesque, and Bradford
was busy making studies and photographs. The gneiss
is whitish in color, gradually sloping in rocky terraces to
the shore, and extending under the fiord, the bowlder-
laden, smooth bottom being perfectly visible at the
depth of six or eight fathoms; and I have little doubt it
could have been distinguished at the depth of ten or
even fifteen fathoms. ;

Here for the first time on this coast were to be seen
undoubted glacial marks. They occurred on the smooth
ice-worn rocks about twenty-five feet above the harbor,
not far from Norman’s house, on the southern side of
the tickle. They were lunate impressions varying in

GLACIAL MARKS. 217°

length from five to twelve inches, describing a curve from
three to nine inches deep, and at the bottom of the
crescent sunk an inch deep in the rocks. The hollows
of the crescents opposed the northwest, showing that
the glacier which produced such marks must have
moved from the land, filling the great bay of which the
fiord was an arm, and were sculptured in a smooth,
highly polished whitish gneiss. The rocky shore was
above the reach of the waves, but dampened by the
surf and spray, so that the surface was entirely free of
lichens, which covered the rock farther up from the
water’s edge.

That these were genuine glacial marks was evident
to me at the time, and afterward sufficiently proved in
my own mind when standing on the summit of Bald-
face Mountain near Gilead, Me., where the lunate or
crescentiform marks are abundant.

Ice marks have also been noticed by Campbell in his
“Frost and Fire.” * .

* «The coast is now rising between St. John’s in Newfoundland and Cape
Harrison in Labrador. Rocks have been marked and the marks have risen; boats
now ground on solid rocks where they floated twenty years ago; rocks which
were seldom seen now seldom disappear at high tides; harbors are shoaling;
beds of common shells are found high above the sea; raised beaches are seen
on hill-sides in sheltered corners; and blocks of foreign rock are perched upon
the summits of islands and on the highest hills near the coast. The rocks are
much weathered, and very few strie were found. Those which were found
aimed up-stream. At Indian Island, lat. 53° 30’, near the lat. of Hull, they
pointed into Davis’s Straits, at a height of 400 feet above the sea; at Red Bay,
in the Straits of Belle Isle, they aimed N. 45° E. at the sea-level. In winter
the sea is frozen near the coast to a thickness of eighteen inches or more; in
spring the northern ice comes down in vast masses. In 1864 this spring drift
was 150 miles wide, and it floated past Cape Race. From acareful examination
of the water-line at many spots it appears that bay-ice grinds rock, but does not
produce striation. The tops of conical rocks have been shorn off. The shape
of the country is a result of denudation. No matter what the dip and fracture of
the stone may be, the coast is generally worn into the shape known as ‘roches
Moutonnées.’” (Vol. ii. p. 236.)

-218 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

The afternoon of the roth we sighted the familiar out-
lines of Tub Island. The wind was southeast, and the
next day it was too stormy to allow us to run out; and
early in the succeeding day a dry northeast gale raged,
but cleared off sufficiently in the afternoon to allow us
to sail, in three hours, twenty-four miles to Dumplin
Harbor, where dredging was profitable, though it was
cold work hauling in the rope in the northeast wind.

The next day we beat against a southeast wind about
twenty miles down to Cateau Harbor, passing numerous
headlands on which raged a fine surf. The dredging in
this harbor, where the sea-bottom was sandy and prolific
in worms, shells, and Echinoderms, was excellent;
among other rarities we hauled up specimens of the
arctic holothurian AZyrzotrochus Rinkiz, and a smaller
simpler sea-cucumber, the Aupyrgus scaber, more like a
small faded Martynia than a cucumber.

The 14th and 15th continued to be stormy, the wind
northerly, with, more or less fog, bergs and floating ice,
making it dangerous sailing. We however got as far as
Indian Tickle, where was the largest and best appointed
fishing establishment we had yet visited, belonging to Mr.
M. H. Warren, who lives in London during the winter,
spending the summer here, where he employs two hun-
ered and fifty men. Here the salmon fishery had been a
failure, and the fishermen complained of the “black stuff”
in the water, the delicate and interesting Limacina—
which they declared “ poisoned the fish.”

At noon of the 16th, when the fog lifted, a northerly
wind carried us into Domino Harbor. We found that
there was some trouble at the “rooms” here about paying
duties on produce brought upon this coast by traders.

CURLEWS. 219

There being no representative from Labrador, which,
however, is politically a part of Newfoundland, it was
claimed that there should be no duties ; they were there-
fore paid under protest to the judge and collector, James
Winter, Esq., who had published under date of Nov.
t2th, 1863, a report entitled ‘“Impolicy and Objection-
able Nature of Levying Duties upon Bread and Biscuit
Imported from Hamburgh. By James Winter.”

It appears that he had left Newfoundland (St. John’s)
June 15th, and was prevented by the ice from reaching
Blanc Sablon before the 20th of July ; where he reported
that. there were forty vessels, of which thirty-five sailed
from Nova Scotia, the remainder being vessels belonging
to the ‘‘rooms,” and which brought out salt and manu-
factured goods from England. This harbor (Blanc
Sablon) is perhapsthe most important port on the Labra-
dor coast. According to Winter’s report the trade at
Blanc Sablon is very extensive, consisting of two large
supplying and fishing establishments belonging to Jersey,
Messrs. Boutellier and De Quetteville & Co., and two
smaller houses, also from Jersey, engaged in the fishery.
This is the chief place of resort of the large number of
fishing-vessels from Nova Scotia and other colonies
which annually arrive at Labrador.

The 17th was spent in harbor at Domino, which to
the geologist is one of the most interesting points on the
coast. While walking over the barren Domino gneiss
worn down by the glaciers, a flock of twenty-five curléws
flew overhead, but they were late, as was everything else
this year.

The 18th we set sail from Domino Run for Henley
Harbor in the face of a southerly storm, and beat to

220 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

windward all day in the fog and rain, making about
thirty miles. We passed many fine icebergs, some of
them of magnificent proportions, moving down the coast
in a stately way, while others were left stranded close in-
shore.

We remained outside in the fog through the night
and early part of the-next day ; took a northerly storm
in the afternoon, and lay to during the night for fear of
encountering the bergs or pieces of floating ice.

We here saw in a large school of humpback and fin
whales what Captain Handy pronounced to be a sperm-
whale by its “spout,” which formed a single short stream
of vapor curling over in front from the blow-hole, which
is situated at the end of the nose. Mr. Pike (at Square
Island) told us that a school of nine sperm-whales used
to pass annually up and down the coast, but that now
only five of them were remaining ; we may have seen
one of the five.

After a very uncomfortable night, having heaved to
in the darkness in a heavy swell and calm to avoid col-
liding with the ice, which in scattered bergs and floes.
surrounded us, we finally on the 2oth ran before a fresh
northeasterly gale into Henley Harbor.

Sunday the 21st was, after the fog had cleared away in
the morning, a very pleasant day, though towards night
the easterly wind again brought in the fog. Colonel
Amory and myself went over to an island on the west
side of the harbor, where a recent severe gale, in which
three vessels had been driven ashore, had washed off the
soil so as to disclose some graves supposed to be those
of Eskimos, We dug into them, finding a few bones
and pieces of flannel; the former were too much decayed

ESKIMO GRAVES. 221

to be of any value. An under-jaw given me by a man
who lived near by and who had taken it from the graves
had double teeth (szc) all around, the front teeth being
worn down to the gums, the two jaws not overlapping
(this being an Eskimo characteristic) ; the jaw resembled
those of the skulls from Hopedale. There were several
graves formed by natural fissures in the rocks, covered
over by a layer of stones, with soil heaped over them,
each forming a sort of natural dolmen. No one knew
about them, but it was supposed that they may have been
the graves of those killed in a battle of the Eskimos with
the Indians. Battle Point, a little way up the coast,
commemorates a sanguinary fight between these two
races of Labrador aboriginals.

I now learned that the old fort situated on a bluff on
the terrace previously described was built by an early
settler named Greville, who held out one winter against
the wiles of the Indians until, during a deep snow-storm
which barred up the cannon of the fort and choked up
the embrasures, the dusky assailants scaled the walls and
gained entrance within. Our informant said that Greville
wrote a history of Labrador. Near the fort was a circular
area paved closely with cobble-stones, but nearly over- —
grown with Empetrum, which was said to have been the
foundation of a Nascopi wigwam, but was more probably
of Eskimo origin.

The 22d was a fine day but nearly calm, and the fore-
hoon was spent with the insect-net in hand. The cur-
lews were quite abundant, perhaps a hundred being seen.
After dinner we hauled up anchor, and Bradford went
‘out in search of icebergs. Two small bergs were seen
near the southern end of Belle Isle and farther down the

222 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

Strait ; one of them broke to pieces during the night,
and we afterwards saw the fragments floating upon the
water some miles inshore. We lay all night becalmed
six or seven miles from shore, drifting slowly down the
Strait with the Labrador current ; before night I dredged
in from forty to fifty fathoms on a hard, pebbly bottom,
bringing up besides the common red seaweed ne)
only a shrimp or two.

Towards noon of the following day a steady easterly
breeze carried us down the Strait, and we lay to in the
fog all night, until after breakfast of the 24th it lifted
somewhat and we found ourselves near Whale Island,
three miles west of Whiteley’s, and by eleven had for-
tunately worked into the harbor of Salmon Bay off John
Goddard’s house near Caribou Island. We went to Rev.
Mr. Carpenter’s mission house for our letters, and were
glad enough to accept his hospitality that night, not only
as a pleasant change from sleeping in a bunk, but to
renew an agreeable acquaintance.

I collected more Quaternary fossils from the beach,
though it rained and blew hard all day. We learned
that the weather here had been pleasanter than “to the
norard,” and that though the cod fishery had been * bad,”
it was now beginning to “look up.” The stormy season
was now about to set in, and it was high time that such
craft as ours should leave the coast. No sail-boats can
be used here with safety after the middle of September,
the autumn winds are so gusty, with calms and sudden
flaws. Only the small sails of the Newfoundland vessels.
and their large crews enable them to coast along this
region after that date.

On the 25th we fairly got under way for home,

THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 223

taking the tail end of yesterday’s storm, though before
the anchor was weighed I did some good dredging,
bringing up among other notable creatures 77ztonofusus
cretaceus. On the whole the Strait of Belle Isle pre-
sented the most varied and rich dredging grounds I met
with on the coast. We now had before us a run of 340
miles from Salmon Bay to the Gut of Canso, it being 80.
miles from Bird Rock to the latter strait. At about five
in the afternoon of the 27th the wind hauled into the
“southeast and freshened into a gale of wind during the
night ; it was very thick, but there was no rain. We
lost our reckoning and came near running ashore between
Bird Rock and Byron Island, making seven fathoms”
sounding twice; moreover, the forecastle stove upset,
and the floor got on fire, so that between the danger of
shipwreck and of fire we had an anxious night.

On Sunday morning, the 28th, we ran under jib and
reefed mainsail past Bird Rock to the westward of the
Magdalen Islands, just seeing land through the thick rain

‘and mist and driving spray, and part of the time a cold
sleet.. The water came in over our rail; things above
and below were knocked about a good deal, and some
bilge-water leaked into the cabin. At 2 p.m., however,
the gale broke, the rain abated, and after a while the
sun broke through the clouds and lighted up, intensify-
ing the rich red hues of the long, low shores of the
Magdalen Islands. Here for the first time we saw the
fish hawk, while the gannets, glorious birds while on
the wing, were diving from far aloft for mackerel, or
soaring up among the low rain-clouds. The 29th was
warm and pleasant, and we passed many sails, some
going to the Magdalen Islands, but most of them converg-

224 A SUMMER’S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR.

ing like a flock of sea-birds towards the Gut of Canso.
About ten o'clock in the forenoon we lost sight of
Deadman’s Island, the southernmost point of the Mag-
dalens, and at two o’clock in the afternoon sighted the
Prince Edward’s Islands, and soon after espied Cape
Breton Island.

We expected to reach Port Mulgrave early the next
morning, but our hopes of letters, papers, fresh potatoes,
and beef on the morrow were dashed to the ground, as
soon after sunset we were becalmed and had to come to
anchor within six miles of that delectable haven. We
got into Port Mulgrave the next morning, when six of
our passengers left to return home overland.

We left Port Mulgrave on the morning of the rst
September, passed Halifax light at eight o’clock in the
next evening, and at half-past seven in the evening of
the 3d sighted Thatcher Island light, and ran up to our
pier at Boston the next morning.

A few words as to the scientific results of our voyage.
Although we failed to reach Cape Chidley and to see the
higher Moravian mission stations and Eskimos, or to do
much dredging in water over fifty fathoms in depth, yet
every possible facility was afforded me by Mr. Bradford,
and the results of the voyage were perhaps of some service
to science. Our geological notes of the coast were
fuller than any yet published; over seventy-five raised
beaches were discovered ; glacial phenomena of interest
were observed, and the fact of the recent glaciation of
the northeastern part of the Labrador peninsula was
for the first time proved. Dredgings were made among
the islands from Mecatina to Hopedale, and a consider-
able number of new species of marine invertebrates, as

By
Ss Nurugutsit

‘2,9,
er g Opemgevik:

LaBrapor, (From the British Admiralty Map No. 863.)
To face page 223

RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE, 225

well as insects, secured, while it was made evident that
the polar fauna and flora, both land and marine, extends
southward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, many inter-
esting arctic forms occurring which had never before
been dredged south of Baffin’s Bay; valuable data were
also obtained showing that the life along the coast of
Maine during the Leda epoch of the glacial period was
nearly identical with that of the Labrador coast, and
that the alpine fauna and flora of Mt. Washington in
New Hampshire is a remnant of the Labrador assem-
blage of plants and animals; notes of interest on the
distribution of the fish and mammals were obtained, par-
ticularly of the walrus, white bear, and narwhale, while
the collections of insects were tolerably complete, en-
abling us to compare the Labrador insect fauna with
that of Norway, Sweden, and the Alps of Switzerland.

A voyage to the Labrador coast is an exceedingly
healthful one; its interest to the sportsman would be
enhanced if, in a steam-yacht and launches, the salmon
streams could be explored and the game reached. But
for lovers of grand coast scenery, famous for its peculiar
wildness and far-reaching desolation, and which is only
inferior to that of Norway, we recommend a cruise to
Northern Labrador.

CHAPTER XI.
RECENT EXPLORATIONS.

OF late years fresh attention has been paid to the ex-
ploration of the Labrador Peninsula. Dr. Franz Boas
has published in “Science” for Feb. 17, 1888, ‘‘ Notes
on the Geography of Labrador,” which contains refer-
ence to explorations in this country undertaken within
a few years. Dr. Boas, it appears to us, erroneously
states that the MS. map by Rev. S. Weiz, which we
used in the compilation of the map in the present vol-
ume (originally published in the Bulletin of the Ameri-
can Geographical Society), ‘(was published in January,
1869, in the Mzsszonsblatt aus der Briidergemetnde.”
The MS. map loaned us by the Rev. Dr. Latrobe must
have been a later one, with corrections, as it differs in
a number of essential points, as may be seen if any
one will examine the copy of the Moravian map pub-
lished in “ Science,” and also previously in the JZzsszons-
blat¢, with that in this book; for example, Weiz’s
earlier published map represents Killinek, near Cape
Chidley, as one large island, whereas in our map the
Killinek of 1869 is represented by two large islands.
Also, Nachvak Inlet, Saeglek Bay, and the inlet on
which Hebron is situated are very different in the two

* This map is here reproduced, thanks to the publishers of “ Science.”
226

Rennthiéer
Cegend

Tes, Ps |
2 Ke Cont. <
Yoralen' ED
Tere. . igi: S:

|
Nordspitze

LABRADOR.
pera,

|
58 f-—_|

erg, 3000,
9

66 65

Map oF THE NORTHERN EXTREMITY OF LABRADOR.

(After Weiz.

From ‘‘Science.”)
To face page 226,

THE INTERIOR OF LABRADOR. 227

maps; while no mountain ranges were inserted in the
London MS. map of Mr. Weiz.

Our knowledge of the interior of Northern Pabeator
has been somewhat extended by Dr. R. Koch, who
wintered in Nainin 1882-83, his brief but interesting
account being published in the Deutsche Geographische
Blatter (Band VII. Heft 2, 1884, pp. 151-163). The
Eskimos in the spring go after reindeer in sledges from
Nain to the plateau of the interior, which is reached
after a journey of four or five days, at the rate of thirty
English miles a day, through fiord-like valleys. After
one or two days more the height of land is reached.
This water-shed approaches the shore in the northern
part of the peninsula, being only one day’s journey dis-
tant from Rama, which is the northernmost Moravian
station, being situated in lat. N. 58° 52’ 54. From
this water-shed arise the rivers Koaksoak and Kangerd-
lualuksoak (George River), which flow into Ungava
Bay. This water-shed terminates in Killinek, and its.
outliers form the Button Islands. The narrower the
mountainous district becomes, the higher it is. Near
Hopedale the mountains, so far as Koch could see from
looking inland, rise only a few hundred feet; while at
Nain the mountains close by the sea are from 800 to
1,200 feet high. The Kiglapait, or Saw-teeth Mountains,
between Nain and Okkak, have an elevation of several
thousand feet (2,000, according to the British Admi-
ralty chart). Kaumajat (Shining Mountain), situated
south of Hebron, reaches this height (see p.g). Al
though Koch has added nothing materially new to the
information given in the first chapter of this book, we
may add that he states that north of Hebron the coun-

228 RECENT EXPLORATIONS.

try is alpine in character, the mountains rising almost
vertically from the sea; but although the peaks attain
a great height, there are no ice-fields and shining snow-
clad peaks; at the most, snow-fields and miniature
glaciers. Deep, narrow fiords (Sorviluck, Nullatarkok,
and Nachvak) cut into the coast, which is not along
here sheltered by islands from the heavy swell of the
ocean. While south of Hebron numerous islands lie
scattered off the mouths of the bays, northerly from
Komaktorvik there are numerous islands and very dan-
gerous cliffs, the Naviarutsit and Nuvurutsit, which ex-
tend up to Ikkerasak Torksuk, viz., the great thorough-
fare, abounding in whirlpools, of the Eskimo to Un-
gava Bay.

Near Rama, Koch ascended a mountain 2,600 feet
in height. He describes the scene as very grand: “ At
my feet I saw the deep, bluish-green fiord surrounded
by steep, wall-like cliffs.) The mountains were covered
with shrubs colored red by the first frost of the season.
To the left spreads the dark-blue ocean, with its green-
ish-white icebergs. On the opposite side of the fiord,
and towards the west, extended steep and ragged moun-
tains and narrow, gorge-like valleys, in one of thema
dark lake, the water of which, black as ink, reflected
the high peaks. In the interior I saw mountains rising
to still greater heights, and covered with fresh snow,
extending north and south as far as I could see. The
highest points of this range are opposite the island of
Aulatsivik, and reach elevations of from 8,000 to 9,000
feet. While mountains less than 1,500 or 2,o00*feet in
height are rounded, and bear evidence of having been

LABRADOR MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS. 229

covered by glaciers, the ragged forms of the higher
mountains show no such signs,”

All the lower mountains have rounded, often smoothly
polished, summits, and are covered with numberless frag-
ments of other stones, differing greatly in size, and not
arranged into moraines, but scattered over mountains
and valleys, and often lying in the strangest positions.
The summits of the highest mountains, on the contrary,
are split by the frost into sharp, rugged, enormous
teeth.

Koch then describes a typical valley near Nain, one near
the Kauk (the Cliff), into which flows the Kaubkonga
(Kauk River). Passing out from the mouth of the
winding valley, the stream, often broken into rapids,
ends in a water-fall about forty feet high, which plunges
into a lake, the Ekkalulik (viz., the place where there
are trout), into which two streams open, the Kaubkonga
and the Jordan. The two rivers flow by rapids out
of different lakes, the Jordan out of the Tessialuk
(Breeches Lake of the missionaries), the Kaubkonga
out of the Tachardlek (Star Lake). Beyond these are
four other lakes, connected by short streams broken
into rapids and cataracts, and which lead up to the
Kairtoksoaks, where the streams take their origin.
The Kaubkonga is a relatively strong stream, but is
a type of all the Labrador rivers, being a chain of lakes
connected by rapids or cataracts. “All the streams, so
far as I have observed, at least those which flow into
the Atlantic Ocean, have this peculiarity : evidently the
corroding action of the water during the short summer
has not not been sufficient during the short time which

230 RECENT EXPLORATIONS.

has elapsed since the melting away of the glacial cover-
ing to wear the river-valleys into continuous courses.”

Koch also observed raised beaches from 10 to 30
metres in height above the sea, and from all his obser-
vations he concludes that after the glaciation of the coast
there was a depression of the land, as proved by the old
beaches, followed in recent times by a slow upheaval.

Some additional information regarding Northern Lab-
rador, says Dr. Boas, is contained in the publications of
the reports of the German polar stations of the interna-
tionalsystem. ‘ Since Koch’s visit to Labrador, meteor-
ological observations are being made at all missionary
stations of the Labrador coast, which are of particular
value as filling the wide gap between the system of Can-
ada and the Danish stations in Greenland.”

We have already on page 7 given a brief account of
Dr. Bell’s observations made in 1884 on the physical
geography of the extreme northern coast of Labrador.

More recently the commissioner of crown lands of
Quebec has sent surveyors who have explored the nu-
merous rivers emptying into the St. Lawrence, Mr. C.
E. Forgues having surveyed the rivers St. John, Mingan,
Natashquan, and Esquimaux. During the summer of
1887 the missionary Edmund James Peck succeeded in
crossing Labrador from Richmond Bay to Ungava Bay,
but as yet no account of what must have been a very
interesting journey has appeared. Dr. Boas adds that
“Green Island, in Hudson Bay, as shown on Packard’s
map, does not exist according to observations made by
Gordon on his expeditions to Hudson Bay. The archives
of the Department of Marines of France possess a number

HOLME’S EXPLORATIONS. 231

of manuscript maps of Hudson Strait, which, however,
have not been published.”

Very full and detailed information regarding the re-
gion of Fort Chimo is contained in the report of Mr. L.
M. Turner to the U. S. Signal Bureau, which has not
yet been published. But until some explorers cross the
peninsula from Fort Chimo to Nain or Hopedale, and
also ascend the Esquimaux River to its source, we shall
be much in the dark regarding the nature of the interior
of Labrador. An attempt to penetrate the interior from
the head of Eskimo Bay (Lake Melville) was made in
1887 by Mr. Randle F. Holme, whose interesting ac-
count, illustrated by an excellent map of the entire Lab-
rador peninsula, appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal
Geographical Society, April, 1888. We have found his
map of great service in compiling that of Southern Lab-
rador in the present book.

Mr. Holme tells us that on one occasion Pere Lacasse,
the Roman Catholic missionary to the Indians, journeyed
from Mingan to Northwest River by the Mingan and
Kenamou rivers, and from Northwest River to Ungava
by the Nascopee and Waquash rivers.

Mr. Holme ascended the Grand River, which empties
into Aivuktok Bay, as far as Lake Waminikapou, his
point of departure being the Hudson Bay post of Rigolet.
After exploring the mouths of Gudder’s Bight River, of
the Kenamish, the Kenamou, and the Travespines River,
Mr. Holme ascended the Grand River 150 miles, to a
point within 50 miles of the Grand Falls, whose height
is unknown, but which he regards as with little doubt
“the most stupendous falls in the world.” The river is
said by Maclean to be 500 yards broad above the falls,

232 RECENT EXPLORATIONS.

contracting to 50 yards at the falls themselves. We are
not satisfied with Mr. Holme’s estimate of the probable
height of these falls; their exploration would certainly
reward any one who is sufficiently enterprising and has
sufficient knowledge of geology and natural history to
make the journey profitable.

In regard to the canoe route from the Strait of Belle
Isle up the Esquimaux River to Lake Melville, we may
add that the Rev. C. C. Carpenter. kindly obtained dur-
ing the winter of 1888-89 the following notes from Mr.
W. H. Whiteley, who has spent many summers at Bonne
Esperance, a little island at the mouth of this river, and
can speak with authority, as he is “the most intelligent
and reliable man on the whole coast,” and is the magis-
trate of this section of the Labrador coast

‘“About Esquimaux River, from all I have been able
to gather from the Indians, I think that there is a large
plateau in the interior about five days’ walk, for an In-
dian, from our place, probably about 250 miles. They
can walk from Bonne Esperance to Rigolet in ten days,
so they say. They tell usthat St. Augustine River rises
from the same lake as Esquimaux River, but I think
they mean the same level plateau. The interior of Lab-
rador is wholly water ; certainly four fifths of the surface
is cut up into small ponds and lakes, which makes trav-
elling except by water impossible unless in winter ;
when on the ice one can make a straight course, and I
suppose this accounts for the intense cold for such enor-
mous bodies of ice, for the lakes are mostly shoal and
freeze to the bottom, making a huge ice-house of Labra-

dor all the spring months, and, as you know, well up
into the summer.”

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STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH LABRADOR. 233

The means of communication with Labrador from
England is by steamer to Newfoundland, whence mail
steamers make at least two trips each summer from St.
John’s along the Labrador coast as far north as Nain,
while the steamer goes as far west as Bonne Espérance
in the Strait of Belle Isle. Mr. Holme states that
“new and superior steamers are being, built for the
coastal service from St. John’s, and will begin to run
this summer” (1888). Steamers also ran during the
summer of 1890 once a fortnight from Halifax through
Cape Breton Island along the western coast of New-
foundland, touching at Blanc Sablon. There is also
communication by sailing-vessels from Quebec, and oc-
casionally a pleasure-party from Boston or some other
port in the United States visits the Labrador coast.

CHAPTER XII.

A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR, WITH
AN ACCOUNT OF ITS FISHERIES.

TueE history of Labrador can be told in few words.
The permanent residents dwell exclusively on the coast,
and, as a rule, in the more sheltered harbors and fiords,
The principal settlements on the shore south of the
Strait of Belle Isle are Bonne Espérance, Forteau
Point, Blanc Sablon, Belles Amours, and Henley Har-
bor, a few families being scattered along the shore be-
tween these points. On the Atlantic or eastern coast
the most important settlement is at Battle Harbor, “a
sheltered roadstead between Battle Island and Great
Caribou Island, about half a mile in length and quite
narrow.” Farther north are St. Francis Harbor, Batteau
Harbor, Occasional Harbor, Square Island Harbor,
Domino Run, At Cartwright Bay is the southernmost
Hudson Bay Company’s post, and these are scattered
along at rare intervals as far north as the fiord or inlet
of Nachvak, the most important post being situated at
Rigolet in Melville Bay, while at Fort Chimo in Un-
gava Bay is another post belonging to this company.

The population of the St. Lawrence coast of Labra-
dor from Port Neuf to Blanc Sablon numbers about
4,400, comprising English, and French of Canadian or

234

THE POPULATION OF LABRADOR. 235

Acadian origin, who subsist chiefly by fishing and hunt-
ing. Of the whole number 3,800 are Roman Catholics
and 570 are Protestants.

In the scattered settlements north of the Strait of
Belle Isle one meets with English, Scotch, and Jersey
sailors or their descendants, who make a very precarious
livelihood by fishing in the summer and fur-hunting in
the winter. The map at the end of this chapter will
serve as a directory of the coast from Sandwich Bay
northward, The summer or floating population of Lab-
rador is estimated at about 30,000, mostly Newfound-
landers.

‘The last census taken by the government of New-
foundland, in 1874, gives the resident population from
Blanc Sablon to Cape Harrison as 2,416. Of these
1,489 belong to the Church of England; 476 to the
Church of Rome; 285 are Wesleyans; 30 are Presby-
terians, and 126 belong to other denominations. There
are nine places of worship: four of the Church of Eng-
land, three of the Church of Rome, and two of the Wes-
leyan Church.* According to Hatton and Harvey the
total population of Labrador was in 1874 about 12,527,
distributed as follows :—

‘On the St. Lawrence coast, from Port Neuf to Blanc Sablon 4,411

‘On the Atlantic coast, white population................. 2,416
ESKIMOS 34.5050 o abe Gee SBR as 1,700

Indians of the Interior............ 4,000

12,527

By a more recent estimate the number of Eskimos is
placed at 1,500 or less. It isalso probable, judging from

* Hatton and Harvey’s Newfoundland; Boston, 1883, p. 297.

236 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR.

newspaper statements of famines in Labrador due to
the failure of the fisheries in late years, that the white
population of the coast has been somewhat diminished,
and we doubt if the total population exceeds 12,000.

For the following brief history of Labrador we are in-
debted to the chapter on Labrador in Hatton and Har-
vey’s excellent work on Newfoundland.

The boundaries between Newfoundland and Canadian
Labrador are thus defined in the “ Letters-Patent Consti- |
tuting the Office of Governor and Commander-in-chief of
the Island of Newfoundland”: “We have thought fit
to constitute order and declare that there shall be a Gov-
ernor and Commander-in-chief (hereinafter called our
said Governor) in and over our Island of Newfoundland,
and the islands adjacent, and all the coast of Labrador,
from the entrance of Hudson’s Straits to a line to be
drawn due north and south from Anse Sablon on the
said coast to the fifty-second degree of north latitude,
and all the islands adjacent to that part of the said coast
of Labrador, as also of all fortsand garrisons erected and’
established, or which shall be erected and established,
within or on the islands and coasts aforesaid (which said
islands and coast, together with the Island of Newfound-
land, are hereinafter referred to as our said colony), and
that the person who shall fill the said office of Governor
shall be from time to time appointed by commission.
under our sign-manual and signet.”

In 1864 the boundaries of the Newfoundland portion
of Labrador were thus defined :* “ The western limit of
the government of Newfoundland is lat. 51° 25’ N.,

* Appendix to the ‘‘ Journal of the House of Assembly,” 1864, p. 613.

THE BOUNDARY LINE. 237

song. 57° 9’ W., and includes Blanc Sablon and the
Woody Islands. The northern boundary is Cape Chud-
leigh, in lat. 60° 37’ N., long. 65° W.” Hatton and
Harvey then add: “Thus a line drawn due north and
south, from Blanc Sablon to Cape Chudleigh, constitutes
the boundary between the two jurisdictions.” Ifthe read-
er will draw the line on the map, he will see that it would
include only athin strip of the coast from Blanc Sablon
to Davis’s Inlet; that it would not include the western
part of Melville Bay, and north of Davis’s Inlet or the
Moravian settlement of Zoar, would pass almost to the
westward of the mainland, including only some of the
promontories and the outer islands from Zoar to Cape
Chidley. This was evidently not the intention of the
British Government, The natural boundary line between
Newfoundland and Canadian Labrador would be, it
seems to us, the Eskimo and Kenamou rivers, the
western shores of Melville Bay and of Grand Lake,
and north of this point the chain of lakes lying on the
height of land extending along near the 65th parallel
of longitude, the natural boundary line on Ungava
Bay being Whale River.

Hatton and Harvey’s history then states: ‘This por-
tion of Labrador was not always attached to Newfound-
land. The first annexation took place after the Treaty
of Paris, 1763. While the flag of France waved over
Canada, the French carried on extensive fisheries on
the Labrador coast, near the Straits of Belle Isle, to
which they attach the greatest importance. After the
conquest of Canada by Britain, a company established
in Quebec obtained a monopoly of these fisheries
which lasted for sixty years, but was brought to an

238 A GLANCE Ar THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR.

end in 1820. Until 1763 the fisheries of the whole
southern and eastern shores of Labrador were placed
under the government of Quebec. Increased impor-
tance was given to the governorship of Newfoundland
at that date by annexing to it the Atlantic coast of
Labrador. Ten years after, in 1773. it was considered
advisable to restore this portion of Labrador to Canada,
owing to difficulties arising out of grants made to a
number of persons under the rule of the French. In
1809 it was again transferred to the jurisdiction of
Newfoundland, under which it has remained ever since.
A Court of Civil Jurisdiction, on the coast of Labra-
dor, was instituted in 1824. A special court of civil and
criminal jurisdiction, called ‘The Court of Labrador,”
and presided over by one judge, appointed by the Gov-
ernor in Council, secured the administration of justice.
The customs’ duties levied on goods landed on Labra~
dor are the same as in Newfoundland. The Hudson
Bay Company had formerly the exclusive right of trad-.
ing with the Indians of that part of Labrador which had
rivers flowing into the inlet from which the company
took its name, and which is designated East Maine.
In 1870, however, the company surrendered all their
rights of government, property, etc., in the whole of
British North America: and these having been trans-
ferred to the Dominion of Canada, the company being
still at liberty to carry on their trade without hindrance,
or any exceptional tax, Canada has thus jurisdiction
over all the region of Labrador which does not belong
to Newfoundland.”

The two most notable and romantic events lighting
up the usually prosaic course of Labrador history were-

CHATEAU. 239

the founding by the Breton fishermen and traders of the
town of Brest, in Bradore Bay, about 1520, and the
battles at Chateau. It will be remembered that this
town is estimated to have had upwards of 1,000 resi-
dents ; its ruins and terraces being still visible. The
other event, or. rather series of events, occurred farther
up the Strait of Belle Isle, and the scenes were less
peaceful. Chateau, or what is now called Henley Har-
bor, was originally colonized by the Acadian refugees,
who either built a fort here or more strongly fortified
Greville’s Fort, originally built to resist Eskimo attacks.
The remains of these fortifications are still extant.
“Tn 1763 a British garrison was located at Chateau,
in order to protect the fisheries ; but the place was cap-
tured in 1778 by the American privateer ‘ Minerva,’
and three vessels and £70,000 worth of property were
carried away as prizes. In 1796 the post was again
attacked by a French fleet. A long bombardment en-
sued between the frigates and the shore batteries, and
it was not until their ammunition was exhausted that
the British troops retreated into the back country, after
having burned the village. In 1535 the French explor-
ing fleet, under the command of Jacques Cartier, as-
sembled here.”

We have already spoken of the Eskimo inhabitants of
the coast. The Indians inhabit the interior, and, as has
been remarked, they are perhaps now the only truly
wild, untamed red-men of North America, They are
of the Mountaineer (or Montagnais) and Nasquapee
(or Nascopi) tribes, and though they are roughly esti-
mated to number 4,000, they are supposed to be slowly
disappearing. ‘‘Game,” say Hatton and Harvey, “on

240 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR.

which they depend, is becoming scarcer every year,
owing largely to destructive fires which have swept over
vast areas, destroying forests, berry-bearing shrubs,
mosses and lichens, and converting whole districts into
hopeless deserts strewed with naked bowlders, where no
animal life can exist. Some of the Nasquapee tribe
are still heathen, but the Montagnais are nearly all nom-
inally Roman Catholics. The zealous Jesuit missiona-
ries of early times extended their labors from Canada to
Labrador, and these have been specially successful
among the Montagnais. Of late years they have been
resumed, and are now systematically carried on. The
Indians hunt over the interior, and at certain seasons
visit the coast in order to exchange the products of
the chase for clothing, ammunition, and other necessaries,

Labrador, both politically and commercially, is the
great dependency of Newfoundland, more than a fourth
of the entire export of the fishery product of that colony
being taken on the coast of Labrador. The average
annual catch of Newfoundland fishermen on the Labra-
dor coast is from 350,000 to 400,000 quintals of codfish,
50,000 to 70,000 barrels of herring, and from 300 to
500 tierces of salmon. The number of Newfound-
landers who frequent the Atlantic coast of Labrador
during the summer, from the end of June till the first or
second week of October, is estimated at 30,000, from
1,000 to 1,200 fishing vessels being employed each
year.

It has been already stated that the fishermen have
only in recent years gone up the coast for their fares
beyond Hopedale. When we visited the coast in 1864
scarcely any fishermen went beyond Hamilton Inlet.

THE LABRADOR FISHERIES. 241

The numerous fishing banks and shoals lying off the
Atlantic coast on the edge of the continental shelf, and
probably forming the winter feeding grounds, from
which early in July the codfish migrate inshore, form
an area of 7,100 square miles. It is thought by Hind
that the great cod fishery of the future will probably
be along Northern Labrador and over the adjacent
banks.

The American fishermen have abandoned the Labra-
dor coast, preferring the Newfoundland banks, which are
nearer to their homes. As late as 1880 about one hun-
dred Canadian and Nova Scotia vessels were annually
engaged in the Labrador fisheries. Formerly a good
many Jersey fishermen frequented the coast, where there
were several of their fishing establishments ; but of these
only three remained up to 1880, while all the English
mercantile houses have been withdrawn.

It is estimated that the aggregate value of the fisheries
from all sources on the entire coast ‘“ will not fall short
of a million pounds sterling per annum.”

The present value of these fisheries is shown by the
following extracts from Hatton and Harvey's ‘“ New-
foundland”:

‘Exports from Labrador for the year ending July 31,
1880:

NEWFOUNDLAND HOUSES.

Dried Codhshsnceongucic sewed sewevs iothagin sea epi 393,436 qtls.
Green ado. asda RAE e eels 144 “
SEAalSkinSijcdd see vie dod daa data no es 1,096

Séal Gilisiws pany aeee eye se asy ise de eek eee Tees 50 tuns.
COG NOI esis arn ist tays ea ee ees acim ae oral Aieho a wits 16“
Other Oil aici ona. eee eerste esa eaeeeeeee r

242 A GLANCE AT. THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR.

Pickled salmon ies. 506 ae es oe mens oo dears tee tid 592 tierces.
Pickled: herninginies caviweweceaedeaaa nace ceawr eee’ 16,970 bbls,
Pickled trout. stcccnievs cee sie ese siehee cnna@aws 14 “
Pickled. mackerel ys 65 oso% deck oy.0000s wees «6's 459 ‘
Dried caplinxicicscceccieeneys ones esse tides 58 *

EXPORTS BY LABRADOR HOUSES NOT CONNECTED WITH NEW-
FOUNDLAND, FOR YEAR ENDING JULY 1, 1880,

Dried codfishs. ic.sicdirs geen Roce ae Bie ead 14,000 qtls.
SalskinS vss cg cssarese We eae aa sae Soka 110

Seal oil} sured nee a eas ava ea ada as 14 tuns,
God Ol isc issson eee AE BR eR a Si es ae
REEWSE 66 ic hice ed Gace ORE RE ee TERE RIAN ae te
Blu bDer sas oka ae ee A ee Se OER RRR ae 15 *
Pickled: salmOitwin icoc ces keeee ie Ms ee eae ees 4oo tierces.
Salmon in; tinSi. s Soice lies ache Aes eleanor wae 30,000 lbs.
Pickled herring... .......... eee cece eee e eens 700 bbls.
Pickled, Cro Utes cies. fase aus hatadd ener Gas a ounces ue anenatiasae 4o “
“Pickled mackereh. vn. ccscc aoe see ie aia ales 200
Dried caplin........ ipiriee cenit arepeieial acme yae 160 “

EXPORTS BY TRADERS ON LABRADOR COAST FOR YEAR ENDING
JULY 1, 1880 (ESTIMATED QUANTITIES).

Dried codfishssis.cev avec scale tive ined evra eas 526 qtls
Cod: Oil eae ieee esas pao ee ede epee 14 tuns
Pickled: salm Otis. sisi saa si erg edeees sande ed 757 tierces.
Pickled; herrings 32:33 e ace ose once terete eee 2,612 bbls.
Pickled mackerel occ oases. awe ae eee ee a tek 30

“The foregoing statement shows that in that year the
total export of dried codfish was 407,962 quintals—value,
at three dollars per quintal, $1,223,886; the export of
herring 20,282 barrels—value, at three and a half dollars
per barrel, $70,987 ; the export of salmon 1,749 tierces,
—value $34,980.

THE LABRADOR FISHERIES. 243

“For the year ending 31st July, 1881, the exports of
the three great staples were as follows :—

Dried COUR coun a ededvaus SRG Reaideomteds Sori 419,997 qtls.
Pickléd H@nring fi 06 3 es.o's wests ou ¥s he Pane enc 33,330 bbls.
Pickled: Salmon sacs ndine we ee aun seals sa Oe ee ay OO 957 tierces.

“Tt must be remembered that the foregoing figures
represent only the exports of the fishery products, and do
not show the quantities consumed by the fishermen while
employed, or afterwards during the winter at their own
homes, which must be very considerable. Besides,
about a fourth of the whole catch is sent to Newfound-
land for shipment, and the Canadian and American
fishermen who frequent these shores carry away with
them the products of their labors, which are estimated
to be about a ninth of the entire quantities taken.”

To show how precarious and uncertain the Labrador
fisheries are still, I quote from the following letter from
J. W. Collins, Asst. U. S. Commissioner of Fish and
Fisheries, under date of Oct. 27, 1887, in answer to my
letter of inquiry: “During last July and August I
made a cruise in the Fish Commission schooner Grampus
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, around the south and east
coasts of Newfoundland, through the Strait of Belle Isle,
and thence to Mingan. I learned that the cod fishery
on the east coast of Newfoundland (particularly that
portion known as the ‘French Shore,’ from Cape St.
John to Cape Bauld) and at the Labrador has been bad
for the past two or three years. But it was worse this
year thanever. As late as July 26th I met Capt. George
Manuel, of the mail steamer Plover, at Twillingate. He
was then direct from the Labrador coast, and reported

244 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR.

the cod fishery in a very bad condition, the boats having
taken only from five to thirty quintals each at the dif-
ferent harbors. Ice was packed in on the coast, and
none of the vessels had got beyond Battle Harbor.

“ August 1st the average catch of cod on the north-
east coast of Newfoundland—Cape Freels to Cape Bauld
—did not exceed a single quintal of marketable fish,
and in many places was less than half this amount.

“On August qth I talked with the crew of the
schooner Edward Rich, of Catalina, Newfoundland. She
had been fishing inthe Strait of Belle Isle, and was then
at Cape Norman. She had a crew of ten men and had
taken only one hundred and twenty quintals of cod up to
that date.

“« Newspaper accounts, which I saw at a later date,
stated the Labrador fishery had been a failure this year.

‘No American vessels have engaged in the Labrador
fisheries since 1880, so far as we are informed; and then
only a single vessel went there. Unless there is a
marked improvement in the cod fishery of that region, I
believe it will not be long before vessels will stop going
there. Already the Nova Scotian and Newfoundland
fishermen are changing their summer trips from the
Labrador to the outer banks.”

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE
SOUTHWARD.

Ir is not my purpose to give a detailed account of the
Labrador Eskimos, but simply to put together what I
have found in relation to them in works referring to
Labrador, and to add a few notes made during the two
summers spent on that coast in 1860 and 1864. Al-
though I was aware that the Eskimos formerly lived as
far south as the southern entrance to the Strait of Belle
Isle, where I saw two individuals in 1860, one said to be
a full-blooded Eskimo woman, I regarded them as strag-
glers fromthe north. It now seems more probable, from
the Rev. Mr. Carpenter’s statement, in a subsequent page,
and from the fact, to be hereafter stated, that several
hundred Eskimos lived at Chateau Bay, opposite Belle
Isle, in 1765, while others were known to have extended
as far east as the Mingan Islands, that this race had a
more or less permanent foothold on the northern shores
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. If this was so, it seems
not improbable that this roving race may have made,
in very early times, expeditions farther south to Nova
Scotia and New England. Here also comes to mind
the theory of Dr. C. C. Abbot, that the Eskimos for-
merly inhabited the coast of New Jersey during the

river-terrace epoch.
245

246 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

Although at first disposed to reject such an assump-
tion, the examination we have made leads us to look
with more favor upon Dr. Abbot’s theory, and to think
it not improbable that long after the close of the glacial
period, i.e., after the ice had disappeared and during the
early part of the terrace epoch, when the reindeer and
walrus lived as far south as New Jersey, the Eskimos,
now considered so primitive a race, possibly the remnants
of the Paleolithic people of Europe, formerly extended
as far as a region defined by the edge of the great mo-
raine ; and as the climate assumed its present features,
moved northward. They were also possibly pushed
northward by the Indians, who may have exterminated
them from the coast south of the mouth of the St. Law-
rence, the race becoming acclimated to the arctic regions.
All these hypotheses came up afresh in our mind a few
summers ago when we began to collect these notes. Their
substantiality became more pronounced after reading the
confirmatory remarks made by Professor E. B. Tylor at
the Montreal meeting of the British Association. We
are not now, however, prepared to adopt the view that
the Norsemen did not go as far south as Narragansett
Bay, and that the natives they saw were not red Indians,
their word “skrellings” being indiscriminately applied to
any of the native tribes they saw.

We do find, however, unexpected confirmation of
Professor Tylor’s supposition that ‘‘ Eskimos eight hun-
dred years ago, before they had ever found their way to
Greenland, were hunting seals on the coast of Newfound-
Jand, and caribou in the forest,” for these events did
actually happen in Newfoundland, or at least there are
traces of Eskimo residence in large numbers at Chateau

MIGRATIONS OF THE ESKIMO. 247

Bay in 1765, of their repeated crossing over to Newfound-
land, and of their learning a few French words from the
French settlers. ;

At all events the facts we here present should induce
our New England and Canadian archeologists to make
the most careful examination of the shell-heaps about
the mouth of the St. Lawrence and on the shores of
northern and southern Nova Scotia, as well as of
Maine and northern Massachusetts, for traces of early
Eskimo occupation.

Certain facts seem to confirm the early belief of the
Greenland Danes and Moravians that the Labrador Es-
kimos were an older people than those who migrated into
Greenland. In the extracts from the appendix to
Cranch’s History of Greenland given farther on, we shall
see that the Eskimos of these two regions differed in their
dress and kayaks, differences we have personally noticed.

Whether the Labrador Eskimos belong to an older
stock than those living directly north of Hudson’s Bay
-we cannot say. Crantz, however, remarks: “ As early
then as the year 1800 our missionaries learned from the
reports of Northlanders who visited their settlements’
that the main seat of the nation was on the coast and
islands of the north, beyond Cage Chudlezgh.” Crantz,
in a note (xvr), also claims: ‘“ There can be no hesita-
tion in affirming that Greenland was peopled from Lab-
rador, not Labrador from Greenland.”

The theory that the Eskimos entered America by way
of Behring Strait, now generally received,* was thus stated
by Crantz in 1767: ‘Our Greenlanders, it should seem,
having settled in Tartary after the grand dispersion of

* Mr, Dall and others do not, however, accept this view.

248 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

the nations, were gradually impelled northward by the
tide of emigration, till they reached the extreme corner
of Kamtschatka, and finding themselves disturbed even
in these remote seats, they crossed the strait to the
neighboring continent of America... . Our savages
then retired before their pursuers across the narrow
strait, either by a direct navigation or by a more gradual
passage from island to island, to America, where they
could spread themselves without opposition through the
unoccupied wastes round the southeast part of Hudson’s
Bay, or through Canada up to the northern ocean. And
here they were first met with in the eleventh century by
the discoverers of Wineland. But when they were
compelled to evacuate these possessions likewise, by the
numerous tribes of Indians superior to themselves in
strength and valor, who thronged to the north out of
Florida, they receded nearer to the pole, as far as the 60th
degree. Here Ellis in his voyage to Hudson’s Bay found
the Esquimaux,* resembling the Greenlanders in every
particular of dress, figure, boats, weapons, houses, man-
ners, and customs. . . . The clerk of the Calzfor-
nia + says that these Esquimaux are grievously harassed
by the Indians inhabiting the south and west shores of
Hudson’s Bay, who are in all respects a distinct race.
An unsuccessful hunting or fishing expedition is a suffi-
cient pretext for their oppressors to fall upon them and
take them prisoners or murder them. These acts of
violence have induced the fugitives to retreat so far to

* Charlevois derives this name from the Indian word Zskémantsik, which in
the language of the Abenaquis signifies #0 eat raw, and it is certain that they
eat raw fish. (They also eat seals and birds raw.)

+ Account of a voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage, vol. ii.
P- 43.

HUDSON BAY ESKIMOS. 249

the northward ; and part of them in all probability passed
over to Greenland in the fourteenth century, either
crossing Davis's Strait in their boats from Cafe Walsing-
ham in lat. 66° to the South Bay, a distance of scarcely
forty leagues, or otherwise proceeding by land round the
extremity of Baffin’s Bay, where, if we may trust the re-
ports of the Greenlanders, stone crosses, like guide -posts,
are still to be seen at intervals along the coast.”

That the Eskimos were more abundant on the eastern
shores of Hudson’s Bay may be proved by the following
extracts from Coats’s Notes on the Geography of Hud-
son’s Bay, reprinted by the Hakluyt Society.* It ap-
pears from his notes that the Eskimos inhabited Labrador
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence around to James's Bay,
ie., as far south in Hudson’s Bay as Belcher’s Island
(lat. 56° 6’) and the Sleepers. Their southern range
was probably Hazard Gulf, in lat. 56° 22’. The coast of
Hudson’s Bay is wild and barren, with floating ice.
Speaking of the barren, treeless coast from Cape Diggs
to Hazard Gulf, Coats says: ‘‘ Doubtless the native Us-
quemows know the time and seasons of those haunts,
and nick it, for we found vestiges of them at all the
places we stopt att.” From the foregoing extract it is
obvious that Captain Coats obtained his knowledge of the
Labrador Indians and the Eskimos from his personal ob-
servations and inquiries while in Hudson’s Bay ; he per-
sonally only by hearsay received information that the
Eskimos, by whalers called ‘‘ Huskies,” lived as far south
as St. Lawrence Bay; but his statement will be seen to

* Notes on the Geography of Hudson’s Bay, being the remarks of Capt. W.
Coats in many voyages to that locality between the years 1727 and 1751. Ed-
ited by John Barrow. London, Hakluyt Society, 1852. 8vo.

250 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

be confirmed by Crantz. The northern Indians men-
tioned by Coats are undoubtedly the Naskopies.

The following extracts from the appendix to Crantz’s
History of Greenland, English translation, fully prove
that several hundred Eskimos spent the summer at Cha-
teau Bay opposite the northeastern extremity of New-
foundland, and also crossed over to the latter island, and
must have been, for several years at least, residents on
the shores of the Strait of Belle Isle. The first visit of
the Moravians to the Labrador coast was in 1752;
Christian Erhard, a Dutchman, but a member of the
Moravian Society, landed in July in Nisbet’s Haven,
with a boat’s crew of five men, at a point north of this
harbor, where all were murdered by the Eskimos, the ves-
sel returning to England. The next attempt to approach
the Eskimos was made in 1764, by Jens Haven, who had
labored for several years as a missionary in Greenland,
and had recently returned with Crantz to Germany.
With letters of introduction to Hugh Palliser, Esq., the
governor of Newfoundland, in May of the same year he
arrived at St. Johns; ‘‘ but he had to meet with many
vexatious delays before he reached his destination, every
ship with which he engaged refusing to land for fear of
the Esquimaux. He was at length set on shore in Cha-
teau Bay, on the southern coast of Labrador ; here, how-
ever, he found no signs of population except several
scattered tumuli, with the arrows and implements of the
dead deposited near them. Embarking again he finally
landed on the island of Quirpont or Quiveron, off the
northeast extremity of Newfoundland, in the Strait of
Belle Isle, where he had the first interview with the na-
tives.” “ The 4th September,” he writes in his journal,

THE ESKIMO IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 25

‘““was the happy day when I saw an Esquimau arrive
in the harbor. I ran to meet him and addressed him in
Greenlandic. He was astonished to hear his own lan-
guage from the mouth of an European, and answered
me in broken French.” The next day eighteen returned
his visit. On the third day the Eskimos left the harbor
altogether, and after a short stay at Quirpont Haven re-
turned to Newfoundland.

The following year Haven, with three other mission-
aries, landed, July 17, 1765, in Chateau Bay, lat. 52°, on
the south shore of Labrador, opposite Belle Isle. ‘ Here
the party separated; Haven and Schlétzer engaging
with another vessel, to explore the coast northwards ;
they did not, however, accomplish anything material in
this expedition, nor did they meet with a single Esqui-
mau the whole time. Drachart and John Hill remained
in Chateau Bay, and were fortunate enough to have the
company of several hundred Esquimaux for upwards of
a month, during which period they had daily opportu-
nities of intercourse. Assoonas Sir Thomas Adams had
received intelligence that they had pitched their tents at
a place twenty miles distant, he sailed thither to invite
them, in the name of the governor, to Pitt’s Harbor. On
the approach of the ship the savages in the kajaks hailed
them with shouts of ‘Tout camarade, oui Hu!’ and the
crew returned the same salutation. Mr. Drachart did
not choose to join in the cry, but told Sir Thomas that
he could converse with the natives in their own language.
When the tumult had subsided he took one of them by
the hand and said in Greenlandic, ‘We are friends.’
The savage replied, ‘ We are also thy friends.’”

Crantz then describes, from the notes of Haven and

252 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE,

Drachart, the peninsula of Labrador and some of the
animals as well as the habits of the Eskimos. These
people remained at Chateau Bay through the summer
until at least after the middle of September, as on Sept.
12th and 13th the shallop ran ashore, and the Eskimos
invited them to lodge in their tents, carrying the mission-
aries ashore on their backs.

The following extract shows that the Eskimos must,
before the year 1765, have been in the habit of crossing
the Strait of Belle Isle and landing on Newfoundland :

‘The governor wished to prevent them from crossing
over to Newfoundland, where, according to their own
account, they procured a certain kind of wood not to be
found in their country, of which they made their darts,
But since they interpreted this prohibition as a breach
of peace, it was rescinded on their promise to commit
no depredation on the fishing-vessels they might meet
with on the way; to which engagement they scrupu-
lously adhered.”

The account then goes on to say that during the inter-
val which occurred between the visit of Haven and Dra-
chart in 1765 and the foundation of the first missionary
settlement at Nain in 1771, “the old quarrels between
the natives and the English traders were resumed ; and
as no one was present who could act as interpreter and
explain the mutual grounds of difference, the affair ter-
minated in bloodshed. Nearly twenty of the natives
were killed in the fray, among whom was Karpik’s
father ; he himself, with another boy and seven females,
were taken prisoners and carried to Newfoundland. One
of these women, of the name of Mikak, and her son,
were brought to England, where they recognized an ac-

THE MORAVIAN STATIONS. 253

quaintance in Mr. Haven, who had formerly slept a
night in their tent. Karpik was detained by Governor
Palliser, with the intention of committing him to the
care of Mr. Haven, to be trained up for usefulness in a
future mission to his countrymen, He did not arrive in
England till 1769, at which time he was about fifteen
years old.” He died in England of sinall-pox.

We glean a few more items from Crantz regarding the
distribution, numbers, and habits of the Labrador Eski-
mos. The Moravians, after founding Nain (lat. 56° 25’),
determined to found two other stations, one to the north
and the other to the south. Okkak (150 miles north of
Nain in lat. 57° 33’) was thus founded on land purchased
from the Eskimos in 1775, Haven with his family estab-
lishing himself there the following year. The reason for
founding these stations was due to the fact that it ‘* was
found insufficient to serve as a gathering place for the
Eskimos dispersed along a line of coast not less than six
hundred miles in extent, especially as it afforded but
scanty resources to the natives during the winter season,
when they had fewer inducements to rove from place to
place.”

In the summer of 1782 the Moravians began a third
settlement to the south, ‘‘on the spot which they had
formerly marked out and purchased from the Esquimaux.
This station received the name of Hopedale.” As ob-
stacles to the missionary work were the following: ‘The
spirit of traffic had become extremely prevalent amongst
the southern Esquimaux ; the hope of exaggerated ad-
vantages which they might derive from a voyage to the
European factories, wholly abstracted their thoughts from
religious inquiries; and one boat-load followed another

a

254 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

throughout the summer. A Frenchman from Canada,
named Makko, who had newly settled in the south, and
who sustained the double character of trader and Catholic
priest, was particularly successful in enticing the Esqui-
maux by the most tempting offers. Besides the evil
consequences resulting from these expeditions in a spir-
itual point of view, so large a proportion of their wares
was thus conveyed to the south that the annual vessel
which brought out provisions and other necessaries for
the brethren, and articles of barter for the natives, could
make up but a small cargo in return, though the brethren,
unwilling as they were to supply this ferocious race with
instruments which might facilitate the execution of their
revengeful projects, furnished them with the firearms
which they could otherwise, and on any terms, have pro-
cured from the south.”

Crantz then mentions a feature of Eskimo life which,
however repugnant to the feelings of the Moravians, is of
interest to the ethnologist, and has not, so far as we are
aware, been observed among the Eskimos of late years,
This was the erection of a temporary winter éstuf4 or
public game-house. ‘“ A ache, or pleasure-house, which,
to the grief of the missionaries, was erected in 1777
by the savages near Nain, and resorted to by visitors
from Okkak, has been described by the brethren, It
was built entirely of snow, sixteen feet high and seventy
feet square. The entrance was by around porch, which
communicated with the main body of the house bya
long avenue terminated at the farther end by a heart-
shaped aperture, about eighteen inches broad and two
feet in height. For greater solidity the wall near the
entrance was congealed into ice by water poured uponit.

ESKIMO GAME. 255

Near the entry was a pillar of ice supporting the lamp,
and additional light was let in through a transparent
plate of ice in the side of the building. A string hung
from the middle of the roof, by which a small bone was
suspended, with four holes driven through it. Round
this all the women were collected, behind whom stood
the men and boys, each having a long stick shod with
iron, The string was now set a-swinging, and the men,
all together, thrust their sticks over the heads of their
wives at the bone, till one of them succeeded in striking
ahole. A loud acclamation ensued ; the men sat down
on a snow seat, and the victor, after going two or three
times round the house singing, was kissed by all the men
and boys; he then suddenly made his exit Enrouen the
avenue, and, on his return, the game was renewed.”

The narrative then goes on to state that “one of the
objects of the establishment at Hopedale had been to
promote an intercourse with the red Indians who lived
in the interior, and sometimes approached in small par-
ties to the coast. A mutual reserve subsisted between
them and the Esquimaux, and the latter fled in the great-
est trepidation when they discovered any traces of them
in their neighborhood. In 1790, however, much of this
coldness was removed, when several families of these In-
dians came to Kippokak, an European factory about
twenty miles distant from Hopedale. In April, 1799,
the missionaries conversed with two of them, a father
and son, who came to Hopedale to buy tobacco. It
appeared that they were attached to the service of some
‘Canadians in the southern settlements, as well as many
others of their tribe, and had been baptized by the French
priests. They evidently regarded the Esquimaux with

256 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE,

alarm, though they endeavored to conceal their suspi-
cions, excusing themselves from lodging in their tent on
account of their uncleanly habits. At parting they as-
sured the brethren that they would receive frequent vis-
its from their countrymen, but this has not as yet been
the case.”

From Cartwright’s “ Journal of a Residence in Labra-
dor” we glean the following statements, which certainly
confirm those of the Moravians: In1765 a blockhouse
was erected ina small fort at Chateau Bay to protect the
English merchants from the Eskimos. (Cartwright also
gives the best account we have seen of the Bethuks of
Newfoundland.) The southern tribe of Eskimos were
at Chateau Bay in 1770, Cartwright observing that some
Moravians were there at the same time. He also states
that there was an Eskimo settlement ‘‘some distance to
the northward” of Cape Charles, and that a family of
nine Eskimos came to spend the winter, living near Cart-

-wright’s house, and more Eskimos came to join them in
July, 1771, there being thirty-two in all; they traded
whalebone with the Eskimos to the northward.* Cart-
wright saw deserted Eskimo winter houses near Denbigh
Island.

In 1771 he saw an Eskimo pursuing a “ penguin” in
his kayak near Fogo Island, off the coast of Newfound.
land !

* That the French in 1753 traded with the Eskimos for whalebone and oil is
shown by the. following extract from Jeffrey’s Northwest Passage, p. 147:
‘‘The Eskemaux go up to Latitude 58, or further North; there leave their great
Boats, pass a small Neck of Land, taking their Canoes with them, and then go.
into another Water which communicates with Hudson’s Streights, carry their
Return of Trade into Eskemaux Bay, where they live in Winter; and the French

made considerable Returns to Old France, by the whalebone and oil procured
from these People.”

THE ESKIMO IN LABRADOR. 257

August 30, 1772, ‘500 or thereabouts” Eskimos ar-
rived at Charles’s Harbor from Chateau Bay to the south-
ward, to meet their relations from London, whom Cart-
wright had the year previous taken with him to London,
some of them having died in England of the small-pox.
In April and May, 1776, Eskimos were observed living
near Huntington Island. Many Eskimos died in Ivuk-
toke Inlet, probably froin the small-pox, brought over
from England. Cartwright also reports seeing Eskimos
at Huntington Island in 1783, also at Chateau Bay, where
they were observed in 1786.

The foregoing extracts abundantly prove that the Es-
kimos repeatedly crossed to Newfoundland, residing, dur-
ing the summer at least, on the outer islands opposite
Belle Isle. No reference is made to the former presence
of the Eskimos in Newfoundland. It is not improbable
that there was at least a slight intercourse between the
Bethuks, the aborigines of Newfoundland, said to be a
branch of the Algonkins, and found to be in possession
of the island by Cabot in 1497. A stone vessel dug up
with other Bethuk remains is described as ‘‘an oblong
vessel of soft magnesian stone, hollowed to the depth of
two inches, the lower edges forming a square of three
and a half inches in the sides. In one corner is a hollow
groove, which apparently served as a spout.”* If this is,
as has been suggested to us by Professor Tylor, attribut-
able to the influence of Eskimo art, the style may have
been suggested by the possible intercourse of these ab-
origines with the wandering Eskimos.

* Newfoundland, its history, its present condition, and its prospects in the
future. By Joseph Hatton and the Rev. M. Harvey, Boston, 1883, p. 169, See
also Mr. Lloyd’s paper, Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Brit-
ain and Ireland.

258 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

In connection with the subject of the relations between
the Indians of Newfoundland and the Labrador Eskimos,
may be cited the following statement of that industrious
historian, the late Jesuit, Father Vetromile. In an ar-
ticle entitled ‘Acadia and its Aborigines,”’* he says:
‘“The Etchimins, Micmacs, and Abenakis are very often
considered as one nation, not only on account of the
similarity of their language, customs, suavity of manners,
and attachment to the French, but also for their league
in defending themselves against the English. Although
the Micmacs are generally somewhat smaller in size than
the other Indians of Acadia and New France, yet they
are equally brave, They have made a long war against
the Esquimaux (eaters of raw flesh), whom they have
followed and attacked in their caverns and rocks of Lab-
rador.t Newfoundland must have several times been

* Collections of the Maine Hist. Soc., vii., pp. 339-349. 1876. Communi-
cated Jan. 16, 1862.

{+ Father Vetromile evidently takes this statement from Charlevoix, who in
his Histoire générale de la Nouvelle France, i., p. 124, remarks after speaking of
the Micmacs of Acadia: ‘ ‘IIs ont fait lontems une cruelle guerre aux Esquimaux,
et pour les aller attaquer jusques dans leurs Cavernes, et sur leurs Rochers,
ils ne craignoient point de faire trente 4 quarante lieués en Mer, dans leurs Ca-
nots d’écorce.”” That Newfoundland was the field of hard wars between the
Micmacs and Eskimos, seems to be a pure assumption on the part of Vetromile.
Charlevoix, however, on p. 421, vol. i., of his Histoire, remarks: ‘©On n’a ja-
mais vfi sur ses Cétes, que des Eskimaux, qui y passent de la grande Terre de
Labrador, pour chaffer, et pour faire la Traitte avec les Européens ; mais ces
Sauvages ont souvent parte d’autres Peuples, avec qui ils sont en commerce.”

In vol. iii. p. 178, again discoursing of the Eskimos of Newfoundland, Charle-
voix remarks : ‘‘Ce qui est certain, c’est qu’on n’y a jamais vi que des Eski-
maux, qui n’en sont pas originaires. Leur véritable Patrie est la Terre de La-
borador, ou Labrador; c'est la du moins, qu'ils passent la plus grande partie de
Yannée; car ce seroit, ce semble, profaner le doux nom de Patrie, que de le
donner a des Barbares errons, qui ne s’affectionnent 4 aucun Pays, & qui pou-
vant 4 peine peupler deux ou trois Villages, embrassent un Terrein immense.
En effet, outre les Cotes de Terre-Neuve, que les Eskimaux parcourent pen-

,ESKIMO TRADITIONS, 259

the field of hard wars between the Micmacs and Esqui-
maux; the latter were always chased by the former”
(Pp. 339):

Nearly all the extracts we have made tend to show
that the Eskimos were generally driven northward by the
Indians and confined by them to their natural habitat,
the treeless regions of arctic America, whither the In-
dians themselves did not care to penetrate.

In 1811 two Moravian missionaries* explored the
northern coast of Labrador from Okkak to Ungava Bay,
making an excellent map of this part of the coast. The
expedition arose from their desire to establish missions
where the Eskimos were abundant, as farther down the
coast they were regarded as ‘‘ mere stragglers.”

An Eskimo tradition of interest is mentioned in this
book; as follows: “July 24th. Amitok lies N. W. from
Kummaktorvik, is of an oblong shape, and stretches out
pretty far towards the sea. The hills are of moderate
height, the land is in many places flat, but in general
destitute of grass. On the other side are some ruins of
Greenland [Eskimo] houses.

“The Esquimaux have a tradition ‘that the Green-

dant l’Eté, dans tout ce vaste Continent, qui est entre le Fleuve Saint-Laurent,
le Canada, & la Mer du Nord, on n’a encore vii que des Eskimaux. Onena
méme trouvé assez loin en remontant le Fleuve Bourdon, qui se décharge dans
la Baye d’Hudson, venant de l’Occident.”

Nuttall, in his Manual of Ornithology, Water Birds (Boston, 1834), speaking

‘of the great auk, says: ‘' Many are said to breed on the desert coasts of New-
foundland, where they have been seen by navigators, though not recently.
According to Pennant, the Esquimaux, who frequented this island, made cloth-
ing of the skins of these birds.”

* Journal of a voyage from Okkak, on the coast of Labrador, to Ungava Bay,
westward of Cape Chudleigh, undertaken to explore the coast and visit the Es-
quimaux in that unknown region. By Benj. Kohlmeister and George Knoch,
missionaries of the Church of the Unitas Fratrum. London, 1814, 8vo, pp. 83.

260 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

landers [i.e., Greenland Eskimos] came originally from
Canada, and settled on the outermost islands of this
coast, but never penetrated into the country before they
were driven eastward to Greenland. This report gains
some credit from the state in which the above-mentioned
ruins are found. They consist in remains of walls anda
grave, with a low stone enclosure round the tomb, cov-
ered with a slab of the same material. They have been
discovered on islands near Nain, and though sparingly,
all along the whole eastern coast, but we saw none in
Ungava Bay.”

The following extracts from Robinson’s “ Notes on the
Coast of Labrador,” * throw some further light on the
early occupation of southern Labrador and eastern Can-
ada by the Eskimos:

“The Esquimau tradition concerning the Norse-
men is clear enough: that they were a gigantic race, of
great strength—were very fierce, and delighted to kill
people—that they themselves could not be killed by
either dart or arrow, which rebounded from their breasts
as from a rock. The Esquimaux suppose these giants
still to exist, only very far north.” (Page 28).

‘‘When the French first frequented the coast, it was in
possession of the Esquimaux up as far as the west end of
Anticosti. It appears that they had not been long in
possession before the arrival of the Europeans, and that
they had got it by conquest. During the time they held
the coast, it would seem, the Esquimau country was
the champ a’honneur of all the tribes of Indians from
New England and the Lakes to Hudson’s Bay. Mic-

* Trans. Lit. and Hist. Soc., Quebec, iv. i. Feb., 1843.

ESKIMOS AND MOUNTAINEERS. 261

macs and Abinaquis, from Nova Scotia and Maine;
Iroquois, from lakes Champlain and Ontario; Algon-
quins and Nascopies, north of the St. Lawrence—all sent
their war parties against the Esquimaux : as to their im-
mediate neighbors, the Mountaineers, a continual war
raged between them.

‘‘ Notwithstanding all these enemies, the Esquimaux
maintained their conquests with a strong hand, and, it is
probable, would have progressed farther south if the
Europeans had not arrived. No account of their num-
bers has come down to us; yet from various items it
would appear to be seventy thousand. When De Monts
first settled Port Royal in Nova Scotia in 1605, he was
surprised with the appearance of an Indian army near
his settlement, of four hundred men, who had just re-
turned from an expedition against the Esquimaux. It
would seem by this that the parties who ventured into
the Esquimau country were numerous” (pp. 42, 43).

“T have said that they maintained their conquests
along the Gulf shore until about the year 1600, when
the Mountaineers, having received firearms from the
French, and learned the use of them, this soon turned
the scale, as it does everywhere else, and the Esquimaux
were forced to give ground, retiring downwards to the
Straits, and concentrating themselves on Esquimaux Is-
land, about one mile from the hotse of the late Mr. N.
Lloyd, of St. Paul's. There they fortified themselves in
acamp, with walls composed of stone and turf, with a
ditch outside, in circuit more than half a mile, which re-
mains almost entire to this day. In this fort they main-
tained themselves till about the year 1640, when they
were assaulted by the Mountaineers aided by the French,

262 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

and either totally extirpated or expelled; the few that
escaped returning to the north, outside of the Strait of
Belle Isle. In this assault, it is said, more than 1,000
were slain, and by the quantity of human bones scattered
over the island I should think the number was not over-
rated. After their expulsion from the Gulf shores they
occasionally made predatory excursions against the
French—coming into the Straits, early in the spring, in
skin-boats—burning fishing-rooms, boats, etc., killing the
guardians or making them fly. Twice they assaulted
Bradore during the times of the Courtemanches, in one
of which they lost four hundred men: indeed, they con-
tinued this warfare until three years before the conquest ;
when, after destroying several fishing-stands along the
Straits, they were repulsed by some sealing crews at
Pennoyer River (pp. 45, 46).

The following extract from Arthur Dobbs’s “ An Ac-
count of the Countries adjoining to Hudson’s Bay”
(London, 1744) throws light on the struggle for exist-
ence on the East Main, nearly two centuries ago, be-
tween the red Indians and the Eskimos:

“The East Main from Slade River to Hudson’s
Streight is least known, there being no factories fixed
there for Trade, altho’ the best Sable and black Fox
skins are got there. Here the Modway or Eskimaux
Lndians live, who are’in a manner hunted and destroyed
by the more southerly /zazans, being perpetually at war
with each other.” ;

The stone structures, particularly the grave or dolmen-
like burial-places referred to by the Moravians, are of
course matters of very great interest. In connection
with that statement we would draw attention to the fol-

‘ESKIMO GRAVES. 263

lowing extract from ‘‘The three voyages of Martin
Frobisher,” second voyage, 1577, Hakluyt Society, Lon-
don, 1867, p. 136:

“In one of the small islands here [near Lecester’s
land in Beares sound] we founde a tombe, wherein the
bones of a dead man lay together, and our savage being
with us and demanded (by signes) whether his country-
man had not slain this man and eat his flesh so from the
bones, he made signes to the contrarie, and that he was
slain with wolves and wild beastes.”

Although it is generally stated that the Eskimos seldom
if ever bury their dead, the foregoing statement would
show that in early times at least they took pains to place
the corpse in stonetombs. I found at Hopedale, in 1864,
two skeletons, evidently Eskimo, interred in the follow-
ing manner: while walking over a high bare hill north-
east of the station I discovered a pole projecting from
what seemed a fissure in the rock ; it proved to be the
sign of an Eskimo grave; the pole projected from the
chasm, which was about fifteen inches wide and twenty
or twenty-four inches in depth; the opening was covered
by a few large stones laid across the fissure. At the
bottom lay the remains of two skeletons entirely exposed
to the elements, with no soil over them. The skulls
were tolerably well preserved, and so were the long
bones, but the vertebre, ribs, etc., had mostly decayed.
Judging by the way in which such objects are preserved
in the open air on this coast, the burial must have been
made at least over half a century ago, but more probably
from one to three centuries since.

Mr. Holme found on Eskimo Island, twelve miles
west of Rigolet, about seventy graves. ‘These graves

264 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

were made in the ordinary Eskimo custom, not being
underground, although the soil was by no means defi-
cient, but consisting of rough unhewn blocks of stone
heaped together in an oblong form, the inside measure-
ments being 2 feet by 14 feet. Many of them had been
disturbed by bears or wolves, but in most of them a skull
and bones were lying.*

We now glean the following extracts from Hind’s
excellent Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador
Peninsula, which show that the Eskimos spread south-
westward along the coast of Labrador as far as the Min-
gan Islands.

Speaking of the Montagnais or coast Indians of Lab-
rador, he writes: ‘Of their wars with the Mohawks to
the west, and the Esquimaux to the east, between two
and three hundred years ago, there not only remain
traditions, but the names of many places in the Labra-
dor peninsula are derived from bloody battles with their
bold and cruel enemies, or the stolid and progressive
Esquimaux” (ii. p. 11).

“The summit of the Great Boule, seven hundred feet
above the sea, and the brow of the bold peninsula on the
west side of the harbor [Seven Island Bay] were two
noted outlooks in the good old Montagnais times. They
are not unfrequently visited now, when the Indians of the
coast wish to show their country to the Nasquapees from
the interior, and to tell them of their ancient wars with
the Esquimaux. . . . They were able to hold their own
against the Esquimaux in consequence of the almost ex-
clusively maritime habits of the people, who rarely as-

* Proc. Roy. Geographical Soc., April, 1888, p. 193.

ESKIMO IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 265

cended the rivers farther than the first falls or rapids;
and they fearlessly pursued their way through the interior
of the country as far as the Strait of Belle Isle and
Hamilton Inlet, but exercising the utmost caution as
they approached the sea to hunt for seals” (p. 30).

Of the Mingan Islands Esquimaux Island was so
named ‘because the Esquimaux were wont to assemble
there every spring in search of seals,” etc., etc. (p. 49).

“The ruins of Brest must not be confounded with
those of the old Esquimau fort some distance farther up
the straits, and which are found on Esquimaux Island in
St. Paul’s Bay. These ruins, consisting of walls com-
posed of stone and turf, remain almost entire to this
day ;* and on the same island are large numbers of
human bones, the relics of a great battle between the
Montagnais and French on one side and the Esquimaux
on the other, which were found about 1840” (p. 130).+

‘“At Fox Harbor there is asmall settlement of Esqui-
maux, who are now orderly and industrious Christian
people, fruits of the faithful labors of the missionary at
Battle Harbor, who has resided eight years on the coast”
(p. 198).

‘Seals have been the chief cause of the wars between
the Montagnais and Esquimaux of the Labrador penin-
sula, and most of the conflicts between these people
have taken place at the estuaries of rivers known to be
favorite haunts of the seal” (p. 204).

* Robertson of Sparr point.

+ In an interesting map in Charlevoix’s Histoire, vol. i., facing p. 418, the
site of Brest is indicated by ‘‘ Fort Ponchartrain,” while the ‘‘old Esquimaux
fort” of Hind is on this map called ‘‘ Vieux Fort,” and is situated on the west
side of the mouth of Eskimo River, at the mouth of which is the ‘‘I. des Esqui-
maux” of Charlevoix.

266 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

Regarding the Eskimos living near Caribou Island, at
the mouth of Esquimaux River, Strait of Belle Isle, in
1860 and several years after that date, the following in-
formation has been kindly given me by the Rev. C. C.
Carpenter, for some years (1858 to 1865) a missionary
to this part of the Labrador coast : “Concerning the
Esquimaux (‘ Huskemaw,’ old father Chalker at Salmon
Bay used to call them), in my time there was only one
family living in the immediate vicinity of the mission,
and that only a fragment—the Dukes family. They
once lived at the extremity of Five League Point. The
husband (George ?) died and the wife married an Eng-
lishman, old Johnny Goddard. She was a full-blooded
Esquimau, and could kill a seal by imitating its appear-
ance in dress and cry, just as quick as the next man, and
a good deal quicker if the other was white! She died at
a great age about the year 1879. I was on the coast,
after an absence of fifteen years, in 1880, and was told
that she was about too years old, but I deemed that an
exaggeration. Her sons were George and Andrew,
both now dead of consumption. I buried George at
Middle Bay in 1862. Andrew died since we came away.
He had visited Halifax and had had his photograph
taken; I have a copy of it; it is, however, of a dressed-
up man, not my old Esquimau friend. Both of the
sons were unmarried. A daughter of old Aunt Jenny
Goddard had a daughter, I think by an American sailor.
She was called Lucy Dukes, and (her mother dying) was
adopted by Mrs. Goddard. I dare say you remember
her there at Stick Point Island; she was lame. She
married little Johnny Goddard, nephew of old John,
and they with several children occupy the island home.

EXTINCTION OF THE ESKIMO. 267

She said to me in 1880, ‘ There’s my Jenny, just look
at her narrow features; you know Granny had a very
narrow face!’ And yet an old sailor once said that the
old woman’s face was as flat as a barn-door !

“There was another family of Esquimaux, whose
residence was at St. Augustine; I cannot recall the sur-
name. I used to see one, ‘Louis the Esquimau.’ My
impression is that one only of that family was living in
1880, for I brought home Esquimau dolls in full dress
made by her. These I feel sure were all the remnants
living in my parish, say for fifty or a hundred miles up
and down the coast.

“The Esquimaux in Southern Labrador are a rem-
nant. Once powerful there and numerous, they were
defeated in a battle fought on Esquimaux Island (at the
mouth of the river) by the Indians (Mountaineers), and
what few were left went northward.”

We observed on Caribou Island traces of Eskimo
occupation in the form of a circle of stones, like that
observed farther north near Strawberry Harbor.

Along the coast north of Hamilton Inlet are a few
Eskimos, half-breeds and probably remnants. At Roger’s
Harbor we took aboard as pilot to Strawberry Harbor one
Cole, a half-breed, part Eskimo and part Englishman,
who had an Eskimo wife and two three-quarters-breed
children ; his mother was an Eskimo. There were for-
merly a few Eskimos living in this region, but they had
died off rapidly within a few years past ; our pilot from
the States, Captain French, who had frequented this
coast for many years, said that there was now but one
Eskimo where there used to be twenty. Their disap-
pearance seems due partly to that of seal, fish, birds, and

268 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

other game, and partly to contact with the civilization
of this coast, their close winter houses inducing con-
sumption and other chest troubles; but whatever the
causes, the race is rapidly fading away, going by entire
families. Cole was intelligent and could read and write.

On our way to Strawberry Harbor we were boarded
by an Eskimo who paddled up to our vessel in his kayak.
He had been living in the bay during thesummer. The
next day I landed on a little flat islet near our harbor,
and found traces of recent Eskimo occupation. An
Eskimo family had evidently been summering there in a
sealskin tent. The marks of their temporary sojourn
were the circle of water-worn stones which had been
used to pitch the tent, the feathers and bones of sea-fowl
which had been shot or snared, scattered bones of the
seal, and other unmistakable signs of Eskimo occupancy
and of Eskimo personal uncleanliness. While here’we
learned that some Eskimos were spending the summer
on an island hard by, and we tried to find one to pilot
us to Hopedale, but were unsuccessful. We, however,
obtained one who had received some education and was
then living ten miles up the bay with a Norwegian in
the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, his pay being
fifty dollars a year.

At the time I visited Hopedale, which was in the
summer of 1864, in the expedition of Mr. William Brad-
ford, the well-known artist, the Eskimo population of
that station was about two hundred. It was reported to
us that during the preceding March twenty-four Eskimos
had died of ‘‘ colds ;” while at Okkak twenty-one had died,
and the same number at Nain. Thus over a tenth part
of the native population at these stations had died of

THE MORAVIAN SETTLEMENTS, 269

chest diseases in a single month. This high death-rate
may be the result of their partial civilization and less
hardy out-of-door life, but their houses are not very
different from those their savage ancestors inhabited.
The missionaries have wisely not attempted to force
upon them European standards of living as regards dress
and houses, and their system of trading with them as
well as teaching them does not appear to have been ac-
countable for this rapid decrease. On the contrary,
anthropologists as well as humanitarians are under obli-
gations to these devoted Moravians for their success
in preserving on American soil this interesting peo-
ple intact, unmixed, and with some of their harmless
and more interesting habits preserved. They are, how-
ever, doomed, judging by the past years’ experience, to
ultimate extinction.

The Eskimo settlement of Hopedale, the only one we

visited, was founded in 1782. It consisted in 1864 of
about thirty-five houses, arranged with more or less dis-
order in three principal streets. They are mostly built
of upright spruce logs with the bark still on, dovetailed
at the corners and banked nearly to the eaves with turf
on the outside; the roof rather flat, though irregular,
with a skylight and small window in one side, either, as
in the case of the more well-to-do families, consisting of
a rude sash with four or six glass panes, or panes of the
intestines of the seal sewed together.

The house is entered through a long low porch, prob-
ably the survival of an ancient style, i.e., the low porch
of their snow houses through which their forefathers
crept on their hands and knees. On entering we were
obliged to stoop low and to circumspectly make our way

270 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

between the carcass of a seal or a codfish, as the case
might be, and a vessel of familiar, democratic shape and
use, filled with urine, in which the sealskins are soaked
before being chewed between the teeth of the housewife,
an important step in the process of making or mending
sealskin boots; while Eskimo dogs of various sizes and
colors blocked the devious way.

Across the end of the interior, which was floored with
wood, and in which we could not stand erect, was a
wooden bed or seat, a sort of divan, on which sat a
woman in spectacles weaving a basket of dried rushes
which had been colored blue or red; she nodded a wel-
come and made us feel quite at home. The other be-
longings of the house, were a hearth or fire-place of a few
pebbles situated on one side, a soapstone lamp, which
was a flat oblong dish carved out of soapstone, of nor-
mal Eskimo design, some knives of European manu-
facture, needles and thread, while on a shelf we noticed
an Eskimo Bible with the owner’s name written in a
neat hand on the fly leaf. On the whole the interior
was neater and less offensive to the eye and nostril than
we expected, as was the exterior. Beside the house, on
a cross-pole supported by two uprights, rested a kayak,
and over other horizontal poles hung drying a black
bear's skin or dried codfish, as the-case might be. The
spaces between the houses were rudely drained, and sav-
ing the usual refuse heap at the rear of the house, a dog’s
carcass, fish bones, and other rejectamenta, there was
nothing particularly repulsive, though certainly nothing
attractive about the houses. Two families sometimes
jive in the same house, which is partitioned off simply
by a low rail passing through the middle. We do not

ESKIMO DRESS. 271

remember seeing any babies, and there seemed to be few
children compared to the adults; here ‘as in the arctic
regions the Eskimos having small families.

The women’s dress differs from that of the Greenland
Eskimo in the much longer tails of their jackets, which,
as seen in our engraving, nearly reach to the ground;
by the Greenlanders it is worn but little longer than the
men’s ; this difference, as seen on p. 247, was remarked by
Cranch. Of late years woolen goods have partly super-
seded sealskin, but the pattern has been retained. An-
other difference is the form of the kayak ; that of the
Labrador Eskimo is much broader than the Greenland
kayak, and of clumsier build, since the frame of the for-
mer is made of spruce; this renders the Labrador kayak
perhaps safer.

So far as we could see, the Labrador Eskimos at and
north of Hopedale are full-blooded. Our engraving
is from a photograph taken by Mr. Bradford, and
gives an excellent idea of a Hopedale Eskimo couple
with their baby. The faces apparently show no trace of
foreign blood, while there is said to be not a full-blooded
Eskimo in the Greenland colony, the intermixture with
the Danes and Scandinavians in general being thorough-
going. Few Europeans or Americans had previous to
1864 visited the Labrador coast north of Hopedale, and
there the race has been preserved in most cases intact,
though there may now bean occasional intermixture with
the Newfoundland fishermen, who now go as far as Nain.

As to the number and distribution of the Eskimos
north of the Moravian stations, we now have some defi-
nite information from Lieut. Gordon’s report of the
Hudson’s Bay expedition of 1884. He says: “ I can-

272 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

not help thinking that their numbers have sensibly di-
minished, inasmuch as we found signs of their presence
everywhere ; yet except at Port Burwell, Ashe Inlet, and
Stupart’s Bay, none were met with. About six miles
south of Port Burwell [Cape Chudleigh] there are the
remains of what must once have been a large Eskimo
settlement, their subterranean dwellings being still in a
fair state of preservation. At the present time, so far
as I can learn, there are only some five or six Eskimo
families between Cape Chudleigh and Nachvak.

“Along the Labrador coast the Eskimos gather in
small settlements round the Moravian Mission stations;
at these places their numbers vary considerably. Nain
is reported to be the largest settlement, and its Eskimo
population amounts to about two hundred souls” (p. 16.)

The following notes will show how rapidly the Es-
kimos are diminishing. In an extract in Hind’s Labra-
dor, published in 1863, from an article by Rev. L. T.
Reichel, it is stated that the number of Eskimos dwelling
along the coast, which is about 500 miles in length, ‘‘is
computed at about 1,500, of whom 1,163 belong to our
mission. There are about 200 heathen living to the
north of Hebron, and there are said to be others scattered
here and there, but their number cannot be considerable,
and some are settled at the establishments of the Hud-
son’s Bay Company.”

In 1871, ina pamphlet entitled ‘‘ Die Missionen der
Briider-Unitat. I., Labrador,” Rev. Mr. Reichel stated
that the number of Eskimos is smaller than generally
supposed. There are along 500 miles of the north coast
scarcely 1,500 souls, of which 1,124 live at the six mis-

PRESENT NUMBER OF LABRADOR ESKIMOS. 273

sion stations. The “heathen” Eskimos north of Hebron
scarcely number 200.

A. von Dewitz, in his ‘“ An der Kuste Labrador’s”
(Mesky, 1881), informs us that within the last decade the
extinction of the race has rapidly advanced, and that by
the end of the century only the last remnants of this
people will be surviving. In the southern mission sta-
tions almost all the children die early, and in the north-
ern stations the case isnot much better. The last census
gave scarcely 1,100 as living at the stations, and about
50 in Hamilton Inlet (Aivektok Bay). There are also
about 100 “‘ heathen” Eskimos on Cape Chidley, and 200
in Ungava Bay.

Owing to the kindness of the Rev. B. La Trobe, Sec-
retary of the Moravian Missions in London, I have re-
ceived the following statistics in a letter dated August 30,
1887: “The number of Eskimos at our stations at the
beginning of 1886 was as follows: Hebron, 207; Hope-
dale, 160; Nain, 214; Okkak, 308; Ramah, 71; Zoar,
go; total, 1,050. Including these, we reckon that there
are less than 1,500 Eskimos on the strip of coast from
Hamilton Inlet (Aivektok Bay) to Ungava, The race is
comparatively pure, but there are some half-breeds, for
Hudson’s Bay Company’s employés and other settlers
have married Eskimo women. Whilst Christian influ-
ences are brought to bear on the increasing number of
fishermen and sailors visiting the stations, every barrier
is set up against immorality. Thirty years ago the num-
ber under charge of our missionaries was about 1,200, I
expect purely Eskimos ; now it is about the same, in-
cluding settler families. Zoar was commenced in 1865,
and Ramah in 1871.”

274 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

It is interesting to note that Reichel gives some facts
showing the former (perhaps temporary) occupation by
Greenland Eskimos of some of the outer islands of the
northern part of the coast. At Kernertulik on Okkak
Island isa cave where traces of a Greenlander’s house are
still to be seen. Javranat, on the mainland near Okkak,
is so called from the Greenlander’s word Javra, meaning
“frightful,” in allusion to a tragedy in which many Es-
kimos perished, having been beaten by the strategy of
their Greenland assailants. Reichel also states that in
early times the Eskimos were feared on account of their
robberies, which were often accompanied by murder and
manslaughter, as far down in general as Newfoundland.

Rev. J. J. Curling states: ‘ By the last census in 1884
the number of inhabitants of the coast from Blanc Sablon
up to Cape Chudleigh was 4,211. From Hamilton In-
let to Cape Chudleigh there were 1,425, of whom only
60 were Europeans.” (Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., Lon-
don, x. 193, April, 1888.)

Our imperfect account of the Eskimos of the Mora-
vian settlements may be supplemented by the following
remarks translated from Dr. K. R. Koch’s excellent ar-
ticle in the ‘“‘ Bremen Geographical Journal ” for 1884, as
he spent thirteen months at Nain, and had excellent op-
portunities for observing these people, and obtaining
information regarding their life during the different sea-
sons of the year:

‘While the marriages of the Eskimos are often child-
less and the greater number of the children die young,
the families of the white settlers are usually very robust,
and the children strong and healthy, while the mortality
is low. The number of the settlers increases therefore

SUMMER AND WINTER LIFE OF THE ESKIMO, 275

from year to year, and by this means they advance far-
ther and farther towards the north. Besides this normal
diminution of the Eskimo population, epidemics appear
which are mainly introduced through the traffic with the
fishing-vessels, and as the result an extraordinarily great
percentage die ; for example, when the measles broke
out about three years ago [1879 ?] about twenty per cent
died.

“The yearly life of the Eskimosis as follows: During
the summer, and especially in the hunting season, that is,
from May to December, the Eskimos with their families
are scattered along the shore at their different fishing-
places. After the men return in May from the reindeer
hunting, they take their whole families with them to the
islands lying near the seashore, to hunt seals. On their
return to the northern seas the seals follow the outside
edges of the drift ice, and the hunters are often obliged
to drive far out in their dog-sledges to reach the seals’
course. Hence they wait with their wives and children
upon the outer islands until the coast ice has left the
bays and straits between the islands. This takes place
about the last of June. Then they hasten back in their
kayaks to the stations where they have passed the winter
months, in order to prepare their jarge sail-boats, which
are generally purchased of the Newfoundland fishermen.*
With these they fetch their families, which have in the
meanwhile remained at the spring fishing-grounds, and
go trout-fishing in the inlets on the river courses, Then

* In 1864 the Eskimos had no sail-boats except one large schooner they built
themselves, at Hopedale, and at that date there was little if any communication
with the Newfoundland fishermen.

276 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

follows for from three to four weeks the season of the
cod fishery.

‘As already stated, the codfish appear in such vast
quantities that it would be easy for the Eskimos to
gather enough provision for the winter for themselves
and their dogs, were it not for the innate thriftlessness
of the Eskimo, which leads him as soon as, with the fish
he has caught, he has paid to the mercantile house the
remainder of the debt contracted in the foregoing win-
ter, to again renew his credit, and to forthwith abstain
from further fishing, which he might very well carry on
until the end of September. In autumn the season of
reindeer-hunting again returns, whereupon from Novem-
ber till Christmas-time the Eskimos set out upon the.
autumnal seal fishery, when they seek to kill them in
their kayaks through the thin ice, or to catch them in
nets. This mode of hunting is extremely toilsome and .
dangerous. The temperature of the air is usually at this
time far below the freezing point, sinking to from —10° to
—20° C. andin December seldom rises above —20° C. In
this temperature the Eskimo sits for hours at a time,
bound fast in his kayak, paddling back and forth in the
bays and straits, wet through by the icy spray of the
waves, which at once freezes on his skiff and his clothes.
If overtaken by a storm or the darkness of the night he
must seek shelter in any station on the coast and there
remain through the night watches or await the cessation
of the tempest. In like manner must those work who
have set their nets. Often on taking up the nets the
seals fall out through the meshes, and must, with great
pains, be fished out again. Even hauling the net out
from the water is in the extreme cold very disagreeable

SUMMER AND WINTER LIFE OF THE ESKIMO. 277

work. They take the seals out morning and evening,
and in the mean time they either sit concealed on the
bank in order to shoot at the creature, or they paddle in
their kayaks over the bay with the same object, for all
seals killed with guns belong by contract to those who
shoot them.

“As soon as the bays and straits are covered with ice,
the seal fishery, so far as it is carried on with nets, natu-
rally ceases, and the Eskimos go to hunt those seals which
have been shut into the bays by the ice. They often
have to go over very unsafe places upon the still thin ice,
and hence this mode of hunting is often accompanied by
involuntary cold baths.

“About Christmas-time all the Eskimos with their
families again assemble in their winter houses at the mis-
sionary stations where they are settled. Now comes the
time of schooling for the children, and the season of rest
and religious duties for the older persons. For more
than a hundred years have the missionaries of the United
Brethren been active on these shores, and it is owing to
their zeal that nearly all the Eskimos (except a few fam-
ilies which live quite far north of Killinek) have been
converted. But they have not sought alone to Chris-
tianize them, but also to civilize them. I believe that
upon the whole coast there is not an Eskimo who can-
not read, write, and cipher, although singularly enough
they are not, to be sure, particularly given to this last ;
on the other hand they have an extraordinary memory,
and I believe they know well by heart the usual church
tunes. Through close personal contact with the mission-
aries they try to gain information regarding European
customs. Every Sunday afternoon they are allowed to

278 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE.

come to the missionary house, where illustrated papers
which have been sent as presents are shown to them.
They are especially attracted by music, and whoever
plays to them always finds a grateful public; and they
are not listeners alone but also play themselves. Thus
the organ or harmonicum used in the church service is
played by Eskimos in the winter in the presence of the
entire brotherhood, and the organ is accompanied by a
small orchestra likewise composed of Eskimos.”

CHAPTER XIV.
THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

In its general features the peninsula of Labrador is
an oblong mass of Laurentian rocks lying betweén the
soth and 6oth parallels of latitude. It rises abruptly
from the ocean as an elevated plateau, forming the ter-
mination of the Laurentian chain, which here spreads
out into a vast waste of hills and low mountains. Thus,
there is, except near Cape Chidley, no well-marked, single
chain of mountains rising above spurs of smaller eleva-
tions, but simply an interior height of land with isolated
peaks, irregular in its course, from which streams take
their rise and flow by various directions into the ocean.

This plateau of hills and low mountains rises abruptly
on the coast from the ocean to a height of from 500 to
1,000 feet, and inland continues to ‘rise in peaks toa
height of from 1,500 to about 6,000 feet until it reaches
the water-shed at a distance of 100 to z00 miles from the
coast. On the western slope this plateau falls gradually
away by an easy descent towards the shores of Hudson’s
Bay. Dr. Bell states that the northern coast increases
gradually northward, “ until within seventy statute miles
of Cape Chudleigh, where it has attained a height of
about six thousand feet above the sea.” Thence the

elevations or peaks decrease in height to Cape Chidley
279

280 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

or Chudleigh, where they are fifteen hundred feet in
elevation. He adds that the highest land of the Lab-
rador peninsula forms a regular range of mountains
parallel to the Atlantic seaboard, this range becoming
progressively narrower from Hamilton Inlet to Cape
Chidley. (Report for 1884, 10, DD.)

On the south, the coast has a northeasterly trend, fol-
lowing the coast-line of the southern Atlantic border of
the continent. From Belle Isle, situated at the mouth
of the Strait of Belle Isle, the eastern coast trends in a
northwesterly direction to Cape Chidley, thus follow-
ing the northwesterly trend of the northern Atlantic
coast-line of the continent from Cape Race in New.
foundland to the head of Baffin’s Bay, near latitude 80°.
It thus hes parallel to the western coast of Greenland.
The northeasterly trend of the southern coast of Labra-
dor is determined by the same course of the Laurentian
range of syenites and gneiss rocks which forms the
northern shore of the St. Lawrence Gulf and River. Its
northwesterly course beyond the Strait of Belle Isle is
likewise determined by a range of syenites and trap-
rocks, upheaved in a general N. W. and S. E. direction.
Thus the interior plateau of Laurentian gneiss seems
surrounded by a framework of igneous rocks, which
has apparently preserved to this day the original form
and proportions of the Atlantic slope of the azoic
nucleus of our continent.

Laurentian Gunetss and Syentte.—Between Little
Mecatina Island and Henley Harbor there is a great
uniformity in the rocks, which are either wholly gneiss,
or more commonly a syenitic gneiss, forming bold head-
lands. At Bradore are two lofty hills of gneiss, esti-

THE LAURENTIAN ROCKS. 281

mated by Bayfield to be twelve hundred feet high. Be-
tween Belles Amours and Anse-au-Sablon, on the north-
ern side of the Strait of Belle Isle, occur the lower
Silurian or Taconic rocks, which have been already fully
described in the “ Geology of Canada,” published by the
Canadian Geological Survey. In coasting within a mile
or two of this interesting region we see the red sand-
stones running out as a low point of land resting on the
lofty, precipitous Laurentian rocks. Between Bradore
Bay and Anse-au-Loup these sandstones and grits rise
up to a height of five to six hundred feet, forming the
coast-line ; and looking up through the bays and harbors
we can see the low conical hills of Laurentian gneiss in
the interior. At the eastern termination of this forma-
tion the Laurentian rocks rise into high, rugged, and
broken syenitic hummocks, in marked contrast with the
regular terraces and smooth slopes of the fossiliferous
sandstones and limestones. Approaching Henley Har-
bor, there is a visible change in the scenic features of
the coast; the hills grow more regular in outline, and
slope gradually to the water, giving us the peculiar
physiognomy of the Laurentian gneiss.

Upon entering Henley Harbor the dark gneiss is seen
resting upon syenite, and at the point of contact inter-
penetrated by irregular intrusive masses of the latter
rock. On Henley Island, where these rocks crop out
under the trap capping this island, there appears a true
syenitic gneiss, very hard, distinctly stratified, and of the
usual flesh color of the syenite.

At this point I broke off some pieces of nearly un-
stratified syenite which showed very distinctly the sedi-
mentary origin of the rock, for the cavities were often

282 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

partly rounded and contained rolled quartz pebbles, one
being ovate and nearly two inches long. This syenitic
gneiss was evidently an altered conglomerate.

The syenite is the same as occurs on the coast of the St.
Lawrence River, and while of the same color as that of
the Maine and Nahant syenite, differs in its greater hard-
ness and in the absence of black hornblende. It is com-
posed of a flesh-red orthoclase or potash feldspar and a
smoky and glassy quartz with minute particles of horn-
blende disseminated sparsely through the mass. It is
exceedingly tough and durable, as evidenced by the lofty
capes and islands standing far up above the gneiss rocks
spreading around the base of the overflows.

At the northern end of the island the syenitic gneiss
dips under the trap in a southeasterly direction at an
angle of 50°. On an island a few rods farther to the
north the gneiss assumes its usual character, being
banded with light and dark strata, and has the general
N. N. E. strike and dip indicated above.

At Square Island, which lies at the mouth of a deep
bay just north of Cape St. Michael occurs in large,
conical hills what I judge to be the great anorthosite for-
mation of Logan and Hunt, composed of large, crystal-
line masses of labradorite, with a little vitreous quartz,
and coarse, crystalline masses of hornblende. The lab-
radorite is of a smoky color, very lustrous, translucent
and opalescent, with cleavage surfaces often two inches
in diameter, and on some of the faces presents a greenish
reflection. This is but a slight approach to the rich
blue reflections of the precious labradorite which I have
seen only at Hopedale, where we obtained specimens
brought from the interior by the Eskimos which

THE LAURENTIAN ROCKS. 283

compared favorably with specimens from the Ural
Mountains.

As the rock weathers, the greenish hornblende crystals
project in masses sometimes two inches in diameter. This
rock easily weathers, and large masses are detached by
frosts and readily crumble to pieces. The gneiss rests
on the south side of the hill. From the top of the hills
here can be seen huge gneiss mountains at least two
thousand feet high, rising in vast swells at a distance of
fifteen to twenty miles in the interior, while the bay is
filled with innumerable s&zers and islets of gneiss.

At Cape Webuc or Harrison the gneiss again appears
upon the coast as a lofty headland faced with steep preci-
pices of syenite. From off this cape are seen in the
interior lofty mountains, of which the central and high-
est peak is called Mount Misery, which in this clear
climate can be plainly seen in pleasant weather by fisher-
men at a distance of seventy-five miles in an air line.
At Strawberry Harbor on the south side of Thomas Bay
are lofty syenite hills. This point is fifty-five miles
north of Cape Webuc. It is a small, deep hole in the
coast, like a “purgatory,” and an amphitheatre of rock
rises around it in huge steps, affording a striking illustra-
tion of the power of the frost and waves on this exposed
coast. The rock is a hard, tough, flesh-colored syenite,
with deep vertical and horizontal fissures resulting from
the decomposition of thin trap dykes, thus causing huge
blocks of syenite to be detached and fall down. In sail-
ing twenty-five miles up this bay, the gneiss rises on
each side from the ocean into hills eight hundred to one
thousand feet in height. About Hopedale, which is in
latitude 55° 30’, the rocks are gneiss. Behind the Mis-

284 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

sion House the strata are much disturbed locally ; at one
locality the gneiss with veins of quartz and syenite
trends northwesterly and dips 60° west. Trap dykes,
prismatic in places, cross the island in a northeasterly
direction.

Northward of Hopedale the “ Aulezavic gneiss” of
Lieber forms the coast range of mountains, which, ac-
cording to Lieut. Curtis (Trans. Geol. Soc., London,
vol. ii. 1773), rise to a height of 2,733 feet at Mount
Thoresby, on an island south of Kiglapeit. This
observer states that Kiglapeit is evidently higher than,
but inferior to, Kaumajet, which “has been seen thirty
leagues from land,” and is lower than Nachvak, which
must be three thousand feet high.

At Aulezavik Island near Cape Chidley, according to
Mr. Lieber, “syenitic gneiss is the true rock of the
region, the normal one, although so many modifications
occur that entirely new rocks are produced, having no
direct connection with the basic syenitic gneiss. In
consequence of this we have beds in which quartz alone
occurs, or beds entirely occupied by the red feldspar of
the region, as is seen with very beautiful distinctness in
some of the dangerous Pikkintit Islands. Again, some
beds are composed of white quartz and tourmaline as in
Norway, others contain scarcely anything but black
hornblende, or tourmaline and garnets. Some are com-
posed of green hornblende, approximating to actinolite.
From this there seems to be a passage into a coarse
diorite rather porphyroid in its character, but occurring
in regular intercalated beds, not in dykes, and evincing
no sign of an eruptive origin. Again, some beds are
composed of quartz and garnet, while others are studded

eo

mest

LAURENTIAN TRAP-ROCKS. 285

with a beautiful golden-colored mica. A rock which ap-
pears identical with aphanite, although not at alligneous,
I also found, yet, with allthis apparent variety, the transi-
tions are too gradual to permit the differences to leave
any effect on the landscape.”

For some notes on the geology of Hamilton Inlet we
are indebted to Mr. Davies: ‘‘ In some places mica slate
was found—it issaid that the Mealy Mountains are com-
posed of this rock. I had no opportunity of verifying
this fact, as I did not visit them. Granite was only seen
in one place, viz, on Lake Keith, an expansion of the
Grand River, about one hundred and thirty miles from
its mouth. Specimens of chlorite schist were also pro-
cured on this lake, as was also a specimen of sandstone,
with disseminated grains of. iron pyrites. At some dis-
tance below the lake, primary marble, of a beautiful
whiteness, was seen cropping out at the edge of the
water ; it was found. in contact with a quartz rock pass-
ing into mica slate, having crystals of common garnet
imbedded in it ; this was the only place where limestone
of any sort was seen.

“ The shores of the bay where they are not of rock are
generally composed of rolled fragments of syenite, mica-
slate, quartz, hornblende, sometimes in large masses,
feldspar, etc. Magnetic iron in the form of sand was
also met with in some of the small coves.”

Laurentian Trap-rocks.—At Henley Harbor is a
system of trap-rocks which have been upheaved in a
N.N. E. and S. S. W. direction, in a course much more
northerly than the direction which the Straits of Belle
Isle assume. These rocks consist of three masses of co-
lumnar basalt, capping the syenitic gneiss. It isa hard,

286 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

fine, compact dolerite, breaking with a conchoidal frac-
ture and metallic ring, and contains much iron. The
mass is two hundred and fifty-five feet high on Henley
and Castle Islands, and consists of two layers of vertical
columns. West of these basaltic rocks, on the opposite
side of the harbor, is a large trap overflow forming a hill
over three hundred feet high, and apparently of the
same age. It should be remarked that the two layers of
basalt representing successive overflows incline at a very
slight angle towards the S. W. The third mass of ba-
salt is seen rising out of the oceana few miles northerly,
nearly in a line with the basalt of Henley Harbor.

Dykes of this age were likewise seen at Strawberry
Harbor, Cape Webuc, and at Hopedale, intersecting the
Laurentian gneiss and syenite. Their age is plainly an-
terior to the deposition of the undisturbed Cambrian,
‘‘primordial” strata at Anse-au-Loup, and on the New-
foundland coast opposite.

Domino Gneiss.—A system of lirht-colored gneiss and
trap rocks which lie in a depression of the Laurentian
rocks, about one hundred and twenty-five miles long and
probably twenty-five miles broad, stretching along the
coast between Domino Harbor and Cape Webuc, agrees
with the ‘* Domino Gneiss” of Mr. Lieber.

At Domino Harbor in lat. 53° 30”, these rocks attain
their greatest development, occurring as a slightly schis-
tose, light-colored gneiss, the base of which is a white
granular vitreous quartz, with speckles of black horn-
blende, with a few particles of a lilac-colored mica.
There are also minute rude crystals of yellow garnet, or
cinnamon stone, disseminated through the mass. No
feldspar was detected in this rock. In some places the

THE DOMINO GNEISS. 287

rock was exceedingly fine, in others it assumed almost a
conglomeritic aspect, from the presence of small masses
of quartz. The quartz is often colored green. This
rock weathers easily, leaving masses of quartz projecting
on the surface; it is comparatively soft, and has been
greatly denuded. It thus forms at this locality a broad,
low, flat plain about ten miies broad and fifteen to twenty
miles long, through which rise bosses of trap. Its sur-
face is but a few feet above the level of the sea, and to
one just coming from the high coast to the southward
this broad, naked flat, almost wholly destitute of vegeta-
tion, with no valleys to shelter even a growth of spruce
trees, and but: slightly furrowed by glacial action, with
patches of white rock glistening in the sun from between
the dull green morasses and ponds that are everywhere
scattered over its surface,—presents a strange and foreign
feature of the coast scenery, startling from its very tame-
ness. When in contact with the trap hills the rock is
much harder, rising into higher elevations.

Nowhere was I able to see the juncture of this rock
with the Lower Laurentian gneiss, which rises from the
edge of this formation into high hills and mountains.
So smooth had this plain been levelled and worn by gla-
cial and aqueous agents, that it was difficult to observe
the dip and strike of the beds, which, when undisturbed
by eruptive rocks, I am inclined to believe, dip easterly
at aslight angle. At Dumplin Harbor, which is a bight
in an island lying just S. E. of Huntington Island, the
gneiss, when lying next to trap, dips at an angle of 35°
S. E., the strike of the beds being northeasterly. At
Tub Harbor these rocks come in contact with the Lau-
rentian syenite. Between the lighter-colored ‘gneiss

288 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

were beds of a dark fine-grained hornblendic quartzose
gneiss, capped by the syenite. At Indian Harbor, about
thirty miles north of Tub Harbor, and on the opposite
side of Hamilton Inlet, these same rocks appear. These

“MAP of a PORTION

QF THE COAST OF
lopedale

Eypocock Bay + ABRADOR

squcmnasx Is

a *

Say a 0/9

= Opis
3 WA?

Sandwich Bay
Haver

Usle of Ponds
‘ omit Barbar

“= Laurentian Gress Stoney Ls

=a i \
$$2852 Donuno ,.Gneiss o
eae nae SV square ts
SRS Anorthosele. Syeute

; a
MRR Syentle. Cape s+ Lewis
eee Diorile —_ t
twocaro ; . ala wpley Harbor
Ber oe] Cambrign Sy, pp
Neier erect omete,

ee Cape Bauld-

rocks occur also at Sloop Harbor, rising two hundred
feet high, and are capped by syenite, which is very pale
in color, with particles of black hornblende. Here, as
at Tub Harbor, the strata at the point of contact with

TRAP DYKES. 289

the syenite become a dark gneiss. The Esquimaux
Islands, which lie off this coast, are composed of this
light-colored gneiss.

Invariably accompanying these rocks is a doleritic
trap of a peculiar mineralogical character, occurring in
overflows of a peculiar physiognomy, and upheaved in a
-direction at nearly right angles to that of the Laurentian
‘dykes, thus following the general northwesterly trend of
ithe Atlantic coast of the peninsula.

This rock differs from the hard fine-grained trap at
Henley Harbor in being coarsely porphyritic. It is
composed of large crystalline masses of hypersthene and
labradorite, this last being of a dark smoky color, and
precisely such as described as occurring on Square Island.
It seems to follow that this porphyritic trap is the result
of the refusion of the anorthosite rock, which must con-
sequently underlie this Domino quartzite. This is an
argument for the uncpnformable bedding of this gneiss
upon the Lower Laurentian gneiss, while this trap-rock
is evidently of the age of the Domino gneiss, which it
has somewhat disturbed. The Isle of Ponds is largely
composed of these trap hills. Huntington Island isa
large mass of trap. Tub Island, as its name betokens, is
a peculiar, truncated cone of trap, resembling an inverted
tub. These trap overflows extend northward to Cape
North, which is a lofty headland of trap capping the
gneiss, and thus adding very materially to the elevation
of this as of all the other numerous gneiss promontories
which run out from the main land. Occasionally an
island is seen half black and half white, one side being
composed of the dark trap-rock, and the other of the
light-colored quartzite. Such is ‘“‘ Black and White,” a

290 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

very prominent island near “ Indian Tickle,” a harbor at
the northern side of Hamilton Inlet. Here are some
remarkable dykes which ascend the gneiss hills in huge
irregular zigzag crests, often crossing each other at right
angles.

Beyond this point the older Laurentian gneiss again
appears, and forms the high bold shores extending to
Hopedale, rising in the interior into lofty imposing
mountains on whose tops lie patches of snow.

Among the erratic rocks at Domino Harbor were
some which show that inthe interior are beds of jasper
and chert. There occurred several small bowlders of jas-
per and gneiss. The jasper was pale green, banded and
striped by darker shades of green, while the irregularly
alternating bands of syenitic gneiss appeared to be an
altered quartzite, as it was found under a glass to be
largely composed of a fine granular quartz-rock, with a
little flesh-colored and white feldspar, and minute par-
ticles of hypersthene. .

Several bowlders of chert occurred at Tub Island.
This was a very tough, compact, silicious rock, lineated by
fine veins of quartz. It weathers toa dull chalky white.

It is most probable that these rolled stones were borne
down from the interior by glaciers, but the chert pebbles
may have been borne on floating ice from Frobisher’s
Bay, as Mr. Hall notices such rocks as being abundant
there. At Tub Island I was shown specimens of mag-
netic iron ore, which were brought from “ Cartwright’s
Tickle,” a few miles toward the main land. It occurred
in veins half an inch wide.*

* For further information regarding the Laurentian rocks of Northern Labra-
dor, see Dr, Bell’s observations in Report of the Canadian Geological Survey
for 1884 and ’85,

THE LABRADOR DRIFT. 291

Quaternary Formation.—In studying the drift phe-
nomena of Labrador as compared with those of the tem-
perate zone, we shall at the outset find ourselves disap-
pointed in our anticipations as to their relative develop-
ment. Ina region which has evidently been exposed to
the most intense action of glaciers, prolonged over a
period vastly longer than in Canada or New England,
we have surviving this period of denudation and wasting
away of the surface but few drift scratches remaining
on any exposed surfaces below a height of five hundred
feet above the sea, and superficial deposits which are re-
duced almost to a minimum as compared with those of
the temperate zone.

In this absence of drift and more recent deposits, the
Labrador plateau agrees exactly with all mountainous
districts above the level of most deciduous trees. We
are to look to the lowlands about their base for the
débris and drift borne down by streams or glaciers from
the mountain centres. The Labrador plateau has been
greatly denuded. Its highest mountains have been trun-
cated and their peaks sliced off by the denuding agent
as if by a knife. The Domino gneiss has lost at least
three hundred to four hundred feet of its comparatively
soft strata, as evidenced by the lofty trap hills which now
rise above the strata of altered sandstones. The trap is
as firm and hard at the top of the overflows as at the
base. The loose material resulting from this long.con-
tinued denudation is not now found in the interior or on
the coast of Labrador, except in very small quantities.
It was evidently conveyed southwards by icebergs and
floe- or shore-ice, and forms the bottom of the St. Law-
rence Gulf, and the banks and shoals southward. In

292 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

most subarctic and all arctic lands the soil is but a few
inches deep.

In all temperate regions the superficial deposits have
been characterized by Prof. Desor* to be ‘‘a succession
of rocky hills and drift plateaus or valleys, which can be
traced to the highest elevation of the country, near the
dividing ridge, each following plateau or valley being
commonly at a higher level than the preceding.” This
state of things obtains in Labrador, but there is an im-
mense disproportion between the rocky hills and the
drift deposits. We find no sandy plains or level tracts
of glacial drift, or marine clays, distributed at intervals
from the coast to the interior. They take the form of
occasional, isolated sand-banks and cliffs of clay, of slight
extent, overhanging rivers, and which by their secluded
and retired positions have escaped the general denuda-
tion by the Labrador current which must have passed
over the lower levels of the peninsula subsequent to the
glacial epoch. In travelling in the interior we find our-
selves walking, when it is possible to walk or climb at
all, over the rocky floor of this inhospitable region,
smoothed in spots, though rarely striated by glaciers,
but on the coast more generally mangled and torn by
the action of shore-ice and frosts, whieh have here shown
a vast power.

The Leda clays are mostly confined to the head of re-
tired bays, or if in more exposed. situations, lie between
bold headlands. The vast sand barrens of Canada and
New England spreading into broad plains, are here rep-
resented by precipitous masses of sand hanging upon the

* Foster and Whitney’s Report on the Geology of Lake Superior.

GLACIAL MARKS. 205

steep mountain slopes. The traveller stumbles upon:
them in ascending the swift impetuous streams.

The most abundant superficial deposits in Labrador
are the ancient sea-beaches, which are found, according
to Prof. H. Y. Hind, at all levels toa height of twelve
hundred feet above the sea, at a distance in the interior
of one hundred and twenty-five miles from the coast.
They are evidently altered glacial moraines.

Glacial Epoch. Drift Strie and Rounded Rocks.—
The Labrador plateau has been, at least near the Atlan-
tic, moulded by ice to a height at least of twenty-five
hundred feet above the level of the sea. In Southern
Labrador Dr. Bell states that the valleys and hills, ‘‘ up
to the height of sixteen hundred feet, at any rate, have
been planed by glacialaction.” (Rep. for 1884, 37 D.D.)
The gneiss mountains are moulded into large flat cones,
often with a nipple-shaped summit; the syenites are
either moulded into domes or into high conical sugar-
loaves; the anorthosite syenite at Square Island occurs
inhigh rude cones; and the trap overflows accompanying
the Domino gneiss form rough irregular bosses. Only
at one point, near the northern termination of the penin-
sula at Cape Chidley, have the mountains by their alti-
tude escaped the rounding and remodelling action of
glaciers. These scraggy peaks, covered with loose square
blocks detached by frosts from their slopes, remind us
of the summits of Mount Washington in New Hamp-
shire and Mount Katahdin in Maine. In a sketch of
the former mountains by Mr. Lieber, as given in the
“Report of the Coast Survey,” the transition from the
remodelled low mountains of the coast to the ‘“ wild
volcanic-looking mountains” of the interior height of land

294 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

is very marked. Mount Bache, which was determined
by the expedition to be two thousand one hundred and
fifty feet high, was ‘one of the smallest mountains.”
The larger ones are inaccessible. Those who have been
upon the summits of Mount Washington or Katahdin
will recognize how well Mr. Lieber’s description of the
summit of Mount Bache agrees with the physiognomy
of the New England alpine summits :

‘A second cause of the irregularity of surface here is
to be found in the tremendous power of the frost of a
Labrador winter, the influence of the heavy covering of
snow, and very probably also the former existence of
glaciers, all of which we shall presently take occasion to
discuss.

“The effects of frost are manifested in a singularly
forcible manner. The entire surface, where it is not too
steep to enable débris to collect, is covered with broken
masses of rock, cubes of ten feet and less scattered in
wildest profusion. Sometimesa patch of moss, the grass
and heather of this country, fills up the crevices, but gen-
erally we may look down into them far and deep with-
out ever detecting the base upon which the rocks rest,
hurled aloft, as they appear, by the hands of Titans. In
scaling, in company with Mr. Venable, the summit of
Mount Bache, on an occasion intended mainly for taking
its altitude barometrically, we enjoyed the finest oppor-
tunities for studying this phenomenon. The summit and
sides of the mountain present few steep precipices. I
speak comparatively only, and in reference exclusively to
Northern Labrador. Yet, scattered helter-skelter over all,
and piled up in endless number, the whole surface is cov-
ered with such loose rocks. The difficulties of locomotion

A MINIATURE GLACIER. 295

may readily be conceived. In scarcely a single instance
did we see the gneiss beds still zz se¢w, and in only one,
or two exceptions some giant wedge seemed to have
driven them asunder.,, Yet none of the blocks were
rounded. Attrition of no kind had influenced them to
any perceptible extent, neither had atmospheric influ-
ences altered the color, hardness, and composition of their
exteriors ; it was simply a wilderness of unchanged
blocks of the gray gneiss.

“There was a puzzle. Whence came these broken
rocks? There was no higher spot whence they might
have fallen. The slight protrusion of the uptilted beds
of gneiss zz sz¢u, to which I have referred, alone seems
to have been permitted to remain for the purpose of
instructing us. Clearly, that force which had riven its
beds asunder, no other than the /vos¢, had broken the
rest from their foothold and prepared them for removal
by another coming into play at a later season—the thaw-
ing down-gliding szow. Many of the blocks were prob-
ably but slightly removed from their original position,
perhaps barely turned over or merely forced a little out
of place. Yet the effect to the eye of the beholder
would be as great as if they had been transported hun-
dreds of miles.

‘“When we descended from the mountain we crossed
over a broad patch of snow, deeply packed (twenty feet
deep), which clearly taught us how the blocks were
moved. In truth, this was a miniature glacier, and a
regular moraine was piled up along its edges. It is im-
possible for us to form any estimate of the amount of
snow which may fall per square foot in a winter, but
from the fact that such quantities were still remaining

296 | THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

late in July, and certainly they never altogether thaw”
away, we may reasonably infer that during its downward!
progress, either as snow or water, a tremendous force
must be exerted, a force quite sufficient to account for’
the characteristic surface phenomenon just described.”

Contrary to the statement of Sir John Richardson:
in his ‘‘ Polar Regions,” both the accounts of Parry and.
the earlier arctic voyagers, and especially C. F. Hall in-
his ‘“‘ Arctic Researches,” prove that on the northern.
edge of the American continent, and as low down as lat..
62°, and upon land rising between one thousand and two-
thousand feet above the level of the sea, there are mers
de glace of great extent, discharging glaciers into the sea:
which present ice-fronts one hundred feet high.

Parry, in his second voyage (p. 12), states that on
the north side of Hudson’s Strait, after passing by Res-
olution Island, there “is a smooth part of the land
rather higher than that in its neighborhood, and for an
extent of one or two miles completely covered with.
snow. The snow remains upon it, as Mr. Davidson in-
formed us, the whole summer, as they find the land pre-
senting the same appearance on their return through the-
Strait in the summer. This circumstance, which has.
obtained for it the name of ‘Terra Nivea’ upon the:
charts, I do not know how to account for, as the height
of the land above the level of the sea cannot certainly
exceed a thousand feet.”

Mr. C. F. Hall, during his residence in Frobisher’s:
Bay, had excellent opportunities of observing during all
seasons of the year both ends of the Kingaite range of
mountains on ‘Meta Incognita’ which support this mer
de glace, which he named the Grinnell Glacier, and which

GLACIERS NORTH OF LABRADOR. 297

on the coast annually discharges icebergs from its streams.-
He describes it as being two miles long, starting from a.
sea of ice which extended many miles N.W. and S.E.,
reaching across the peninsula of Meta Incognita, nearly
to the strait which divides Frobisher’s Bay from Hud-
son’s Strait. Mr. Hall states that “from the informa-:
tion I had previously gained, and the data furnished me
by my Innuit companion, I estimated the Grinnell
Glacier to be fully one hundred miles long. At various-
points on the north side of Frobisher’s Bay between Bear
Sound and the Countess of Warwick’s Sound, I made
observations by sextant by which I determined that over
fifty miles of the glacier was in view from, and southeast.
of, the President’s Seat. A few miles above that point.
the glacier recedes from the coast and is lost to view by
the Everett chain of mountains; and as Sharkey [aw
Esquimau] said, the oz-2-e-too (ice that never melts),
extends on wes-se-too-ad-loo (far, very far off). He added
that there were places along the coast below what I
called the President’s Seat, where this great glacier dis-
charges itself into the sea, some of it in large icebergs.
“From the sea of ice down to the point where the
abutting glacier was quite uniform in its rounding up, it
presented the appearance, though in a frozen state, of a
mighty rushing torrent. The height of the discharging
face of the glacier was one hundred feet above the sea.”
Given, as stated below, the rise of the Labrador penin-
sula only five hundred feet above its present level, and
we must have had during the glacial period most exten-
sive glaciers fed by broad seas oft ice resting on the table-
lands, reaching above the line of perpetual snow; as only
one hundred and twenty miles northward of Cape Chidley

298 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

we find the snow-line reaching as far down as one thou-
sand feet, or thereabouts, above the sea-level. We are
inclined to doubt the accuracy of Parry’s estimate of the
height of these table-lands, as the height of Mount Bache
js over two thousand feet, and it just reaches the lowest
limit of the snow-line, which in Greenland is two thou-
sand feet above the sea.

Owing to the extensive weathering of the rock, glacial
grooves and scratches occur very rarely.* I doubt not
they will be found abundantly after ascending five hun-
dred to eight hundred feet from the sea-level, for below
this point the action of the waves and shore-ice has
obliterated both striz and loose drift. We have good
evidence that an enormous glacier once filled the gréat
fiord, Hamilton Inlet, which at its mouth is forty miles
broad. Peculiar /uxozd furrows were observed on the
northern and southern shores about forty miles apart,
which would seem to justify the conclusion, that the
glacier was of that breadth where it descended into the
sea. The best examples of these lunoid furrows oc-

* J. F. Campbell, who visited this coast in 1864, states in his work entitled
“Frost and Fire,” that at Indian Island, lat. 53° 30’ ‘‘the striae pointed into
Davis’s Strait at a height of four hundred feet above the sea; at Red Bay, in the
Strait of Belle Isle, they aimed N. 45° E. at the sea-level.”

At Newfoundland, about St. John’s, ‘‘ the striae which were found were near
the coast, and seem to indicate large land-glaciers moving seawards. At St.
John’s the marks run over the Signal Hill, five hundred and forty feet high, from
W. and N. 85° W. eastwards; at Harbor Grace, from S. 75° W. down the bay
northeastwards; at the head of Conception Bay they fill a large hollow, over-
‘un hills, and point from S. 15° W. northwards. Vast terraces of drift stretch
along the base of rounded hills at the head of Conception Bay, at Harbor Grace,
cand at Old Purlican, near the end of the bay, sixty miles off. At the head of
the bay most of this drift seems to have come from the hills. Opposite to
granite hills are numerous blocks of granite; opposite to sandstone and slate
hills, sandstone and slate bowlders abound.’’—“ Frost and Fire,” ii. 1865, p. 240.

GLACIAL LUNOID FURROWS. 299

curred at Indian Harbor on the northern shore of Ham-
ilton Inlet, near the fishing establishment of Mr. Nor-
man. This harbor is a narrow “ tickle” or passage, where
the Domino quartzites, very smoothly worn and _ pol-
ished, are capped by trap overflows, and run under the
water to the depth of thirty feet, forming a polished and
smooth bottom to the harbor. The marks occur about
twenty-five feet above the water’s edge, and below the
line of lichens which are kept at a distance by the sea
spray.

These crescent-shaped depressions, which run trans-
versely to the course of the bay, were from five to four-
teen inches broad by three to nine inches long, and
about an inch deep vertically in the rock. Their inner
‘or concave edge pointed southwest, the bay running in
ageneral S.W. and N.E. direction. They were scattered

—
=o inne TJ

=”
A

GLACIAL LUNOID FURROWS AT INDIAN TICKLE, LABRADOR.

irregularly over a surface twenty feet square. When
several followed in a line, two large ones were often
succeeded by a couple one quarter as large, or vzce versa.
Also at Tub Harbor, on the southern coast of this bay,
similar markings, but less distinct, occurred about the
same distance above the sea, and on a similar polished
quartzite. These agree precisely with ,the “Junoid fur-
rows” of Mr. DeLaski, as observed by him in great
abundance on Isle-au-Haut, in Penobscot Bay, speci-

300 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

mens of which he has deposited in the Museum of the
Portland Society of Natural History.

These were the only glacial markings I observed. It
should be noted that Mr. Jukes, in his “Geology of:
Newfoundland,” states that he never observed any glacial!
strie during his explorations on that island. They
were observed in abundance by Professor Hind about:
fifty miles from the mouth of the river Moisie, where:
occurred ‘‘gneiss terraces five in number, the highest.
being about one thousand feet above the sea, and backed.
by a stunted birch- and spruce-clad mountain some eight
hundred feet higher still. The sloping sides of these
abrupt steps are rounded, polished, and furrowed by
glacial action. Cuts half an inch deep and an inch or
more broad go down slope and over level continuously.
Rounded and water-worn bowlders are perched here and
there on the edge of the uppermost terrace. These
strange memorials of the drift begin to be more com-
mon” (p. 133).

Fine examples of rounded and embossed rocks oc-
curred at a bay situated a few miles to the westward of
Little Mecatina Island. Here the numerous islets of
syenites assume a low dome-like shape, whose shores
descend to the water's edge by a gentle slope, and are so
smooth and polished that one can with difficulty descend.
them when wet without slipping.

On the southern coast the eminences all present their
longer slopes to the northward, and their lee sides de-
scend seaward and southward in sudden falls and slopes.
On the contrary, on the eastern and Atlantic shores
the s¢oss or struck sides look westward, and the lee side
is on the eastern side of the hills, thus showing that the

GLACIATION OF HUDSON’S STRAIT. 301

denuding and abrading agent moved downwards from
“the top of the water-shed—that is, always nearly parallel
to the coast.

The adjoining illustration brings out clearly some of
the characteristic features of the scenery of the coast of

Labrador. In the foreground the rocky shore of the
Horsechops, as the deep fiord is called, which is situated
far up on the eastern coast of Labrador, has been ground
down, smoothed, and polished by the great mass of land-
ice which formerly filled Hamilton Bay and moved slowly
down from the table-land in the interior, and whose ice-
front must ‘have presented to the sea a wall—perhaps
five hundred to one thousand feet high.

Across the fiord on the shores of the bay, which rise
abruptly in great rocky terraces—also a characteristic
feature of Labrador and arctic landscapes,—may be seen
scattered snow-banks, which linger on these shores as
late as August, while those in the more shaded, protected
places may live on until the early snows in September
give them a renewal of life, so that their existence may
become perennial. ;

About Cape Chidley the hills and rocks are shown by
Mr. Lieber’s drawings to have been rounded and moulded
by ice to a height corresponding to that of Mount Bache,
as noticed above. ©

Dr. R. Bell shows that the basin of Hudson’s Bay
may have formed a glacial reservoir receiving streams of
ice from the east, north and northwest, and south and
southwest. The direction of the glaciation on both sides
of Hudson’s Strait was eastward. “That an extensive
glacier passed down the strait may be inferred from the
smoothed and striated character of the rocks of the lower

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302

““TILT ” ON THE LEFT).

A LABRADOR

THE_HORSECHOPS,

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-

BRADOR, NEAR

NTLA

GLACIAL EROSION I

DISTRIBUTION OF BOWLDERS. 303

levels, the outline of the glaciated surfaces pointing to
an eastward movement, the composition of the drift, and
also from the fact that the long depression of Fox’s
Channel and the Strait runs from the northwestward.
towards the southeast, and that this great channel or sub-
merged valley deepens as it goes, terminating in the
Atlantic Ocean. Glaciers are said to exist on the shores
of Fox’s Channel, and they may send down the flat-top-
ped icebergs which float eastward through the lower part
of Hudson’s Strait into the Atlantic. During the drift
period the glacier of the bed of Hudson’s Strait was
probably joined by a contribution from the ice which
appears to have occupied the site of Hudson’s Bay, and
by another, also from the southward, coming down the
valley of the Koksok River, and its continuation in the
bottom of Ungava Bay. The united glacier still moved
eastward round Cape Chudleigh into the Atlantic.”
Distribution of Bowlders.—The whole surface of the
country is strewn thickly with bowlders. After ascending
five or six hundred feet above the level of the sea, and
penetrating into the interior, their presence is especially
marked. Near the shore they are rarely seen, being
covered by vegetation. We must look for them about
the edges of ponds and along the banks of the rivers,
and especially in raised beaches. I am also inclined to
think that their abundance near the coast is greatly less-
ened by their having been carried off by shore-ice into
the sea, and there rearranged into submarine beaches.
No loose, single bowlders scattered over the surface
of the country were seen on the coast from Mecatina to
Square Island. They only occurred as stated above,
along the courses of rivers, by ponds, and rearranged

304 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

into beaches. But we first saw them on a hill, estimated
roughly to be one thousand feet high, a few miles north
of Cape St. Michael, at Square Island, where they lend
a new feature to the landscape. At this level they were
strewn sparsely upon the tops of the surrounding hills.
One was about fifteen by forty feet in size. A large pro-
portion were well rounded, while others were angular.
The greater proportion were of syenite, a few small ones
were of greenstone.

Northward of this locality I did not have an oppor-
tunity of ascending the mountains above the level of the
ancient coast-line.

Professor Hind likewise found very few bowlders at a
distance from the bed of the Moisie, for a distance of
fifty miles from its mouth. But on ascending the water-
shed, and penetrating farther inland, they everywhere
grew more numerous. A few miles beyond “ Burnt
Portage” on this river, “huge blocks of gneiss, twenty
feet in diameter, lay in the channel or on the rocks
which here and there pierced the sandy tract through
which the river flowed; while on thé summits of moun-
tains and along the crests of hill ranges they seemed as
if they had been dropped like hail. It was not difficult
to see that many of these rock fragments were of local
origin, but others had travelled far. From an eminence
I could discover that they were piled to a great height
between hills three and four hundred feet high, and from
the comparatively sharp edges of many, the parent rock
could not have been far distant.” *

Also at Caribou Lake, an expansion of the same river,

* The Labrador Peninsula, p. 227. Also, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Jan. 20,
1864, p. 122, On Supposed Glacial Drift in the Labrador Peninsula, etc.

RAISED BEACHES. 305

he states, “the long line of enormous erratics skirting
the river looked like druid’s monumental stones; for in
many instances they were disposed in such a manner as
would almost lead one to suppose they had been placed
there by artificial means” (p. 229).

Of this same expedition Mr. Cayley has published an
account in the “Quebec Transactions,” where we have
the statement of this observer that bowlders are very
thickly strewn over the surface and on the summits of
mountains 2,214 feet high, and situated one hundred and
ten miles from the coast, being near the head-waters of
the Moisie. ‘Immense numbers of bowlders had for the
last few miles strewn the sides of the mountains, in some
cases almost seeming to make up the very mountains
themselves ; there being this difference, that whereas the
rock itself 27 sz#w is granitic, the bowlders in every case
are of gneiss.” *

Nowhere did I see on the coast of Labrador any de-
posits of the original glacial clay, or “ unmodified drift.”
Upon the sea-shore it has been remodelled into a strati-
fied clay, and the bowlders it once contained now form
terraced beaches. Professor Hind, however, notices the
occurrence of “ drift clay, capped by sand,” in precipitous
banks rising seventy feet above the level of the Moisie.
River, twenty miles from its mouth.

Before giving an account of the marine clays and their
fossils, which should naturally come in at this place, I
would draw attention to the numerous raised beaches
that line this coast.

Ratsed Beaches.—Some of the finest examples of
raised beaches and rock-shelves representing ancient coast-

* Up the River Moisie, Joc. cit., N.S., vol. i. p. 88.

306 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

lines, about four hundred feet above the present coast-
line, are seen in the lowest Silurian rocks on both sides
of the Strait of Belle Isle. The following notes and
sketches were made while coasting along the northern
shore, which rises in high sandstone and gritty bluffs,
contrasting in their regular water-worn outlines most
strongly with the peculiar swelling curves of the Lauren-
tian gneiss which rise near Bradore—according to Bay-

TERRACES AT ANSE-AU-LOUP, (A) (8) AND (C) LOOKING EASTWARD AT THE
NORTHEAST END OF THE CAMBRIAN FORMATION.

field’s measurements, one thousand two hundred feet
above the sea—or the jagged, rough, and hummocky
outlines of the rude syenitic hills, which rise four hun-
dred feet above the sea, At Anse-au-Loup, as seen
from one half to one mile from the shore, the land rises
on the west side of the bay in three very regular terraces
(A), the lower of which is covered with débris. On the
east side the land is much more irregular, descending in
buttressed steeps like the Palisades on the Hudson,
though far exceeding them inheight. On the east point

RAISED BEACHES. 307

are five terraces on the N. W. side with heavy buttresses,
and beyond four terraces come in sight (2). The strata
here are nearly horizontal, dipping under the Strait at
a very slight angle. At the eastward termination of the
formation are again seen five very regular terraces (C)
running out in a long low point, beyond which rise the
syenite hills. At Blanc Sablon five terraces are very
distinctly marked, the second of which is the highest ; and
there is a beach of huge bowlders very regularly packed
by the action of the waves, as observed by Admiral Bay-
field.

In Chateau Bay and Henley Harbor are some fine ex-
amples of ancient sea-margins. They occur in recesses
in the shore which have been sheltered from the denud-
ing agency of the waves and strong arctic currents,
which have swept around this bend in the coast with
great power. The most plainly marked example forms
the eastern shore of Henley Harbor, being the western
shore of Henley Island. This beach, which is one hun-
dred and eighty feet high above the water-level, is com-
posed of three well-marked terraces, which become
steeper as we go from the bottom to the top. The
upper terrace begins at the base of the basaltic columns
capping this island, and is covered at its upper edge with
the débris from this mass of trap. The two lower ter-
races at the northern end of the island present a delta-
like expansion facing the northwest. On these terraces,
which are destitute of the usual covering of moss and
Empetrum, can be most distinctly seen the windrows of
pebbles and gravel thrown up by the retreating waves.
A continuation of this beach is seen on Castle Island
just south. (See p. 134.)

308 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

On the eastern side of the same island is a beach of
the same height, but much steeper, as it directly faces
the ocean, and more irregular than the one just described,
as its surface is broken by jagged masses of syenitic rock
which protrude through it, and by large masses of trap
which have fallen from the cliffs above.

North of Henley Island is a broad flat beach consist-
ing of two low terraces, on the uppermost of which, and
commanding the harbor, are the ruins of an old fort
built during the last century. Also on the mainland
near the head of the bay are situated in bights in the
shore three low beaches, each composed of two terraces,
overgrown with vegetation. They are all apparently of
the same height, and correspond in height with that of
the second beach or terrace on Henley Island. On the
east side of Pitt’s Arm is another similar beach, and still
another at the head of the bay on the west side of the
stream emptying into this bay. Upon this latter beach
are large bowlders, often two feet in diameter. Across
the bay from Henley Island is a lofty steep beach slop-
ing towards the east, and of the same height.
| It is an important fact that the present contour of the
coast, from the sea-level to a height of about five hun-
dred feet, also extends to at least fifty fathoms, or three
hundred feet below the surface of the water. Such we
found to be the fact in dredging for a distance of nearly
six hundred miles along the coast. The jagged nature
of the rocky terraces at Strawberry Harbor, so interest-
ing a feature in the coast scenery, extends at least to a
depth of two hundred and forty feet, a few rods from the
shore, as in anchoring with the kedge anchor it would
drop on to a rocky shelf, and then drag and fall twenty

RAISED BEACHES. 309

fathoms lower on to another syenitic shelf; such a suc-
cession of rocky terraces we have no doubt extended
much farther below the point sounded by our ship’s
lead.

Again, dredging was carried on off Henley Harbor on
a pebbly bottom three hundred feet below the surface
which formed the continuation of the same beaches
which rose some two hundred feet above the sea-level.
It follows from this that as both the jagged rocks and
submerged beach must have formerly formed a coast-line,
the land once stood at least three hundred feet higher
than at present, and it is more than probable, much
higher. Such an elevation would have produced the
most important modifications of climate, lowering it
greatly, bringing the snow line farther down towards the
coast, and must have led to a great accumulation of the
snow and land-ice.

At the settlement in Chateau Bay is a remarkably
steep beach, which ascends half-way up the side of the
hill, which is about five hundred feet high. It is com-
posed of large bowlders very closely packed in layers,
without any gravel to fill up the interstices, and slopes
to the level of the water at an angle of at least 40°, being
the steepest beach I saw on the coast. It consisted of
two terraces, the lowest almost precipitous in its descent.
This beach, when below the level of the sea, was evi-
dently exposed to the action of the powerful Labrador
current which piled these huge water-worn rocks into a
compact mass which served to resist the waves, while the
coarse gravel and sand were borne rapidly away farther
out to sea on to lower levels. It is a general rule that
all beaches on this coast with a northerly and easterly

310 | THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

exposure to the open sea, are much steeper, and com-
posed of much coarser materials, than those in more shel-
tered situations.

At Domino Harbor are beaches more than one hun-
dred feet high, and in sailing up the sound which lies
between the mainland and the numerous islands that line
this coast, twelve beaches were seen rising from forty to
one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, and
composed of two or three terraces.

In Sloop Harbor, twenty-five miles south of Cape
Harrison, is a noble shingly beach nearly two hundred
feet high on the south side of the harbor, consequently
facing the north.

Thomas Bay, which lies about thirty miles south of
Hopedale, afforded, along both of its shores for thirty
miles from the sea, fine examples of raised beaches, com-
posed for the most part of three terraces. High beaches
also occurred at Hopedale. The mission house and
buildings belonging to this Moravian settlement also
rest upon raised gravelly beaches, which afford soil deep
enough for gardens and cemeteries.

It is to be regretted that from want of time and proper
instruments we were unable to measure the heights of
these beaches and their respective terraces. Those given
are simply approximative, with the exception of the one
noticed as occurring upon Henley Island. The mass of
basalt was rudely measured by Lieut. Baddeley, and es-
timated to betwo hundred and fifty-five feet high. The
terraces rise to the base of the pillars, which he estimated
to be one hundred and eighty feet above the sea.

I believe it will ultimately be found that all these
beaches rise above the present level of the sea at uniform

RAISED BEACHES, 311

heights, and will be found generally to agree in this re-
spect with similar beaches in the St. Lawrence River and
the coast of the British colonies and New England,
after making due allowances for local oscillations of the
land. At Chateau Bay it could easily be seen that all
the terraces composing the different beaches were of the
same height ; and, so far as memory would show, in the
absence of actual measurement, all those beaches ob-
served farther northward presented terraces which very
generally corresponded in height with those of Chateau
Bay.

I am informed by Captain Ichabod Handy of New
Bedford, Mass., who has spent several years in Hudson’s
Bay engaged in the whale fishery, and is a close ob-
server, having coasted in a whale-boat the whole shore
from Nain to Resolution Island in lat. 62°, that there
are several very high raised beaches near Hebron, and
also near Nain, one of which he roughly estimated to be
three hundred feet high. He observed that the beaches
north of Nain increased in height. There were also
beaches on Button Island. He noticed one on Reso-
lution Island, about two hundred feet high, which was
composed of three terraces. On the Lower or East
Savage Island he described to mea plain of soft clay ele-
vated fifty feet above the sea, into which he ‘sank knee-
deep,” and perceived in it numerous “clams and mussels,”
and also the skeleton of a whale, the ‘“‘ boar-head” whale
(Balaena boops), stranded upon the surface. This ancient
sea-bottom was flanked by a raised beach from thirty to
forty feet in height.

At Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome he describes the
beaches as being higher than any observed southwards,

312 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

and he also noticed clay-banks, containing shells, raised
above the present level of the sea.

Prof. Hind has noticed some remarkable beaches far

in the interior of the southern part of the peninsula, and
at a great height above the present level of the sea.
Though this author does not refer to their rearrangement
by the currents and waves of the sea, his description of
the immense deposits of rounded and water-worn bowlders
agrees precisely with similar raised beaches both upon,
and a mile back from, the coast, observed by myself,
where they are covered by moss and Empetrum, or
stunted spruces. At “ Burnt Portage,” upon the river
Moisie, one hundred miles from its mouth, and 1,857
feet above the level of the sea, this author describes a
‘hill of bowlders or erratics, all water-worn and smooth,
without moss or lichen upon them, and piled two or three
deep, and, for aught you know, twenty deep.
The well-worn masses of all sizes, from one foot to
twenty feet in diameter, and from one ton to ten thousand
tons in weight, are washed clean. . . . I could without
difficulty see three tiers of these ‘travelled rocks,’ and
in the crevices the charred roots of trees which had
grown in the mosses and lichens which formerly clothed
them.”

Another feature of great interest in this connection are
the rocky terraces or steps which have been hewn out of
the solid rocks along the coast for a height of five hun-
dred feet above the present level of the sea, and mark
the oscillations of the old coast-line ;’and as there occur
in the interior of the country one thousand feet above
the present coast-line similar lines of erosion, they pre-
sent the best evidence we have, to determine how far

ROCK TERRACES. 313

above its present level the glacial sea stood. These
rock terraces could only have been formed so fully as
seen here during a vast period, and the ice-foot of Dr.
Kane, to which their formation is probably due, must
have remained on the shore during the entire year. Fine
examples of similar terraces are described and figured in
Kane’s ‘“‘ Explorations,” vol. ii. p.81. At various points
along the coast the joint action of frost, the waves, and
floating ice can even now be seen building up these steps
in the slopes of trap and syenitic rocks, by taking advan-
tage of the jointure and cleavage planes which cross at
nearly right angles. At Strawberry Harbor the syenitic
rocks have broken off into huge cubical blocks of many
tons’ weight. The rock abounds in cracks and fissures,
into which the ice hasentered wedge-like, and burst them
asunder, while the fragments have been borne away by
shore-ice. Thus fora height of five hundred feet the
shore consists of a series of steps ten to thirty feet high,
forming broad shelves on which the sea-birds build, and
where a little vegetation lodges. Where the shore con-
sists of trap-rocks, as at Domino Harbor and Tub Island,
the steps are much smaller and more numerous. At
Domino there are regular steps in the quartzites, which
lend a very peculiar feature to the shores of the harbor,
as at a little distance the rocky slopes descending by
hundreds of steps to the water, appear like a lofty beach
of bowlders. At Sloop Harbor these rocky steps are of
" vast extent, their tops shelving inland, and in profile the
rocky promontory presents a strange serrated outline
when viewed from the sea. The lofty sugar-loaf syenitic
island a few miles south of Hopedale, noticed previously,

314 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

and which is seven hundred feet high, has its surface di-
vided into four terraces of rock, which reach two thirds

HIGH; (B) RAISED BEACH AT THE HEAD OF A SMALL BAY; (C) A HEADLAND OF DOMINO QUARTZITE

(2?) INTERSECTED BY TRAP DYKES.

VIEW JUST NORTH OF SLOOP HARBOR, KYUEARTARBUCK BAY; (A) GNEISS TERRACES, 500 TO 800 FEET

of the distance up its sides from the water, thus affording
a means of estimating the different heights at which the

ROCK TERRACES. 315

land paused in its oscillations upwards.* We must again
refer to Mr. Hind’s work for an account of similar rocky
terraces in the interior of the peninsula. Near the
“Lake where the land lies,” he describes the gneiss hills

\y \
\) \ & a! ("
i : ' re

ROCK TERRACES ON A CONICAL PROMONTORY NEAR HOPEDALE, LABRADOR.

as rising in “gigantic terraces.” He likewise speaks of
“gneiss terraces five in number, the highest being about
one thousand feet above the sea,” and he states that the
sloping sides of these abrupt steps are rounded, polished,
and furrowed by glacial action.+

Mr. Cayley has described them also quite fully : «We
now made the fifth portage [fifty miles from the mouth
of the river, and 370 feet above the level of the sea],
where we first met with some curious natural steps or
terraces, which were continually repeated on our march.
They were usually five or six in number, averaging three
or four feet in height ; the distances between each rather
irregular, just affording room enough to take two or
three paces, and their surfaces presenting the appearance
of having been artificially constructed. They were of

* “Terraces or banks of gravel and ancient shingle beaches were observed
on either side of the inlet [Nachvak Inlet] at various heights up to an estimated
elevation of two thousand feet.” Bell’s “ Observations,” 1885, Rep. Geol.
Surv. Canada for 1885, p. 7, DD.

+ Hind’s Labrador, p. 133.

316 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

the common dark hornblendic gneiss, and ran in a gen-
eral northeast and southwest direction.” *

No glacial strie upon these terraces were observed
near the shore. It is evident that this process of terrac-
ing the crystalline rocks by frosts and shore-ice began
during the glacial epoch. At present we must assume
that the striae found by Professor Hind upon these
rocky steps far inland were graven by angular stones
frozen into the bottoms of glaciers, for we find no such
marks at present upon those now upon the coast, which
shows how insufficient is the action of floating shore- or
floe-ice, or grounded bergs even, in striating so regularly
these hard crystalline rocks,

We saw a good example of rocks polished by the ice
and waves at Gore Island Harbor, a point westward of
Little Mecatina Island. On the faces of several cliffs
forming perpendicular walls facing a narrow passage
into which the waves rushed with great force in the
calmest days, the sea-wall was smoothly polished and
water-worn for ten feet above its shore-line, while above,
the face of the cliff was roughened by the action of frost.

Upon this coast, which during the summer of 1864
was lined with a belt of floe-ice and bergs probably two
hundred miles broad, and which extended from the Gulf
of the St. Lawrence at Belles Amours to the arctic
seas, this immense body of floating ice seemed directly
to produce but little alteration in its physical features.
If we were. to ascribe the grooving and polishing of
rocks to the action of floating. ice-floes and bergs, how is
it that the present shores far above (500 feet), and at

* Up the River Moisie, Joc. cit., p. 82.

THE FLOE-ICE. 317

least 250 feet below the water-line, are often jagged and
angular, though constantly stopping the course of masses
of ice impelled four to six miles an hour by the joint
action of tides, currents, and winds? No bowlders, or
gravel, or mud were seen upon any of the bergs or
masses of shore-ice. They had dropped all burdens of this
nature nearer their points of detachment in the high arctic
regions. The bergs all bore evidence of having been
repeatedly overturned as they were borne along in the
current. Thr floe-ice was hummocky, which is a strong
proof of its having come from open straits in the polar
regions, the masses looking as if having been frozen and
refrozen, jammed together, and then piled atop of each
other by currents and winds long before appearing upon
this coast ; while the bergs exhibited old water-linés pre-
. senting different angles to the present water-level. The
only discoloration noticed was probably caused by seals
resting upon and soiling the surface. One bowlder was
noticed by a member of the party resting upon an ice-
berg off Cape Harrison in August.

This huge area of floating ice, embracing so many
thousands of square miles, was of greater extent, and re-
mained longer upon the coast in 1864 than for forty
years previous. It was not only pressed upon the coast
by the normal action of the Labrador and Greenland
currents which, in consequence of the rotatory motion
of the earth, tended to force the ice in a southwesterly
direction, but the presence of the ice caused the constant
passage of cooler currents of air from the sea over the
ice upon the heated land, giving rise during the present
season to a constant succession of northeasterly winds
from March until early in August, which further served

318 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

to crowd the ice into every harbor and recess upon the
coast. It was the universal complaint of the inhabitants
that the easterly winds were more prevalent, and the ice
“held” later in the harbors this year than for many sea-
sons previous. Thus the fisheries were nearly a failure,
and vegetation greatly retarded in its development. But
so far as polishing and striating the rocks, depositing
drift material and thus modifying the contour of the sur-
face of the present coast, this modern mass of bergs and
floating ice effected comparatively little. Single ice-
bergs, when small enough, entered the harbors, and
there stranding, soon pounded to pieces upon the rocks,
melted, and disappeared. From Cape Harrison in lat.
55° to Caribou Island was an interrupted line of bergs
stranded in eighty to one hundred or more fathoms,
often miles apart, while others passed to the seaward
down by the eastern coast of Newfoundland, or through
the Strait of Belle Isle.

The Labrador Banks.—Prof. H. Y. Hind* has pointed
out the existence of shoals or fishing-banks off the Ailik
Head and Kippokak Bay, composed of morainal mat-
ter brought down the fiords and pushed into the sea.
That the fiords and bays were, however, excavated by
the glaciers themselves we are much inclined to doubt,
since these bays and fiords were natural valleys, which per-
haps date back to Laurentian times, and which have been
for many geological ages excavated by streams, though
during the glacial epoch remodelled by the ice and sub-
glacial streams. Referring to Kippokak Bay, the next

* The effects of the fishery clauses of the treaty of Washington on the fish-
eries and fishermen of British North America, 1877, Part II. pp. 68, 69, quoted
in Goode’s Fishery Industries of the United States, V. vol. i. 134-137, 1887.

THE LABRADOR FISHING-BANKS. 319

bay north of Ailik, he remarks: “ But the glaciers of
Labrador have probably left even more valuable records,
in the form of moraines, of their early existence here
than deep fiords or innumerable islands. These are the
shoals and banks which lie some fifteen miles outside of
the islands, and on which icebergs strand in long lines
and in groups. I have styled them the Inner Range of
Banks, to distinguish them from a supposed Outer
Range in deeper water, where large icebergs sometimes
take the ground. The inner banks, as far as they are
~ known, are stated by fishermen to have from twenty to
forty fathoms of water on them. Commander Max-
well’s soundings between Cape Harrison and Gull Is-
land, near Hopedale, and just outside of the island zone,
rarely show depths greater than forty fathoms. In one
instance only, in a distance of about one hundred and
ten nautical miles, is a depth of fifty-nine fathoms re-
corded.

“ Absence of Islands on the Southern Labrador.—The
Admiralty chart portrays a very important confirmation
of the Labrador coast-line, from Saint Lewis Sound
to Spotted Island. The trend of the coast-line between
the Battle Islands, south of Saint Lewis Sound, and
Spotted Island, Domino Run, a distance of sixty-five
miles, is due north, and, with very few exceptions, there
are no islands off the coast throughout this distance, ex-
cluding the group close inshore between Spotted Island
and Stony Island. As soon as the coast-line begins to
turn northwesterly islands become numerous and con-
tinually increase in number as far as Cape Mugford, and
even towards Cape Chudleigh.. Between Cape Harrison
and Cape Mugford, the island zone may be estimated

320 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

as having a depth of twenty miles from the mouth of
the fiord seawards. The cause of the general absence
of islands south of Spotted Island and Stony Island can
probably be traced to the never-ceasing action of north-
ern ice driven on the coast-line, where it suddenly makes
its southerly bend by the influence of the rotation of the
earth upon the arctic current. This current sweeps past
the Labrador coast with a speed of from 14 to 2 knots an
hour, and a westerly pressure, due to the earth’s rotation, -
which may be estimated at about eleven inches, That
is to say, the mean level of the sea on the coast of Labra-
dor is supposed to be about eleven inches above the level
it would assume if uninfluenced by the earth’s rotation.
As soon as the ice-ladened current reaches Spotted Island
it is in part relieved from this pressure by the trend
of the coast from southeast to due south ; hence the cur-
rent changes its course suddenly and onto the land.
But the effect of this sudden change in the direction of
the current near the shore is to throw the icebergs onto
the coast from Spotted Island to Cape St. Lewis, where
they may be seen stranded each year in great numbers.
The islands which doubtless once existed here have been
removed by constant abrasion, acting uninterruptedly
for ages, and with the islands the moraines lying sea-
wards. We may thus trace the cause of the vast differ-
ence between the distribution of stranded icebergs south
of Spotted Island and northwest of it. In one case they
are stranded near the coast-line, wearing it away and
deepening the water near it, assisted by the undertow;
in the other case they are stranded some fifteen miles
from the island fringe, and continually adding to the
banks the débris they may bring, in the form of mud

THE LABRADOR FISHING-BANKS, 321

streaks, from the glaciers which gave them birth in the
far north and northeast. It is more than probable that
this distribution of icebergs has a very important bearing
upon the food and feeding of the cod, which justifies me
in referring here with so much detail to the action of
glacial ice.

“ The Inner Range of Banks.—The foundation of the
inner range of banks consists, very probably, as already
stated, of glacial moraines. In their present state they”
may reasonably be assumed to be formed in great part.
of remodelled débris brought down by the same glaciers
which excavated the deep fiords,

“The absence of deposits of sand in the form of mod-
ern beaches on every part of the Labrador coast visited
this season, except one, was very marked. The excep-
tional area observed lies between Sandwich Bay and
Hamilton Inlet, Cape Porcupine being the centre. It
is protected from the northern swell of the ocean by the
Indian Harbor Islands and promontory. Here large
deposits of sand are seen, covering many square miles in
area. The reason why sandy beaches are not in general
found on this coast, notwithstanding that enormous
quantities of rock are annually ground up by coast-ice
and ice-pans driven on the shore, arises from the under-
tow carrying the sand seawards and depositing it on the
shoals or banks outside of the islands.

‘It may be advisable here to advert to a popular error
which assumes that the depth of water in which an ice-
berg grounds is indicated by the height of the berg
above the level of the sea. It is commonly stated that
while there is one ninth above there will be eight ninths
of the berg below the sea-level. This is approximately

322 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

true only with regard to volume or mass of the berg,
not with regard to height and depth. A berg may show
an elevation of one hundred feet above water, and yet
its depth below may not exceed double that amount, but
its volume or mass will be about eight times the mass it
shows on the surface. Hence, while icebergs ground in
thirty and forty fathoms of water, they may expose a
front of one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet in
altitude, the broad, massive base supporting a mass about
one ninth of its volume above the sea-level.”

Oscillation of the Land.—From all the indications
noticed casually by us, such as the position of beaches
apparently very recently raised above the sea-level, so as
to be just beyond the reach of the waves, the land is
slowly gaining on the sea. The Rev. C. C. Carpenter,
missionary at Caribou Island, in the Strait of Belle Isle,
also informs me that this is his impression, gained both
from his observations and information given by the set-
tlers. To this last source Mr. J. F. Campbell is indebted
for the statement in his ‘‘ Frost and Fire,” that the
coast of Labrador is slowly rising. On the other hand,
the land appears to be sinking about Hudson’s Strait.

In Dr. Bell’s Report for 1884 of Lieut. Gordon’s
Hudson’s Bay Expedition, it is stated that ancient stone
structures, erected by the Eskimos, were observed, and
Dr. Bell remarks: ‘‘ From what I have seen of the situa-
tions which the Eskimos in various places in Hudson's
Bay and Strait choose for their camps, there appeared
to be little doubt that they had lived here when the sea-
level was twenty to thirty feet higher than it is at pres-
ent.”

River Terrace Pertod.—Owing to the great denuda-

THE LEDA CLAYS. 323

tion of all drift material, and the hilly character of the
country, we find no broad terraced river valleys, such as
characterize more temperate regions. On the contrary,
the rivers are a succession of ponds, connected by rapids,
where the stream plunges from one rocky terrace to the
next one below, taking the direction of natural ravines.
Though the volume of these rivers during the Terrace
epoch, or period of great rivers, may have been greater
than now, as evidenced by a few small terraces upon
their banks, we have no evidence that they ran in much
wider channels than at present, owing to the great height
of their banks.

The Occurrence of the Leda Clays in Labrador.—At
the mouth of Salmon River, a small stream flowing into
the Strait of Belle Isle three miles east of the mouth of
the Esquimaux River, occurred a clay-bank about ten
feet high, and situated just above high-water mark,
which was dark blue and free from bowlders. It con-
tained in abundance Afporrhais occidentalis, Serripes
grinlandicus, and Cardium Hayeszz.

This deposit of clay is of more recent age than the
deposits noticed below, as it was a few feet higher, and
situated more inland. It undoubtedly rests upon the
lower fossiliferous gravel-beds, though I did not see the
point of contact.

The most important deposits occurred at Caribou
Island at the mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle, at Pitt’s
Arm in Chateau Bay, and at Hopedale. They consisted
of sandy clays and a coarse gravel found between tide
marks, and extending beneath the water. Should the
present banks now lying off the coast be raised and ex-
posed to view, we would have an identical deposit. All

324 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

the stones and pebbles of this ancient sea-bottom, finely
exposed at Hopedale, are covered with nullipores and
polyzoa ; the Mya truncata still remains perpendicular
in its holes, and the most delicate shells, with their epi-
dermis still on, are unbroken, and their valves often
united by the ligament. The delicate Myriozoum has
preserved its fine markings nearly as perfectly as in
specimens dredged at the present day, and the cases of
the delicate Spiochzetopterus are still preserved. It is
evident that this deposit has slowly and almost imper-
ceptibly risen some four hundred or five hundred feet,
without any paroxysmal movement of the continent,
over an extent of coast some six hundred miles in
length.

This rise of the Labrador peninsula must have accom-
panied the rise of the polar regions, including Arctic
America and Greenland, and in fact all the land lying
in the northern hemisphere. Many facts in the distri-
bution of fossils in these glacial beds, and the present
relations of these beds to deposits above and beneath
them, tend to prove that the glacial epoch occurred
simultaneously over all the arctic regions and the
northern temperate zone, and that the submergence and
subsequent rise of the continental masses and outlying
islands were synchronous in both hemispheres. Pro-
fessor Haughton has summed up the evidence of such
a rise from raised beaches and ancient sea-bottoms in the
American Arctic Archipelago.* The researches of Dr.

* “ McClure found shells of the Cyprina islandica, at the summit of the Cox-
comb Range, in Baring Island, at an elevation of five hundred feet above the
sea-level; Captain Parry, also, has recorded the occurrence of Venus (probably
Cyprina islandica) on Byam Martin’s Island; and in the recent voyage of the

QUATERNARY FOSSILS. a25

Kane in the extreme north of Greenland enabled him:
“‘to assert positively the interesting fact of a secular
elevation [480 feet] of the crust commencing at some as
yet undetermined point north of 76°, and continuing to
the Great Glacier and the high northern latitudes of
Grinnell Land.” (Vol. ii. p. 81.)

We need not here allude to the similar oscillations in
northern and central Europe to still greater heights
above the present level of the ocean.

At various points along the coast from Caribou Island,
where they were abundant, to Hopedale, occurred in the
drift gravel beds associated with the fossils, numerous
pebbles and small bowlders of a light silicious bedded
limestone, which contained numerous Silurian fossils.
Lieber mentions finding pieces of limestone on the shore
of Aulezavik Island. There can be little doubt that
these bowlders were transported on ice from the Silurian
basins in the arctic regions on the west side of Baffin’s
Bay. Perhaps their origin may by future observers be
traced to the Silurian limestones found at the head of
Frobisher’s Bay by Hall. Such fragments are not now
to be seen on the floe-ice coming down from the north.

A large proportion of the species mentioned in the
following lists (reprinted from the Memoirs of the Boston
Society of Natural History, i. 231-234) occurred in great
abundance and in a good state of preservation, so
that they could be compared very satisfactorily with

‘Fox,’ Dr, Walker, the surgeon of the expedition, found the following sub-
fossil shells at Port Kennedy, at elevations of from one hundred to five hundred
feet: Saxicava rugosa, Tellina proxima, Astarte arctica (borealis), Mya uddeval-.
lensis, Mya truncata, Cardium sp., Buccinum undatum, Acmea testudinalis, Bala-
nus uddevallensis,”—A ppendix to McClintock's Narrative. (Amer. edit. p. 370.)

326 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

recent specimens dredged upon the coast. Most of the
species, after careful and repeated comparisons with the
recent examples, did not present any appreciable differ-
ences. Ina few instances there were characters found
by which the fossils could be distinguished from the recent
shells of the same species, and those I have carefully
enumerated.

Nullipora polymorpha Linn. This plant occurred
abundantly at Caribou Island. At Hopedale it was pro-
fusely abundant, growing in large free masses or encrust-
ing shells and stones.

Euryechinus drobachtensts Verrill. ( Toxopneustes dro-
bachiensis A. Agassiz. LEchinus granularzs Say.) Frag-
ments of.the shells and numerous spines occurred abun-
dantly at Caribou Island and Hopedale.

Lepralia Belli Dawson. Encrusting pebbles at Hope-
dale. One colony also on a shell. The young cells.
were large, with crowded and sometimes perforate, gran-
ulated conical ovicells. The avicularia are situated either
in front of the opening or crowded to one side, and are
two in number. Both old and young correspond pre-
cisely with a specimen received from Dr. Dawson.

Leprala pertusa Thompson. This species occurred
on the shells of Buccznum cretaceum. It agrees well
with the large, oblong and coarsely punctate recent
specimens. It is well figured by Dawson in the Canadian
Naturalist and Geologist, Feb. 1859, p. 15, fig. 16.

Lepralia ctttata Johnst. This form also occurred
frequently with the preceding. The cells are convex,.
the avicularia are present, projecting over the aperture.
The surface is punctate.

Celleporarza surcularts Packard, Can. Nat. Dec. 1863,

QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 327

p- 410. Occurred frequently on Lamellibranch shells
in large and thick masses at Caribou Island and Hope-
dale.

Myrwozoum subgracile D’Orbigny. (AMelepora trun-
cata Fabr., Faun. Groenl.) Fragments of the stems of
this graceful species occurred abundantly at both locali-
ties,

Rhynconella psittacea (Gm.). Perfect valves were
found at Caribou Island, and others were given me
which were reported to have been found three miles from
the mouth of the Esquimaux River. Other shells, such
as a Cardium and Cardita borealis, also came from the
same place, showing that they had been washed out of a
drift disposit on the river. This species was abundant
at Hopedale, where the valves adhered by their ligament.

Pecten tslandicus Linn. This was not common. Sev-
eral ponderous valves, larger than I have seen elsewhere,
‘ had the ribs united into groups of two or three, separated
by sulci of equal width; but in young and fragile sub-
jects the ribs were equally distributed, and differed in no
respect from the living young, or from those of the same
age, from the drift clays of Maine and New Brunswick.

Yoldia myalis Stimps. A specimen of Voldza arctica,
received from Dr. Liitken, approaches Y. myalzs more
than Y. sapotzlla. It is however, longer, and the lunule
is not so short and deep as in Y. myadlzs. One valve.
Hopedale.

Leda minuta Moll. (Arca minuta Fabr., Faun.
Groenl.) Caribou Island, rare. Common at Hopedale.

Modiolaria discrepans Moll. One broken valve.
Hopedale.

328 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Mytilus edulis Linn. Fragments of large valves were
abundant, but young shells were uncommon.

Cardium Hayesti Stimps. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc.
Philad. p. 581, 1862. This species occurred both at
Hopedale and Caribou Island.

Serripes grénlandicus (Chemn.) Beck. Caribou
Island, frequent. Chateau Bay.

Astarte Banksti Leach, Zoél. Beechy’s Voyage. (4.
Warhamz Hancock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xviii,
1846, p. 336, pl. v., figs. 15,16. A. Rechardsonz Reeve,
Last of the Arctic Voyagers, ii. App. A. fadula Reeve,
lc; A. Laurentiana Lyell; A. compressa Daws.,—not
of European authors.) A fine series of specimens, re-
cent and fossil, from Labrador, and fossil from Maine
and the river St. Lawrence, has convinced me that the
numerous variations of form which this species assumes
are of local origin, arising from differences in habitat or
age. Amonga number of 4. Laurentzana Lyell, received
from Montreal through the kindness of Dr. Dawson, are
some thinner and more finely striated than usual, but I
have recent specimens and also fossils from Labrador
agreeing with them. The species varies in the length of
the shell and the form of the posterior end, but the shape
of the anterior end, the sulci and the hinge characters are
in all the varieties very constant.

Very elongated forms are like 4. IVarhamz Hancock,
which we would consider as a synonym of this species.
The varieties A. Rzchardsont and A. fabula have oc-
curred in the same locality, at Dumplin Harbor at
the mouth of Sandwich Bay, Labrador, where I have
dredged them alive.

Astarte striata Gray. One specimen from Hopedale.

QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 329

It did not differ from drift shells found at Brunswick,
Maine. This shell, as it occurs fossil, is thicker, more
ponderous, more equilaterally triangular ; the beaks are
directed more anteriorly, the teeth are much larger, and.
the lunule broader and shorter, than in 4. Bankszz.

Astarte compressa Linn. (A. ellzptica Brown.)
Common in all the beds, but not so abundant as 4.
Banksiz.

Cardita boreal’s Conr. Very abundant with the pre-
ceding.

Macoma sabulosa Moérch. (Tellina proxtma Brown.)
Of frequent occurrence.

Cyrtodarza stligua Daudin. Several valves at Caribou
Island.

_ Panopea norvegica Sprengel. A perfect valve of this
shell occurred at Caribou Island.

Mya truncata Linn. Both the short and common
elongated varieties of this species occurred, especially at
Hopedale, in great profusion.

Saxicava arctica Desh. Large valves occurred in
great profusion in all these beds.

Chiton marmoreus O. Fabr. Several valves were
found at Hopedale.

_ Acmaea testudinalis (Miill.). One specimen occurred,
encrusted with Nullipora.

Lepeca ceca Moll. (P. candida Couth.; P. cerea
Moller, Reeve.) Frequent.

Puncturella noachina (Leach). (Dzadora noachina
Gray.) Frequent.

Margarita cinerea (Couth.). One specimen. Hope-
dale.

330 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR CUAST.-

Margarita varicosa (Mighl. et Adams). Frequent at
Hopedale and Caribou Island.

Turritella erosa Couth. As numerous in proportion
to the succeeding species as at present on the coast.

Turritella reticulata Mighl. et Adams. (7. lactea .
Moll.) Profusely abundant in both places.

Turrttellopsts actcula (Stimps.). One specimen.
Caribou Island.

Aporrhats occidentalis Beck. Several. Caribou
Island.

Lunatia gronlandica MOll. Frequent.

Nattica clausa Sowb. Frequent.

Admete viridula Stimps. At Caribou Island.

Bela robusta Pack. No specimens of this species .
occurred at Caribou Island associated with the other
species ; it seems quite rare, and has not occurred ina
living state. Though very distinct from any of the other
species, it might be mistaken for a very much shortened
and thickened 2B. amerzcana. It is much shorter and
broader than &. amerzcana,; the whorls are five in num-
ber, angulated, giving the shell a well-marked turretted
form ; the fourth whorl is one half to two thirds as long
as the first, which is unusually large in proportion to the
rest of the shell. The aperture is broad, regularly ovate ;
canal long, narrow, oblique, and not gradually widening
towards the aperture. It has much fewer ribs than 2.
americana, there being thirteen on the lower whorl,
where in &. amerzcana are eighteen. Length .18;
breadth .11 inch.

Bela americana Packard. (Fusus turriculus Gould,
Invert. Mass. ela scalarzs Packard, Can. Nat. and
Geol. 1863,—not of MOll., Index Mollusc. Gronl.) Va-

QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 331

riety. One specimen occurred fossil at Caribou Island
which differed in no respect from a recent specimen
dredged in fifteen to thirty fathoms at Square Island,
which will be further noticed below.

Bela exarata MOll. (Defrancia exarata MOll., Index
Mollusc. Grénl. ; Pleurotoma rugulatus ‘“ Moll.” Reeve,
Icon. Conch. f. 345.) Caribou Island. Common.

Bela Woodiana Moll. (Pleurotoma harpularia Couth.,
Bost. Journ. ii, p. 183. Pleurotoma leucostoma Reeve,
Icon. Conch. f. 278.) Caribou Island. The most com-
mon species of the genus in these deposits, though very
rarely found living by us; it is of large size and much
eroded.

Bela decussata (Couth.). It occurred very rarely at
Caribou Island.

Bela pyramidalis (Strém.). (Pleurotoma rufa Couth.)
Not common; at Hopedale and Caribou Island.

Lela violacea Mighl. et Adams. (Defrancia cylin-
dracea MON. Ind. Moll. Groénl.; Pleurotoma groénlandica
Reeve, |. c. fig. 343.) Of common occurrence at Cari-
bou Island.

Buccinum glaccale Linn. Caribou Island, an imper-
fect specimen.

Buccinum grinlandicum Hancock. Annals and Mag.
Nat. Hist. xviii. p. 329, pl. v., figs. 8, 9, 1846. Pitt’s
Arm, head of Chateau Bay; one specimen, with the
outer coating of shell worn off.

Buccinum tenue Gray. (Buccinum scalartforme Beck,
Stimps., Can. Nat., Oct. 1865, p. 14.) One specimen
occurred at Caribou Island, wanting the lip and spire,
but showing well the abbreviated longitudinal waves
characteristic of the species.

332 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Buccinum undatum Linn. (B. undatum Greene,
Gould, Dawson; 2. labradorense’ Reeve, Packard, Can.
Nat. viii. p. 416, 1863.)

Tritonofusus cretaceus (Buccinum cretaceum Reeve,
Icon. Conch; Packard, Can. Nat. viii., p.
417, pl. ii. fig. 6, 1863.) This interesting
species, now found not uncommonly on
the coast of Labrador, also occurs fossil
not unfrequently at Caribou Island. It
differs in no respect from living forms.

Fusus (Neptunea) tornatus Gould.
Rarely found fossil at Caribou Island, and
in the blue clay at the mouth of Salmon
River.

Fusus (Neptunea) labradorensts Pack.

TRITONOFUSUS

creracevs. Shell fusiform; whorls moderately convex,
sutures deeply impressed, the upper ones somewhat flat-
tened, spire elongated, acute, lower whorl ventricose,
covered with rather coarse revolving striz. On the
lower whorl are twenty nearly straight, coarse, flattened
folds, which on the succeeding whorls run the entire
length of each whorl. Aperture ovate, columella con-
cave, smooth; canal moderately long, oblique, slightly
tortuous, spire a little longer than the shell. Length,
one inch; breadth .48 inch. One specimen at Caribou
Island. It differs from Fusus pullus Reeve (fig. 89) in
being apparently a much thicker shell, in the longer
canal, and in the more ventricose body of the shell, with
the coarser revolving lines.

Fusus tortuosus Reeve, Belcher’s Last of the Arctic
Voyagers, ii., p. 394, pl. 32, fig. 5. Our specimens dif-

QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 333

fer from the description, in the absence of the long tor-
tuous canal which gives the species its name. The fos-
sils have the same convexity of the whorls, which are
covered by similar revolving strize ; but the first whorl is
less contracted at the origin of the canal, and the canal
itself is from half to two thirds the length of the first
whorl, while in F. tor¢wosus the canal nearly equals the
length of the whorl. In this respect it approaches Fuszas
pygmeus Gould, from which it is distinguished by its
size, the greater convexity of its whorls, and the deeply
impressed revolving lines. |

This was a frequent shell in the gravel deposit on
Caribou Island, and large specimens measured nearly
three inches in length.

Trichotropis borealis Sowb. et Brod. Not uncom-
mon at Hopedale and Caribou Island.

Sperorbis glomerata Mill. Occurred as usual on shells
at Caribou Island.

S. witrea Stimps. Only young and flattened speci-
mens occurred.

Spiochetopterus typus Sars, Fauna littoralis, ii. Frag-
ments of tubes belonging apparently to this worm were
found fossil at Caribou Island.

Balanus porcatus Da Costa. Numerous fragments
occurred at Caribou Island and Hopedale.

In the above list occur several forms of great interest
which have not been found fossil elsewhere, or in no
such profusion, and seem to be perhaps characteristic of
this fauna and to have had their metropolis either in this
area or in Arctic America, in contradistinction from
Arctic Europe. Such are

334 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Cardtta borealts Bela exarata,
Astarte Banksit, Bela woodiana,
Margarita vartcosa, Bela robusta,
Turritella recticulata, Bela amerzcana,
Turritella erosa, Fusus tortuosus,
Aporrhats occidentalis, Fusus labradorensts,
Admete viridula, Buccinum undulatum,

_Tritonofusus cretaceus.

From this list the polyzoa are excluded, since no spe-
cies are recorded from Greenland, except by Otho Fa-
bricius in the Fauna Groénlandica.

Upon comparing this list with that of the species
comprised in the present fauna of Labrador, we can ob-
serve how similar are the two faunz, and how persistently
the characters of the earlier of the two have survived the
important changes this region has undergone since the
glacial epoch. We have here the present Syrtensian* or
Newfoundland Banks fauna in its purity, without the
intermixture of the few southern forms that have subse-
quently encroached upon its limits. We shall below
show where it shaded almost imperceptibly into the
Acadian fauna, its nearest southern neighbor; but now
we have to determine its most northern limits.

Fortunately Moller, in his ‘Index Molluscorum
Gronlandiz,” and Rink,+ have noticed the few fossils

* We have applied the term Syrtensian to the subarctic assemblage of marine
animals characterizing the Banks of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia, and the
coast of Southern Labrador and of Newfoundland. It is a subdivision of the
Arctic fauna, being in some respects intermediate between the Arctic and Bo-
real faunz.

+ Udsigt over Nordgrénlands Geognosi af H. Rink. Viden. Selsk. Skrifter,
Kjébenhavn, 1853, p. 96. The species were identified by Dr. O. A. L. Mérch.

QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 336

which have occurred in the Quaternary clays of southern
Greenland, a list of which is here given.

Pecten wslandicus, Mya truncata,
Leda minuta, Mya arenaria,
Mytilus edults, Panopea norvegica,
Modtolarta dtscors, Saxicava arctica,

A starte semzsulcata Leach, Tellina calcarea,
Astarte corrugata Brown, Tellina fragilis, ( gronlan-

Cardium ( Aphrodite ) aica),
eronlandicum, Natica clausa B. & S.,
Cardium tslandicum, Littorina grénlanadica,
Cryptodon flexuosus, Frusus despectus Linn,
Cyrtodarta seligua, Margarita glauca,

Fusus gracilis Da Costa.

By reference to the lists of fossil shells found in the
clays of the New England and Labrador coasts it will be
seen that during the Quaternary of the French and Scan-
dinavian geologists, or post-pliocene period of Lyell, the
distribution of marine animals was governed by the same
laws as at the present day. In going southward from
Labrador to New York the seas became warmer the more
they came in contact with the heated waters of the Gulf
Stream, whose influence was slightly exerted on the
coast of New England during the glacial period. The
climate of New England was not purely arctic, but
rather sub-arctic, where now it is ‘‘ boreal.” While this
period was characterized by the wide distribution of
what are now purely arctic or circumpolar species, there
were also intermingled boreal or Acadian forms. Thus
the arctic Leda arctica, Pecten gronlandicus, Serripes
grontandicus, Pandorina arenosa, and Fusus tornatus

336 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

were then widespread and most characteristic shells from
Greenland to Portland, Maine. The Leda especially,
abounding in every clay deposit, has now become wholly
extinct south of Spitzbergen and the 7oth parallel of
latitude. .

An exceedingly small percentage, if any, of the species.
has become whol/y extinct, the only instances occurring to
us being the Beluga vermontana, about which there must
be great doubt, since owing to the difficulty of distinguish-
ing the fossil species of whales, it may be the common
white whale and the new species of Fusus (F. labra-
dorensis), and, possibly, Bela robusta, described above.
" A considerable number have become extinct in the
north temperate seas, owing to the great changes in the
climatic conditions. A parallel case is shown in the
southward migration and subsequent extinction in Eu-
rope of the musk-ox, polar bear, lemming, and other
quadrupeds now confined mostly within the limits of the
arctic circle,

During the glacial period, or that of the deposition of
the glacial beds (Leda clay of Dawson), which are un-
mistakably rewashed terminal moraines left during the
incoming or coldest period of the Quaternary (when,
we have every reason to believe, true glaciers of great.
extent eroded the present river systems as far south as.
New York, the southern limits of the ice having been
indicated by Clarence King, Prof. G. F. Wright, and
others), there was a greater uniformity than now of the
climate ; but yet, as shown by the distribution of animal
life, there was a decided change from a purely arctic to
a sub-arctic climate, from Greenland southward.

At present, the arctic or circumpolar fauna is restricted

FAUNA OF THE BANKS. 337

toa district north of the yearly isothermal line of 32°,
which thus includes the Arctic-American Archipelago,
northern Greenland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and
the coast of Siberia. This is a true cercumpolar fauna,
and can scarcely be said to be Asiatic, European, or
American, though members of the group extend in di-
minished numbers and size down on the Asiatic coast,
to Japan, as we are informed by Dr. W. Stimpson and
by P. P. Carpenter in the Report of the British Associ-
ation for 1856; on the European coast as far as the
Mediterranean Sea, and on the eastern American coast
as far as New Jersey, where the polar currents give, at
great depths, the necessary amount of cold for their ex-
istence. South of this circumpolar belt is a sub-arctic
zone of life corresponding to the yearly isothermal of
40°. This line starts from near Cape Breton in North
America, and includes Iceland, the Hebrides, the Faroe
Islands, Finmark, and northern Norway. On _ the
American coast this fauna is characterized by a small
number of species not yet recorded as found in the cir-
cumpolar district, which only occur southward in the
Acadian district in diminished numbers and impoverished
in size. This Syrtensian fauna bears the same relations
to that of the Acadian district as that of Finmark (judg-
ing from the data furnished us in the papers of Professor
Sars) does to that of the Baltic, North, and Scottish
Seas, the boreal or Celtic fauna of Forbes, and which is
the European representative of the Acadian fauna. We
have shown* that this fauna is limited to Hudson’s Bay,
the coast of Labrador, and the northern coast of New-

* Citadian Naturalist and Geologist, Dec., 1863. See also the Proc. Bost.
Soc, Nat. Hist., Jan. 1866, p. 276. |

338 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

foundland. Southward it follows the line of floating ice,
which partially excludes Anticosti, but includes both the
Grand Banks and those shoals lying to the southwest-
ward along the track of the polar current, which on the
coast of New England flows between the coast and the
inner edge of the Gulf Stream; along this line lie the
Banks, off Nova Scotia, and Maine, and Massachusetts,
together with the St. George’s Banks and the Nantucket
Shoals. Its influence is likewise felt as far south as the
shoals lying off the coast of New Jersey. This current
would even seem to impinge slightly upon the north
side of Cape Hatteras, where Redfield supposes its final
influence to have been felt. Returning again to the
shores of the British colonies, we find this S%oa/l or
Syrtensian fauna most curiously interwedged with the
Acadian or New England fauna. This is owing, with-
out doubt, to the overlapping of the Gulf Stream upon
the great polar current. Thus, while the mouth of the
Bay of Fundy is properly a Syrtensian outlier, the head
of the bay, the coast of New Brunswick, the western
side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the mouth of the river
St. Lawrence on its southern side, and a small isolated
area on the southern coast of Newfoundland, sheltered
from the polar current sweeping by Cape Race, and on
which a small branch of the Gulf Stream may possibly
impinge, are outlying areas inhabited by species most
characteristic of the coast of New England north of
Cape Cod, constituting a fauna termed by Professor
Dana the Nova Scotian Fauna, and by Liitken, the Aca-
dian Fauna. Thus between Greenland and Cape Cod
there are two distinct faunze : the Acadian, with outliers
situated north of ‘its normal limits, due to the influence

FAUNA OF THE BANKS. 339

of the Gulf Stream, or, perhaps, to the absence of the
polar current ; and the Arctic (Syrtensian or Labrador
fauna), peopling the coast of Labrador and Newfound-
land, sending outliers far southwards, due to the influ-
ence of the polar current.

Having shown how these three faunz are limited at
the present day, it remains to notice how this distribu-
tion differed in Quaternary times. The arctic or polar
current must have sent a branch through the present
course of the St. Lawrence River into Lake Champlain,
in a general southwestern direction. This current was
evidently a continuation of the present Belle Isle cur-
rent, which even now pushes the cold waters of the
Strait far up beyond the island of Anticosti beneath the
fresh waters of the St. Lawrence River. It has been
noticed by Dr. Dawson,+ who has satisfactorily shown
the effects of this powerful St. Lawrence current, that
the post-tertiary fauna of the St. Lawrence, as it has
been studied by him at Montreal, Riviére du Loup, and
Quebec, was in all its features purely Syrtensian, and
identical with that of the colder portions of the Gulf of
St. Lawrence, and especially the coast of Labrador.

The clay beds of Canada synchronize and agree in
their general features very nearly with those of Maine,
as has been already observed by Dr. Dawson. All the
beds to the eastward of the Saco River afford a Labra-
dor fauna. About Portland and on the Saco River we
are, however, on the limits of the post-tertiary Acadian

+ Address of Principal Dawson before the Natural History Society of Mon-
treal, May, 1864, published in the Canadian Naturalist, where he shows that the
general southwest striation of the valley was ‘‘ from the ocean toward the inte-
tior against the slope of the St. Lawrence valley.” (p. 9.)

340 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

fauna. Certain common Syrtensian and purely arctic
forms there dwindle in size and diminish very sensibly in
numbers, and a few arctic species are replaced by Aca-
dian forms.

At Point Shirley we have good evidence of the begin-
ning of the Virginian fauna, where Venus mercenaria
and Buccinum plicosum abound. ‘This must have been
the northern limits of the fauna so well developed, as
noticed by Desor, in the beds of Nantucket, where the
temperature of the sea could have scarcely differed from

.that of the present period. The same may be said of
the post-tertiary fauna of South Carolina, and, from
what little we know, of that of Florida, where the heated
Gulf Stream evidently preserved the same conditions as
now, only more checked in its northern limits than at
present by impinging more directly on a coast lined with
floating ice, as that of Maine must have been in post-
tertiary times.

At such a time the increased degree of moisture must
have produced a much greater rainfall, the fogs must have
been of greater extent, and the snow line must have ap-
proached much nearer the sea, than at present, on the
eastern coast of America, south of lat. 60°, and glaciers
of great extent must have surrounded the mountains of
New England. The land fauna and flora of New Eng-
land must have been that of Labrador. The Greenland
seal (Phoca [Pagophilus| grenlandica), the Beluga ver-
montana, and among plants the Potentzlla tridentata
and Arenaria grenlandica (both of which are now
found in the colder parts of the coast of Maine) must
have been the characteristic species. Remnants of such
a flora and fauna we now behold on our alpine summits,

OUR ALPINE REMNANTS OF THE LABRADOR FAUNA. 341

On the top of Mount Washington, the last five hundred
feet exhibit a purely sub-arctic or Labrador vegetation.
We can scarcely call it arctic, for the dwarf spruces and
firs are of thesame size as in the more unprotected places
in Labrador. The same species of weasel which abounds
in Labrador we have seen on the summit of Mount
Washington. The insect fauna we must believe is an
outlier of the Labrador sub-arctic assemblage of insects,
though with certain features of its own. While some
Diptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera are identical, cer-
tain species, such as Chzonobas semidea, Argynnts mon-
tinus Scudder, differ slightly from any yet found in Lab-
rador, though they may yet be found farther north, or
may prove to be local species, remnants of a sub-arctic
fauna which peopled the surface of New England, living
between the coast and the snow line in the interior. As
the line of perpetual snow retreated up the mountain
sides, the more hardy species followed, while many
others doubtless died in the great changes of climate and
topography which ushered in the historic period. As
there are aerial or alpine outliers, relics of this ancient
sub-arctic fauna and flora, so we must consider the pres-
ent abyssal forms, and outliers of the Labrador marine
fauna,—such as inhabited the Banks of Nova Scotia and
northern New England, and the cold waters of the
mouth of the Bay of Fundy,—as the remnants of the
Syrtensian fauna, which during the glacial period must
have been spread very uniformly over this area.

The arctic sea-birds even now breed upon the islands
in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, as they do on the
coast of Labrador. I am told by fishermen that the
Puffin, Zormon arctica, used to breed on Mount Desert.

342 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

The Acca impennts was probably a common bird, as it
was once on the shores of Scandinavia and Scotland;
there are rumors extant among our oldest fishermen of
its having been seen vears ago, but within the recollec-
tion of men now living, as I am informed by Professor
A. E. Verrill; and its bones have occurred in the kitch-
en-middings of the coast of Nova Scotia and of Massa-
chusetts at Ipswich. It is known by Rev. Mr. Wilson,
a missionary in Newfoundland, to have been common
less than forty years ago about the Fogo Islands, on the
northeastern shore of Newfoundland, as I have been in-
formed by Mr. G. A. Boardman of Calais, Maine.
These birds represent the sub-arctic avi-fauna of New
England during the later period of the drift, and owe
their extinction possibly to the slow changes of the
climate, which must have been gradually ameliorating for
two centuries past in the north temperate zone, but
more especially to their destruction by man.

All the facts cited above must at least tend to disprove
any theory of a former tertiary or post-tertiary continental
connection between Europe and America. The fauna
and flora of Labrador during the glacial period were too
distinct, the oceanic currents could not have allowed
any interchange of forms, and the great depth of the sea
in Baffin’s Bay would have prevented such migrations as
Forbes supposed to have taken place from Europe.

The geological history of the American continent, as
laid down so clearly by Professor Dana in the Proceed-
ings of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science for 1856, proves that the different formations
were, during paleozoic, mesozoic, and tertiary times,
built around the granitic laurentian nucleus of British

THE AMERICAN GLACIAL FAUNA UNLIKE THE EUROPEAN. 343

America, and gradually proceeded southward. All the
tertiary rocks form narrow strips of land along the coast.
No well-informed geologist can believe that the tertiary
strata formed continuous sea-bottoms,—that, for instance,
the miocene beds of Spitzbergen were continuous with
those of Disco Island in Greenland, or that the Green-
land beds are a part of the miocene strata of the Southern
States. Equally unfounded on general geological prin-
ciples seems the theory of a tertiary Atlantis, advanced
some years ago, especially by Heer and others, though
first proposed by Forbes, to account for the distribution
of life in the Azores and the islands lying off the mouth
of the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the fauna as we go
southward from the arctic zone becomes more and more
distinct, and it is probable that such distinctions obtained
from the earliest palzozoic times. The Silurian fauna
of Europe is nearly as distinct from that of North
America as the tertiary fauna of England and France is
from that of Virginia, as in the latter case insisted on by
Sir Charles Lyell in the Quarterly Journal of the Geo-
logical Society for 1845.

During glacial times, the cave-bear, lion, hyena, an
aurochs were associated in Europe with the musk-ox
reindeer, and polar bear. It cannot be said that th
glacial fauna of America was derived by immigration
from Europe, for not a single feature peculiarly Euro-
pean in its type is found in our post-tertiary beds. On
the other hand, the glacial fauna of northern Europe
was essentially Arctic-European or “‘palzearctic.” Be-
cause the musk-ox is found fossil in the turbaries: of
France and gravels of Germany, it need not be inferred
that the European fauna of that period borrowed an

344 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST,

American feature. We would rather suppose that the
former range of the musk-ox, a circumpolar species, was
Arctic-European as well as American. In considering the
origin of the flora of Labrador, though not possessing a
special knowledge of the botany, we would on general
principles venture to dissent from the view of Dr.
Hooker, that the flora of northeastern Arctic America
is essentially Scandinavian in its origin.

The flora of Labrador, so far as we were enabled to
observe, follows closely the laws of distribution of the
land and sea animals ; and any theory that separates the
origin of the two assemblages cannot be in accordance
with the general laws of the distribution of life, be it

plant or animal, over the surface of the globe. The .

fauna of Australasia is no less peculiar than its flora;
the flora of Brazil is characterized by its peculiar tropical
American forms, just as the fauna is circumscribed by
peculiar features. So we must believe that the origin of
the Arctic-European and Arctic-American and Arctic-
Asiatic floras and faunas was distinct from the outset, and
that they have never borrowed, by extensive inter-conti-
nental migrations, each other’s peculiar characteristics.
As we have observed in regard to the animals, there are
a very large proportion of arctic plants spread over the
whole arctic zone, which cannot be said to be American
any more than European or Asiatic, but simply circum-
polar. On the other, hand, there is a small percentage of
which the reverse is true, and this is paralleled among the
animals,

Sir J. D. Hooker, in his elaborate essay on the Dis-
tribution of Arctic Plants in the Linnean Transactions
for 1861, accounts for the greater richness of the flora of

—_—

DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 345

Lapland over that of other arctic regions by the blend-
ing of warm and cold currents of air and water, and its
great diversity of mountains and lowlands; while on the
broad plains of Siberia and the level plateau of Labrador
there is the greatest uniformity of climate, and hence a
corresponding paucity of plants.

The same climatic conditions determine the distribu-
tion of marine life. As we go from Norway to Green-
land the number of species lessens greatly. Dr. Liitken,
in his admirable View of the Echinoderms of Green-
land, shows that the fauna is essentially Arctic-American
rather than European. It is so with the other radiates,
and the articulate and molluscan fauna, and the fish
‘fauna would seem to follow the same law.

Dr. Hooker cites fifty-seven species of plants which
do not cross from Greenland to America. This is par-
alleled by the apparent restriction of a few species of
marine invertebrates to the high polar seas, such as the
Leda truncata and Pecten grenlandicus, though in gla-
cial times they abounded in northeastern America.

Among the most purely Arctic-American plants are
the Potentilla tridentata, which is abundant in Green-
land and which we have collected in profusion in Lab-
rador, Maine, and on the White Mountains; also the
Arenaria grenlandica, which is more thoroughly arctic,
preferring the coldest spots on the outer islands of the
coast of Labrador, and the alpine summit of Mount
Washington, and which has even been detected on Cape
Elizabeth, Me.

These two plants—which Dr. Hooker acknowledges
have never occurred elsewhere on the globe within the
historic period—he supposes were originally from Scan-

346 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

dinavia, though they have never been found in Europe.
By this mode of reasoning we might just as well imagine
the clam, Wya arenaria, to have been derived originally
from Europe, or the bison to have been derived from
the aurochs of Europe. The presence of such charac-
teristic Arctic-American forms in Greenland must de-
stroy our confidence in the supposed identity of the
Greenland flora with that of Lapland, for there are
strong grounds for regarding the flora of Greenland as
arctic and circumpolar simply, rather than European-
Arctic, and that on either side the flora becomes more
strongly either American or European, as we go west-
ward or eastward of Greenland.*

When, following the line of the yearly isothermal of
32°, we go to the southward on either side of the At-
‘lantic, we find warm and cold currents of air and water
intermingling, and thus producing much greater diver-
sity of climate than in Greenland. While the Gulf
Stream abuts directly upon Scandinavia, some of its
effects are felt in Newfoundland and Labrador. Both
lands are continental, and shade into temperate regions.
There is a very perfect correspondence in the geology
and distribution of the formations, and hence, as Hooker
observes, there are a large number (230) of plants,
common to Labrador and Scandinavia, which do not
occur in Greenland. This is parallelled very exactly in
the distribution of animal life. In the seas of Labrador
and Newfoundland are found forms derived from the
more temperate seas of New England, as on the coast of

* In a paper by Eug. Warming in Engler’s Jahrbiicher, x. 1889, on the flora
of Greenland, the author concludes that Greenland is not a European province
but has nearer relations to America. (Mature, May 30, 1889. p. 117.)

DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 347

Norway many forms occur which are derived from the
British seas, and are even found as far south as the
Mediterranean. These serve greatly to swell the lists.
In fact the facies of the flora of Labrador is sud-arctec
and by no means purely arctic, as is that of Greenland.

- Explained in this way the flora of Greenland seems to

us no more anomalous than its colder climate and re-
moteness from sub-arctic lands, isolated as it ever has
been by deep seas and powerful oceanic currents of dif-
ferent temperatures, which, we must believe, served
from very early times as barriers against the comming-
ling of more temperate forms of life with purely circum-
polar species.

There is, in our view, no reason to believe that the
glacial period, as some writers have suggested, has
shifted from the eastern to the western hemisphere, or
vice versé ; for the same causes which brought on the
cold period were evidently common to the arctic and
sub-arctic regions throughout their whole extent, though
governed greatly by the present distribution of the iso-
thermal lines. That the drift deposits were laid down
contemporaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, seems
proved by such facts as this: that Leda arctica (L. port-
landica), more than any other shell characteristic of the
drift deposits of the northern portions of America and
Europe, has become alike extinct both in Scandinavia
and its equivalent, Labrador, Canada, and New Eng-
land.

The break in the glacial beds—which by Sars* (in
which he closely follows D’Archiac) are divided into-an

* Om de i Norge forekommende fossile Dyrelevninger fra Quarterperioden,
ete.; af M. Sars, Christiania, 1865.

348 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

earlier Quaternary or “ g/acza/” formation, from which
few fossils have been taken, and those purely arctic in
character, and the more recent beds, ‘‘ post-glacial,”
resting upon them, containing a great influx of Joread or
sub-arctic and some Lusitanico-Mediterranean species—
does not seem so distinctly marked in northeastern
America asin Europe. In southern England the able
researches of Mr. Searles V. Wood, Jun., enable this
writer to “ arrive at the conclusion that the widespread
bowlder clay of England is wholly distinct from the
older, but partially developed drift of the Cromer coast.
That conclusion was arrived at by the minute examina-
tion of more than eight thousand square miles of the
eastern portion of England, and the grounds for it were
submitted to geologists in a detailed map of the drift
beds over the whole of that area, with copious sections,
It was thus that I acquired the opinion which induces
me to deny, as I do, ‘that we have yet any evidence of
any general submergence at the incoming of the glacial
period, far less of repeated oscillations of submergence
and emergence.’ . . . Now although I have endeavored
to show that on the east coast of England four oscilla-
tions of climate have occurred since the incidence of the
glacial period, viz. : first, the extreme cold of the Cromer
drift when the country except a part of Norfolk was
land; second, the ameliorated climate of the sand and
gravel series, which overlies that drift unconformably,
and partially underlies the bowlder clay; third, the re-
turn of cold with the extensive submergence which in-
traduced the widespread formation of bowlder clay;
and fourth, the return to sand and gravel conditions,
with the elevation and denudation of that clay and the

THE BOWLDER CLAY. 349

introduction of the post-glacial series—yet the oscilla-
tions of climate during the tertiary period begin as well
as end with these.”— 7he Reader, London, 1865, p. 466.

Having the grand outlines of this formation thus
mapped out for us, it remains for geologists in this coun-
try to see how far the parallel can be carried out in
America. There is as yet everything to be learned of
the lowest and oldest bowlder clay of the coast of Maine ;
to ascertain how far it is conformable with the brickyard
clays of the uplands, and whether there is an overlying
bed of sand such as the sheets of sand resting every-
where on the upper bowlder clay. At present there
have been revealed no signs of this lower bed of sand
clay, and the lowest clay beds we are acquainted with
seem to graduate into the rewashed, more inland, and
more recent bowlder or brickyard clays.

In adopting the term Quaternary Period; we would
use it in the amended sense proposed by D’Archiac in
1848, in his ‘Histoire des Progrés de la Géologie.”
From his able review of all the prime characteristics so
trenchantly dividing this period from the Pliocene Ter-
tiary, we are led with that author to consider this period
as rather equivalent to the Tertiary as a whole, than to
either of its three subdivisions ; and rather as the begin-
ning of a new epoch or period, than the close of the
Tertiary. The distinctions, as shown by D’Archiac, ob-
tain no less in the tropics than in the high latitudes, In
tropical America the period is marked off from the Ter-
tiary by the appearance of the great mammals, the Her-
bivores characterizing the formation in America, and the
great Carnivores the deposit of the Eastern hemisphere.
About the Mediterranean the Tertiary Period closed

350 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

with the upheaval or the Sub-Apennines of Italy, or Alps
of Valais.

Professor Dana, in his ‘Manual of Geology,” states
further important distinctions, such as the rise of land in
the high latitudes which had not before taken place since
Palzeozoic times, ushering in the period of great glaciers,
and thus serving, over one half of the surface of the
globe, to further separate this epoch from the Tertiary.

Another feature of this period is the great uniformity
of climate over broad, continental areas, and the wide
distribution in space of certain species most characteristic
of the Quaternary Formation, Such are the occurrence,
on both hemispheres, of the musk-ox, the Siberian mam-
moth (£. przmzgenzus), and, among marine mollusca, of
Leda arctica Gray, Sars (portlandzca), which is now re-
stricted to the circumpolar seas.

General Conclustons.—To account for all the facts
which have been developed above, we must assume,—

I. That the northern portion of North America, that
is, the boreal and arctic regions, stood at a much higher
level above the sea than now. We have given good
evidence that it stood at least three hundred and sixty
feet above that level in Labrador. It would be safe to
assume that the coast line stood at an elevation not fall-
ing short of six hundred feet. While this increase in the
height of the land would not materially change the
physiognomy of the continent north of the St. Lawrence
River and Gulf, where the tableland rises abruptly from
the ocean as in the arctic regions; it would effect a
great alteration in the distribution of dry land south of
the parallel of 50° N. Should all the present sea-bottom
lying within the limits of the depth of one hundred

THE LEDA CLAY. 951

fathoms be thus raised, the Gulf of St. Lawrence would
be represented by a river delta, one mouth in the Straits
of Belle Isle, the other flowing out between Cape Bre-
ton and Cape Ray. All the submarine plateaux, such
as the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, and the banks ly-
ing off the coast of Nova Scotia, Maine, and Cape Cod,
would be elevated above the sea, and probably form
broad plains. Thus the effects on the distribution of
life would essentially differ from those of the region
north of 50° N. Such a rise and enlarged area of land
would, as has been stated by physicists, produce an ex-
tension southward of an extreme arctic temperature.
While the climate would be greatly lowered, we still
have added the proximity of the Gulf Stream, as evi-
denced by the temperate rather than arctic fauna of the
glacial beds of New York and Nantucket, and the more
tropical assemblage of South Carolina. Such a blending
of hot and cold currents of air and water must have pro-
duced even more fogs and a much greater rainfall than
now, to feed the enormous glaciers which moved into the
sea from off the principal water-sheds.

II. Leda Clay.—There was a gradual change of level
in the sea. Atthe close of the glacial period the snow
line gradually receded from the coast, and the glaciers
retreated to the mountains. During the slow and gen-
tle submergence of the land ushering in this epoch, the
crude moraine matter was sorted into beds of regularly
‘stratified clays one hundred to three hundred feet in
thickness. The lowest beds consequently are the most
ancient, as is also evidenced by the greater prevalence of
arctic forms. During this time the sea was filled with
floating ice, as at present on the Labrador coast, and the

352 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

great polar or Labrador current exerted its full power.
The temperature being so even throughout the northern
hemispheres of the globe, there was a great uniformity
in the distribution of life, and certain species enjoyed a
wide distribution where now they are restricted to com-
paratively narrowareas. Toward the close of this period
the Greenland seal, the walrus, and the Vermont whale
(Beluga Vermontana), flourished. The Age of great
Mammals dated from this early period. An arctic fauna
and flora inhabited the coast between the sea and the
low snow line, and the flora and fauna which are now
found only on our alpine heights, or in cold, isolated’
spots on the coast of Maine and the northern lakes, then
peopled the surface of New England and Canada. All
the biological features of this epoch partook of an inter-
mixture of the boreal and arctic faunas and floras that
are now more distinctly circumscribed into narrower
areas, :
We have no evidence of an intercontinental commu-
nication with Europe during this period. Then, as now,
there was a local facies imprinted on those animals
whose remains have survived, exhibiting the same faunal
distinctions, and even more strongly marked than now.

The close of this period was signalized by a great
amelioration of climate, by broad areas of marine clays
finely laminated, and having more sand and loam inter-
mixed than in the lowest and oldest beds. This was the
transition from a period of broad estuaries, and, at a late
stage, of shallow seas, to the next epoch of a secular
emergence. It ushered in the—

III. Perzod of ratsed Beaches (Saxicava Sands). This
necessarily implies a great denudation of the glacial clays

THE TERRACE EPOCH. 353

The rolled, sea-worn bowlders, shingle and sand, com-
posing the mass of the ancient osars and beach deposits,
now found at all heights from the sea-level to those of
five hundred or six hundred feet, are derived from the
resorting of the moraines. We thus find that the high-
est beaches are the oldest, and the most recent, those
just above the ocean level. The temperature of the sea
did not differ greatly from that of the present day. Dur-
ing the epoch the present distribution of the faunz now
inhabiting the temperate and arctic zones was estab-
lished, and since then but little change has taken place.
The fresh-water shells found about the Niagara River
and other.deposits in Canada, were, so far as we know,
introduced at this time. Those shells found in beach
deposits on the St. Lawrence River, from four hundred
to five hundred feet above the present level of the river,
show that but little change has taken place in the climatic
relations of the land or in the distribution of the animals
depending on such relations. It is evident that the
_ Acadian fauna, once restricted to the regions south of
the Saco River, during this epoch crept up the coast of
Maine, extended itself along the western shores of the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and prevailed in the St. Lawrence.
River, and the broad estuary now represented by Lake
Champlain.

The close of this period witnessed the surface of New
England covered by broad lakes and ponds, with vast
rivers and extensive estuaries, with deep fiords cutting
up the coast-line. Its scenic features must have resem-
bled those of Labrador at the present day.

IV. The Terrace Epoch. The estuaries and deep
bays left beach deposits of sand and shingle, resulting

354 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

from the drainage of the slowly rising continent. All
the terraces are unconformable to the marine sands
underlying them, though the highest terraces farthest
from the coast may have been forming while the more
recent sea-beaches were being deposited by the action of
the waves and tide. Thus the early part of the Lake
period is synchronous with the Jatter part of the Beach
period. So also the lower strata of the Leda clays were
laid down during the deposition of the oldest beaches,
causing a constant inosculation of these unconformable
deposits, and thus the beginning of one epoch overlaps
the close of the previous one.

CHAPTER XV.
THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

WuILE the zoology of the interior and western por-
tions of the Labrador peninsula is undoubtedly like that
of the Hudson’s Bay district and the cooler portions of
Canada, as well as northern Maine and New Hampshire,
it presents quite different features on the treeless por-
tions of the coast, and on the outer islands. There, the
fauna, as a whole, is closely allied to that of southern
Greenland, and is remarkably free from the “boreal”
forms ranging throughout British America. Indeed
the insects and mollusks are in many cases identical with
those of Greenland, as are the climatic,* topographic,
and general geological features of the coast. Did the
mountains of Labrador rise above the snow line, where
now they just reach its lower limits, and were the rain
fall slightly greater, glaciers would undoubtedly exist,
running down the fiords into the sea, as they do north of
Hudson’s Strait, and we should perhaps have a nearly
perfect correspondence between the Atlantic slope of
northern Labrador and that portion of Greenland lying
between the 6oth and 7oth parallels of latitude.

On the outer islands, lining the coast for nearly forty
or fifty miles deep, in the vicinity of Hopedale, the birds,

vet

* The mean annual temperature of Hopedale in lat. 55° 35’ ‘‘is certainly not
higher than 26° Fahr.” Ball’s Notes of a Naturalist in South America, p. 273.
355

356 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

insects, land shells and the vegetation, present an almost
purely circumpolar character. Thus certain butterflies
and moths first discovered in high latitutes are very
abundant about Hopedale and southward, also occuring
on the alpine summits of the White mountains and of
the Rocky mountains, and certain of them even fre-
quenting the Alps of Switzerland, the mountains of
Scandinavia and the summits of the Altai mountains in
northeastern Asia.

It is this mingled circumpolar and boreal fauna which
composed that assemblage of life-forms, which peopled
New England and the extreme northern states, as well as
Canada, during the glacial period, and which as the ice
waned, migrating northward, was gradually driven to-
wards the north pole, though still lingering on the alpine
summits, and on the treeless barrens of Labrador. These
bleak, bare tracts, including many thousand square miles
of islands lining the Labrador coast, agree in their vege-
tation and animal life with similar tracts and islands in
Jatitudes 70° to 80° N. This is due to the cold Labra-
dor current, and to the immense fields of floating ice,
nearly filling up the channels and friths between these
islands throughout the entire short summer of six weeks,
thus greatly reducing the temperature, while in Novem-
ber the bays and inlets freeze up solid until the following
June.

Indeed the Labrador peninsula with its varied physi-
cal features affords admirable examples of the influence
of the environment on animal and plant life. The com-
plete harmony which exists between the organisms, both
terrestrial and marine, and their surroundings, is evidently
the result of their adaption to the arctic or the subarctic

THE WHITE BEAR. 357

nature of their habitats. The peninsula stands out in the
Atlantic ocean, bounded on the north by the polar sea
and lands, with their floating ice, glaciers, and frozen
soil. Past the Atlantic shores of the peninsula sweeps the
broad, deep, and powerful Labrador or polar current, bear-
ing on its surface through the spring and summer months,
and about Hudson’s Strait, in certain years, throughout
the autumn, a mass of floating ice about 100,000 square
miles in extent. Hence the mean annual temperature
is, on the coast, especially on the promontories and
islands, as low as that of southern Greenland.

In my first published remarks on the occurrence of
the white bear in Labrador, where it is sometimes called’
the “water bear,” in distinction from the black bear,
which is very common on that coast, J then supposed
that the polar bear was a straggler from Hudson’s or
Baffin’s bays, rather by accident than otherwise, at rare in-
tervals breeding so far south as Labrador. But on look-
ing over the accounts of the early discoverers and navi-
gators, as well as Cartwright’s ‘‘ Journal,” I am led to
materially alter my opinion and to suppose that the for-
mer limits of this creature extended even possibly as far
south as Casco bay, on the coast of Maine.

Whether there are any notices of or references to the
white bear in the records and sagas of the Norsemen
who visited the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia,
we are unable to say. White bears were, however, seen
by the first English navigator who discovered our shores,
the intrepid Venetian, John Cabot, then sailing under
an English flag. The following reference to white bears
appears in an extract from an inscription on the map of
Sebastian Cabot in Hakluyt’s Voyages (iii. 27) :

358 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

“In the yeere of our Lord 1497 Iohn Cabot, a Vene-
tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set
out from Bristoll) discouered that which no man before
that time had attempted, on the 24th of Iune, about five
of the clock early in the morning. This land he called
Prima vista, that is to say, First seene, because as I sup-
pose it was that point whereof they had the first sight
from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land,
he called the island of S. Iohn vpon this occasion, as |
thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of Iohn
the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to weare
beast skinnes, and have them in as great estimation as
we have our finest garments. In their warres they vse
bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, wooden clubs and slings.
The soil is barren in some places, and yieldeth litle fruit,
but it is full of white beares, and stagges far greater than
ours.”

This account shows quite conclusively that John
Cabot’s Prima Vista was some point of land in eastern or
northern Newfoundland. The eminent geographer, Dr,
J. G. Kohl, in his History of the Discovery of Maine,
seems fully persuaded that the landfall of John Cabot
was Labrador. But if the inscription and map are gen-
uine, the description of the inhabitants of the island, both
men and beasts, would better apply to those of the east-
ern or southern Newfoundland. The human beings
Were more probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the
Labrador coast the soil is “barren” in all places, while
the ‘‘stagges far greater than ours” may have been the
moose, which does not inhabit the Labrador coast.
Whether the “white beares” were the polar bears or a pale
variety of the barren-ground bear of Sir John Richard-

THE WHITE BEAR. 359

son is somewhat uncertain. We should have unhesitat-
ingly referred the creature to the polar bear, were it not
that in Parmenius’ account of Newfoundland, published
in 1583, it is said: ‘‘ Bears also appear about the fishers’
stages of the countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they
seeme to be white, as I coniectured by their skinnes,
and somewhat lesse then ours.” (Hakluyt.)

The next explorer of this coast was Cortereal who, in
1500, landed on the Newfoundland coast, at or probably
near Cape Race. In an old Portuguese map of about
the year 1520 isa long Latin inscription, thus translated
by Kohl, a part of which we copy: ‘“ This country was
first discovered by Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, and
he brought from there wild and barbarous men and white
bears. There are to be found in it plenty of animals,
birds and fish.” The land from which Cortereal brought
the white bears was evidently the same as that in which
he kidnapped fifty-seven of the aborigines. These were
Indians and not Eskimo, and must have been the inhabi-
tants either of Newfoundland or of Nova Scotia, fora per-
son who saw them in the streets of Lisbon described them
“as tall, well-built, and admirably fit for labor.” That,
however, they were the aborigines of Newfoundland,
perhaps Bethuks, seems proved by the fact that a num-
ber of white bears were also captured and sent to Spain
withthem. From these facts it seems reasonable to infer
that the white or polar bear was a resident. on the eastern
coast of Newfoundland.

The next navigator to explore these seas was Jacques
Cartier, who arrived May tioth,.1534, on the eastern
coast of Newfoundland. To this observing seaman we
owe our first accounts of the great auk or “ penguin” on

360 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

the Island of Birds, now Funk or Fogo Island, on the
northeastern coast of Newfoundland ; also of the Bird
rocks of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

While harboring at what is now Funk Island, Cartier,
after describing the great auks, tells us that he saw a
white bear. In his own language, done into quaint
English by Hakluyt: “And albeit the sayd Island be
14 leagues from the maineland, notwithstanding beares
come swimming thither to eat of the sayd birds: and
our men found one there as great as any cow, and as
white as any swan, who in their presence leapt into the
sea, and upon Whitsun-monday (following our voyage
towards the Jand) we met her by the way, swimming
toward land as swiftly as we could saile. So soone as
we saw her, we pursued her with our boats, and by maine
strength tooke her, whose flesh was as goode to be eaten
as the flesh of a calfe two yeres olde.”

From this graphic and circumstantial account we feel
sure that this was the great white or polar bear (Ursus
marttimus); that it reached its full size, was not uncom-
mon on the mainland (John Cabot says the land was
“full” of them), and that it bred there, as those. men-
tioned by Parmenius in 1583 were probably young ones.

The white bear is still occasionally seen on this coast,
as Rev. Mr. Harvey states :* ‘‘The seal hunters occasion-
ally encounter the white or polar bear on the ice off the
coast, and sometimes it has been known to land.”

Now, if in these early times of Cabot and Cartier the
eastern coast of Newfoundland was the habitat and
breeding place of the polar bear, it is not unlikely that

* Hatton and Harvey’s Newfoundland, Boston, 1883, p. 193.

THE WHITE BEAR. 361

jt occasionally might have visited, as we know the walrus
did, the coast of Nova Scotia and of Maine.

Our supposition is based on the following facts: In an
ancient map of ‘“‘ New France,” by the Italian Jacomo
di Gastaldi, in about the year 1550, republished by Kohl,
and which we present, though of reduced size, what we
should consider as veritable white bears are depicted as
swimming in the ocean far from the coast of what must
have been Nova Scotia, and near to but west of Sable
Island or “ Isola della rena.” In the map the bears are
placed to the southward of “Terra de Nvrvmbega,”
which evidently comprised Nova Scotia and Eastern
Maine. Sable Island is an enlarged portion of a broad
band, intended to represent the banks of Newfoundland
and La Have.

That the animals represented are bears admits of little
‘doubt ; of the four figures the lowermost one is a seal ; it
is drawn without ears, while the three other figures have
large, drooping ears, like those of a bear. At any rate,
if the locality was put in at haphazard by the map-drawer,
why should white bears. be also represented, as they seem
to be in the ocean off Isola de Demoni. The figures of
the black bear, as well as of the rabbit and of the abo-
rigines were all drawn, and it seems not unreasonable to
infer that white bears were actually seen and reported to
the south and west of Newfoundland.

That the white bear may have visited the coast of
Maine, near Portland, is further proved by the probable
discovery. by Prof. E. S. Morse of a white bear’s tooth
in the shell heaps of Casco Bay.

Speaking of the bones of the bears found ina shell
heap on Goose Island, Casco Bay, Maine, the late Pro-

362 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

fessor Wyman remarked in the AMERICAN NATURALIST,
1,575, January, 1868:

“The bones of the dear though much less numerous,
were similarly broken up, and in two instances had been
carbonized by contact with the fire. Among the speci-
mens collected by Mr. Morse in his first visit to Crouch’s

~~ ~~ __ ——__TRAMONTANA|

PARTE INCOGNITA

ae =e

=

ANCIA.

VA FR

ERRA of NVR

New Franee Bye SHalian Jacomo di Gaftaldi in about the year 1550

cove was the last molar from the lower jaw. The crown
was somewhat worn, but the ridges were not all effaced ;
it was of small size, measuring 0.55 inch in length and
and 0.46 in breadth. The average size of eight speci-
mens of the same molar in the black bear was: Length,
0.60 inch; breadth, 0.47, while that of two specimens
from the polar bear was, length, 0.54 inch; breadth,
0.45. The tooth from the shell heaps, therefore, as re-

THE WHITE BEAR. 363

gards size, more closely resembles the last-mentioned
species, as it does also in the shape of the crown—but it
must be unsafe from a single specimen of the molar in
question to attempt to identify them. The former exist-
ence of the polar bear on the coast of Maine is rendered
quite probable by the fact that the tusk of a walrus has
actually been found at Gardiner.”

That the white bear formerly was an inhabitant of
Newfoundland seems probable from the facts we have
brought together, and it is to be hoped that the antiqua-
rians and naturalists of Newfoundland will investigate
the shell heaps, should such be found, of that island for
further facts bearing on this subject.

We will now turn our attention to the former presence
of the white bear on the Labrador coast, where the set-
tlers still call it the ‘water bear.” We find only in Cart-
wright’s Journal reference to this creature, but this is suf-
ficient to show that it bred on and permanently inhabited
this coast from Belle Isle, or Chateau Bay, northward.
A white bear was killed in 1769 at Pitt’s harbor, Chateau
Bay. There is a ‘White Bear Sound” on Cartwright’s
map just north of Cape Charles, near Battle Island.
Cartwright’s house was to the northward of Cape Charles,
in an arm of Sandwich Bay. In 1770 Cartwright saw
the track of two large white bears, and the Eskimo killed
one the same year near his house. In April, 1772, the
tracks of three white bears were seen. In April, 1776, a
white bear and cubs were seen near Huntington Island,
and in the following May another was observed. White
bears were also seen up the rivers leading into Sandwich
Bay, and on pp. 410-11 Cartwright describes the habits
of the white bear in Labrador, stating that the young

364 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

are born in March, the parent bringing forth usually one
at a time, sometimes two.

While on the coast of Labrador in the summers of
1860 and 1864, we gathered what facts we could as to the
occurrence of this animal, publishing them in the Pro-
ceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History (Vol.
x, 1866, 270), from which we take the following extract:

“ At Square island, a locality situated between Belle
Isle and Domino Harbor, two cubs were captured and
taken to St. Johns, Newfoundland. At Domino Har-
bor the skin of abear killed during the preceding spring
(1863) was obtained by one of our party. An intelli
gent hunter told me that the white bear was not unfre-
quently seen at Stag Bay, near Roger’s Harbor, which
is situated a little more than fifty miles south of Hope-
dale. One was killéd there during the preceding winter
(1863), and in the autumn their tracks were abundant.
They were very shy, and could not be seen in the day-
time. Further south they are much rarer. The last
polar bear said to have been seen in the Strait of Belle
Isle was shot fifteen years ago (1849), at the settlement
of Salmon Bay.”

While the entire peninsula was during the glacial
period mantled in ice, and as cold, or nearly so, as
Greenland is at present, the more exposed parts of the
coast north of Belle Isle are still arctic, or at least sub-
arctic. On the other hand the main land, for the most
part consisting of Laurentian gneiss and schists, has
probably from Archzan times been dry land, forming an
important portion of the continental nucleus of North
America. Its scanty soil is now over a large proportion
of its surface probably frozen throughout the year; the

DISTRIBUTION OF INDIANS AND ESKIMOS.. 365,

Barren Grounds extend as far south as perhaps lat. 58°,
and spread still southward on the higher elevated por-
tions of the plateau, which are bare of trees, so that the
northern third of the peninsula is practically arctic, the
animal and plant life being essentially arctic. But
southward, including the sheltered valleys of the north-
ern or Atlantic coast and of the elevated interior, with
the St. Lawrence region, the climatic features and flora
and fauna are like those of the western and southern
shores of Hudson’s Bay and the northern shores of
the St. Lawrence. It thus forms a portion of the Boreal.
or Canadian Province of temperate North America,

It will thus be seen that the conditions of existence,.
and the adjustment of the plants and animals to their
habitats in Labrador, are those primarily depending on
the temperature both of the ocean and of the air; and
the more we know of the distribution of life in this.
region, the more delicate appears to be.the balance:
maintained between the organisms and their environ-
ment. This is also seen in the relative distribution of
the Indians and Eskimos. The former inhabit the
boreal, wooded portions; the. latter the arctic, bare, tree-
less, arctic portions of the coast and of the Barren.
Grounds, when the latter shade into the barren east and.
west coast of the northern extremity of the peninsula.

The best example of a purely arctic animal which
still breeds on the coast is the white bear. It is an in-
teresting fact that at Fort George, Hudson’s Bay, both
the black and white bear are known to breed. The
white bear mates about the middle of April, and
“the young, from one to three in number, are born in
holes under rocks lined with brush, grass, and moss, to--

366 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

wards the end of October. At time of birth they are
the size of a large rat, white in color, helpless, and with.
closedeyes. They are suckled for five months, the male
assisting in rearing them.” * .

With the white bear is still associated the walrus,
which was formerly as abundant on this coast, and in
the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Magdalen Islands and
certain parts of Nova Scotia, as it now is in the polar
regions, ;

The Britons and Basques, as well as the English, went
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence after morses, during the
years 1591-93. How abundant they were is stated in
‘A relation of the first voyage and discoverie of the
Isle Ramea, made by for Monsieur de La
Court Pre Rauillon, and Grand Pre, with the ship
calledthe Bonaventure, to killand make Traine oil of the
beast called the Morses with great teeth, which we have
perfourmed by Gods helpe this yeere 1591.” (Hakluyt
in, 235.)

“The coast stretcheth three leagues to the west from
Lisle Blanch or the white Isle, vnto the entrance of a
riuer, where we slewe and killed to the number of fif-
teene hundred Morses or Sea oxen, accounting small and
great, when at full sea you may come on shoare with
boates, and within are two or three fathoms water.”

“The 14 [June] we came to the two Islands of. Birds,
some 23 leagues fro Menego; where there were such
abundance of Birds, as is almost incredible to report.
And vpon the lesse of these Islands of Birds, we saw
great store of Morsses or sea Oxen, which were a sleepe

* Miles Spencer, Annual Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey
of Canada. New Series, iii. Part 2, 1878-88, p. 76.

THE WALRUS. 367

vpon the rockes; but when we approched nere vnto
them with our boate, they cast themselues into the sea
and persued vs with such furie as that we were glad to
flee from them.”

“The three Islands of birds are sandy red, but with
the multitude of birds vpon them they looke white. The
birds sit there as thicke as stones lie in a paued street.
The greatest of the Islands is about a mile in compasse.
The second is a little lesse. The third is a very little one,
like a small rocke. At the second of these three lay on
the shore in the Sunshine about thirty or forty sea-oxen
or morses ; which when our boat came’ nere them, pres-
ently made into the sea, and swam after the boat.” (The
voyage of Mr. Charles Leigh and diuers others to
Cape Briton and the Isle of Ramea, 1597. Hakluyt
ill, 242.)

Parkman* also tells us that the year after the battle
of Ivry, St. Malo sent out a fleet of small craft in quest
of this new prize.

Hind, speaking, of Seven Islands Bay, in his work on
Labrador, says: ‘In the spring and at the approach of
winter it is visited by myriads of ducks, geese, and
swans; it was formerly a favorite haunt of the walrus,
which, although not now seen even in the Gulf itself,
was once common as far up the great river St. Lawrence,
as the mouth of Saugenay, and from this animal the
‘Pointe aux VAaches,’ about a mile below Tadousac,
takes its name. Not improbably the ‘fishes like horses’
which the Indians described as frequenting the Chi-sche-
dec, and which Lescarbot calls hippopotami, were these
large animals.”

* Pioneers of France ‘in the New World, p. 209.

368 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

The bones of the walrus were in late years still to be
found on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, its former
great abundance there having been commented on by
Cartier and Charlevoix. According to tradition, it also
inhabited some of the harbors of Cape Breton; and I
have been informed by a Maine fisherman, that on an
islet near Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, the bones of an
enormous seal-like creature are to be found in the sand
near the shore, fifteen to twenty feet above the sea. The
last one seen or heard of in the Gulf, so far as I could
ascertain, was killed at St. Augustine, Labrador, about
the year 1840. One was seen at Square Island in 1849,
and two shortly before that, and another was killed at
the same place about the year 1855. In 1864 I saw the
head of a young walrus, which was found floating dead
in the drift ice north of Belle Isle, having been killed
apparently by a harpoon. Mr. Stearns states that two
were shot in 1880 and 1881 at Fox Harbor, St. Léwis.
Sound, off shore a little way.

The following lists, with the remarks appended, will
give in a methodical way what little is really known of
the zoology of the Labrador coast, beginning with the
animals of the lowest classes and ascending to the high-
est. The lists are printed rather for the benefit of the
scientific than the general reader. It may be mentioned
that a few species of sponges were collected, but not
identified,

C@LENTERATES. (Polyps, Hydroids, etc.)

Metridium marginatum Edw. & H. From Indian
Harbor southward, below low-tide.

Urtiina crasstcornis Ebr. From Square Island
southward; 1-10 f,

POLYPS AND HYDROIDS, 369

Edwardsta stpunculordes Stimp. Henley Harbor; q f.

Hydractinia polyclina Agass. Salmon Bay, Strait of
Belle Isle.

Coryne mtrabzlis Agass. Belles Amours.

Clava multicornis Pallas. Salmon Bay.

Thurarza thuga Fleming. ‘Mingan Islands, Labrador.

Halectum halectnum Johnst. Caribou Island in eight
fathoms, gravelly bottom, where its branches supported
the nests of Cerapus rubricornzs Stimps. Frequent in
thirty fathoms; Chateau Bay, on a sandy bottom.

Flalectum muricatum Johnst. Off Caribou Island,
in from thirty to fifty fathoms. Square Island in thirty
fathoms.

Cotulina polyzonias (Linn.). Caribou Island.

Cotulina tricuspidata (Alder). Strait of Belle Isle in
forty fathoms upon Dzphasza rosacea.

Amphitrocha rugosa (Linn.). Square Island, 30 f.

Sertularta filicula Ell. and Sol.

Sertularia falcata Linn, Mingan Islands, Gulf of St.
Lawrence.

Sertularia argentea Ell. and Sol. Caribou Island.

Sertularia cupressina Linn.

Sertularta abcetina Linn. Mingan Islands, Gulf of
St. Lawrence, and Labrador.

Diphasia rosacea (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

Dynamena pumila Lamx. Strait of Belle Isle, be-
tween tide-marks,

Lafea dumosa (Johnst.). Cateau Harbor, Long Isl-
and; 15 f.

Laomedea amphora Agass. Square Island.

Clytia volubild’s (Alder.). Henley Harbor, 20 to 30 f.

Oceania languida A. Agass. Caribou Island, 8 f.

370 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Campanularia verticillata Johnst. Henley Harbor,
20 f.

Lucernaria guadricornis Mill. Caribou Island, ro f.

Manania auricula (Fabr.).

Trachynema digitale A. Agass. Strawberry Har-
bor, 15 f.

Cyanea arctica Pér. et Pesan, Strait of Belle Isle.

Aurelia flavidula Pér. et Lesson. Strait of Belle
Isle, and in retired bays.

Idyia roseola Agass. Cape Webuc (Harrison) to
Salmon Bay in the Strait of Belle Isle.

Pleurobrachia rhododactyla Agass. Little Mecatina
Island.

Mertensia ovum Morch.

ECHINODERMS.

Astrophyton eucnemzs Miiller and Troschel. — Strait
of Belle Isle, 18 to 80 f.

Ophiacantha spinulosa Miill. and Trosch. Strait of
Belle Isle, 40 f.

Amphiura sundevalle M. and T. Cateau Bay, Long
Island, 15 f.

Ophiopholts aculeata Miiller. Whole coast 2-50. f.

Ophioglypha Sarsiz (Liitken). Cateau Bay, Long
Island, 15 f.

Ophioglypha nodosa Lyman. Salmon Bay to Square
Island, low-water to 30 f.

Ophioglypha robusta (Ayres). L’Anse-au-Loup to
Square Island, 2-10 f. (Stearns).

Crossaster papposa (Linn.). Salmon Bay, Square Isl
and, 15-30 f.

STARFISH. 371

Solaster endeca (Linn.) Forbes. Long Island, Cateau
Bay, 15f.

Cribella sangutnolenta (Miill.). Salmon Bay, Strait
of Belle Isle, 15 f., Square Island (Stearns).

Astertas grenlandicus Steenstr. Caribou Island and
Square Island, 15 f.

Astertas vulgares Stimps. Whole coast.

Asterias polaris (Miill et Trosch.). Caribou Island,
Square Island and Hopedale. Large specimens, measur-
ing 20 inches across, frequently occurred in pools at low-
watermark. The color in life was a light greenish hue,
mottled with reddish brown.

Lepastertas littoralis (Stimps.). Near Square Island,
1-5 f. (Stearns).

Strongylocentrotus drébachiensis Agass. Whole coast.

Echinarachnius parma Gray. Strait of Belle Isle.

Lophothuria Fabricet Verrill. Esquimaux Bay, 15 f.

Pentacta calcegera Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle.

Pentacta frondosa Jaeger. Strait of Belle Isle.

Chirodota leve Grube. Whole coast.

Eupyrgus scaber Liitken. Salmon Bay, 10 f., to
Long Island, 15 f.

Myriotrochus Rinki¢ Steenstr. Sandwich Bay to
Domino, 7-30 f.

POLYZOANS.

Tubulipora serpens (Linn.). Square Island, 30 f.;
Henley Harbor.

Tubulipora patina Johnst. Domino Harbor, 7 f.

Tubulipora divisa Stimps. Henley Harbor, 4 f.

Tubulipora hispida Johnst. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

Tubulipora palmata Wood. Strait of Belle Isle, 50f.

372 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Tubulipora expansa (Packard). Strait of Belle Isle.

Tubulipora atlantica Johnst. Strait of Belle Isle,
50 f. ; Square Island, 30 f.

Discoporella verrucarta (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle,
50 f.

Hippothoa catenularic Jameson.

Hippothoa borealis D’Orb. Strait of Belle Isle and
Cateau Harbor.

Hippothoa expansa Dawson. Strait of Belle Isle.

Leprala annulata O. Fabr. Strait of Belle Isle;
also in Cateau Harbor, Long Island, 15 f.

Lepratia ciliata Johnst. Whole coast.

Leprata (n. sp.). Allied to L. ¢rzspznosa Johnst. ;
very abundant. ;

Lepralia pertusa Thomps. Cateau Harbor, 15 f.

Lepratia producta Pack.

Leprata trispinosa Johnst.

Lepratia Belli Dawson. Strait of Belle Isle.

Lepratia labrata Stimps.

Lepralia lineata Hassell.

Smittia globifera (Pack.).

Electra pilosa (Linn.).

Membranipora lineata (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle,
10-50 f.

Membranipora unicornis var. americana D’Orb.

Membrantpora solida Pack.

Beania admiranda Pack.

Crzstae burnea (Linn.). Hopedale, 10f.; Henley Har-
bor, 4 f.

Bugulopsts Peachiz? (Busk.)..

Cellularta ternata (Solander). Strait of Belle Isle,
50 f.

MOLLUSCS. 373

Scrupocellaria americana Pack. Strait of Belle Isle,
50 f.; Belles Amours, 8 f.; Square Island, 10--30 f.
Acamarchis plumosa Busk. Thomas Bay, 15f.
Caberea Hookert Busk.
.Flustra borealis (Pack.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50f.
Flustra truncata Linn.
F. membranacea Linn.
Flustra papyrea Pall. digctata (Pack. ). Chateau Bay,
30 f.
Bugula murrayana Busk. Whole coast.
Bugula murrayana var. fruticosa Pack.
Cellepora pumicosa Ellis.
Celleporarta surculares Pack. Can. Nat. p. 410.
Eschara lobata Lamx.? Whole coast, 1o--5of.
E. elegantula D’Orb. Strait of Belle Isle, 5of.
Porella elegantula D’Orb. var. papposa (Pack.).
Chateau Bay.
Leveschara subgracelzs (D’Orb.) (Myrtozoum subgracile
D’Orb.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

BRACHIOPODS.
Hypothyres psittacea King.
Frequent on hard and sandy bottoms along the whole
coast in from eight to fifty fathoms.

MOLLUSCS. *
LAMELLIBRANCHIATA.
Anomia ephippium Linn. Caribou Island, 8f.;
Square Island, 30f.
Anomia aculeata Gmelin. Strait of Belle Isle, 10-50 f.

* This list has been perfected by incorporating the species found by Mr. W.
A. Stearns, and recorded by Miss Katharine J. Bush in her ‘‘ Catalogue of
Mollusca,” etc., of Labrador.

374 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Astarte Bankstt Leach. Whole coast in deep water.

Astarte compressa (Linn.). Abundant on the whole
coast in from 10 to 50 f.

Astarte arctica (Gray). Henley Harbor to Square
Island, 2-15 f. (Stearns) .

Astarte elliptica (Brown). Henley Harbor, 5-15 f.
(Stearns. )

Astarte striata eaeh Hopedale, ro f.

Cardium ctliatum Fabr. Square Island, 30 f; Sal-
mon Bay, 10 f.

Cardium Hayestd Stimps. Whole coast, 10-30f.

Pecten tenuicostatus Mighl. Strait of Belle Isle.

Pecten tslandicus Mill. Whole coast, 10-50 f.

Limatula sulculus Leach. Several were dredged in
15-50f.

Nucula tenuzs Turton. Common on the whole coast.

Nucula expansa Reeve. Chateau Bay, 50 f.’

Yoldia myalzs (Couth). L’Anse-au-Loup, 15 f.

Voldia sapotilla Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 10-15 f.

Leda buccata Stimps. Long Island, 15 f.; Henley
Harbor, 20 f.

Leda Facksont Gould. Henley Harbor, 10-15 f.
(Stearns. )

Leda minuta (Fabr.). Whole coast, 15-50 f:

Crenella glandula (Totten). Caribou Island, 5 f.;
Square Island, 30 f.

Modiolariva corrugata Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 5of.

Modiolaria nigra (Gray). L’Anse-au-Loup, 10 f.
(Stearns. )

Modiolaria discors (Linn.). Near Square Island, 1-4f.
(Stearns. )

Modiolaria levigata Gray.

MOLLUSCS. 375

Modwolarta faba (Fabr.). Henley Harbor, 4 f.

Modiolaria discrepans Mill. Strait of Belle Isle;
Square Island, 30 f.

Mytilus modiolus Linn. Strait of Belle Isle.

Mytelus edulis Linn. Whole coast.

Alasmodonta arcuata Barnes? I was told that a fresh-
water mussel was common in Salmon River.

Pisidium Steenbuchit (MOll.). Square Island and
Strawberry Harbor.

Cryptodon obesus Verrill. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.,
and whole coast.

Axtnopsts orbiculata Sars. Henley Harbor, 10-15 f.
(Stearns. )

Venertcardia borealzs (Conr.). Strait of Belle Isle,
50 f.; Long Island, 15 f.; Chateau Bay, 50 f.

Cardium pinnulatum Conr. It did not occur north
of the Strait of Belle Isle.

Serripes grentlandicus Beck. Whole coast, 10-50 f.

Gemma Tottent Stimps. Indian Harbor, low-water.

Tapes fluctuosa Sowb. Henley Harbor, 20 f.; Square
Island, 30 f.

Mactra solidissima Chemn. Mouth of Esquimaux
River ; Strait of Belle Isle.

Mactra polynema Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle.

Mesodesma Faurese¢ Joannis. Strait of Belle Isle.

Macoma fragilts (Fabr. fusca Gould). Whole coast.

Macoma sabulosa Stimps. Whole coast.

Solen enszs Linn. Strait of Belle Isle.

Thracta Conrad¢ Couth. Strait of Belle Isle.

Thracia myopsis Beck. Salmon Bay, 10 f.; Long
Island, 15 f.

Periploma papyracea (Say.). Chateau Bay, 15 f£

376 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Kennerlia glactalis (Leach). Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.;
Henley Harbor, 20 f.; Square Island, 30 f.
Lyonsta arenosa (MOll.). Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.;

Long Island, 15 f.
Cyrtodaria stligua Daudin. Strait of Belle Isle, 15~

50 f.
Mya truncata Linn. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f; Square

Island, 30 f.
Mya arenarza Linn. Whole coast.
Saxicava rugosa Linn. Whole coast, 10-50 f.

GASTEROPODS.

Clone limacina Phipps. Whole coast.

Limacina helicina Phipps. Off Cape Harrison.

Proctoporia ? sp. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

Folts sp. Henley Harbor, 4 f.

Dendronotus arborescens Fabr. Henley Hazbor.

Cylichna alba Lovén. Caribou Island, 10-15 f.;
Chateau Bay, 50 f.; Sloop Harbor, 7 f.

Bulla pertenurs Migh. Belles Amours, 8 f.

Bulla occulta Migh.

Coryphella diversa Couth. L’Anse-au-Loup. (Stearns.)

Tonicella marmorea (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, low-
water to 50 f., and northward.

Trachydermon album (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

T. rubrum. (Linn.). Whole coast north to Square

Island. (Stearns. )
Acmea testudinalis Miil. Low-water to 15 f.; whole

coast.
Acmea rubella (Fabr.), Square Island, 30 f.; Straw-

berry Harbor, 20 f.

MOLLUSCS. 377

Lepeta ceca (Miill.). Henley Harbor. (Stearns.)

Puncturella noachina (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle,
10-50 f.; Square Island, 30 f.

Scessurella crispata Flem. Strait of Belle Isle.

Adeorbis costulata Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle.

Macheroplax varicosa (Mighels). Square Island, 10-
30 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

Macher oplax obscura (Couth.). L’Anse-au-Loup, 15 f.

Margarita cinerea Gould. Caribou Island, 7 f.; Long
Island, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f.

Margarita argentata Gould. Near Square Island.
(Stearns. )

Margarita grenlandica (Gm.). Strait of Belle Isle,
15-20 f.

Margarita helicina MOll. Strait of Belle Isle.

Margarita campanulata Morse. Strait of Belle Isle.

Littorinella minuta (Totten). Strait of Belle Isle ;
Fox Harbor. (Stearns.)

Cingula castanea MOll. Strait of Belle Isle; near
Square Island, 1-4 f.

Velutina haliotordes Mill. Whole coast.

Lacuna vincta Turt. Square Island, 30 f.

Littorina vestita Gould. Not uncommon along the
whole coast.

Littorina palliata Gould. Strait of Belle Isle, with
warieties as in Maine.

Littorina littorea (Linn.). (Stearns.)

Scalaria grenlandica Perry.

Turritella erosa Couth. Chateau Bay, Long Island,
15 f.

Turritella reticulata Mighl. Salmon Bay, 15 f.;
Chateau Bay, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f; Hopedale, 1of.

378 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Turritellopsis acicula (Stimps.). Strait of Belle Isle,
50 f.

A porrhais occidentalis Beck. Salmon Bay to Hope-
dale, 6—50 f.

Menestho albula MOll. Strait of Belle Isle, 2-15 f.

Velutina levigata (Linn.). Henley Harbor, 3-8 f.;
Square Island, 1-4 f. (Stearns.)

Lamellaria perspicua Lovén. 15 f.

Natica heros Say. Salmon Bay, Strait of Belle Isle.

Natica clausa Sowb. Whole coast, 15 f.

Lunatia grenlandica (MOll.). Chateau Bay, 15 f.

Bela scalarts (MOll.). Square Island, 15-30 f.; Dump-
lin Harbor, 4 f.

Bela rosea Sars. Forteau Bay, 20 f. (Stearns. )

Bela mitrula Loven. Withthe preceding. (Stearns.)

Lela incisula Verrill, Forteau Bay to Square Isl-
and, 2--20 f. (Stearns. )

Bela nobilis (Moller). Whole Coast.

Bela woodiana Moll. Whole Coast.

Bela exarata (MOll.). Whole coast.

Bela decussata (Couth.). Salmon Bay, 10-15 f.;
Square Island, 30 f.

Lela pleurotomarza (Couth.). Square Island, 30 f.;
Sandwich Bay, 4 f.

Bela pyramidalis Stimps. Square Island, 30 f.

Lela cancellata Mighl. Square Island, 30 f.

Bela violacea Stimps. Square Island, 30 f.

Bela borealis (Rve.). Square Island, 30f.; Sandwich
Bay 4 f.

Bucctnum donovant Gray. Henley Harbor, low-water
to 15 f. (Stearns.)

Buccinum tottent Stimps. Henley Harbor, 8-15 f.
(Stearns. )

MOLLUSCS. 379

Buccinum ciliatum (Fabr.). Henley Harbor, 3-8 f.
(Stearns. )

Buccinum undatum Linn. Whole coast.

Buccinum tenue Gray. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

Tritonofusus cretaceus (Reeve). Strait of Belle Isle:
to Square Island, 7-30 f.

Sipho lividus (Mérch). Henley Harbor to Square:
Island, 1-8 f. (Stearns. )

frusus syrtensts Pack. Square Island, 30 f.

Fusus tornatus Gould. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

Trichotroprs borealis Brod. and Sowb. Whole coast,.
10-50 f.

Admete couthouyz (Jay). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f..
(Square Island, 1-4 f. Stearns.)

Trophon clathratus (Linn.). L’Anse-au-Loup, 10--
15 f; Henley Harbor, 3-15 f.

Trophon scalarzfor me Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle,
50 f.; Chateau Bay, 50 f.; Henley Harbor, 20 f.

Astyris rosacea (Gould), L’Anse-au-Loup, 8 f.;
Henley Harbor, 3-8 f. (Stearns.)

Ischmia (Pupa) Hoppit Beck. Strawberry Harbor.

Zoigenetes harpa (Say). Caribou Island.

Conulus (felix) Fabricit Beck et. Moller. Straw-
berry Harbor.

Hyalina electrina (Say). Belles Amours.

Vitrina angelice Beck et Moller. Strawberry Harbor.

Limax agrestts Linn. Strawberry Harbor and at
Square Island.

CEPHALOPODS.

Ommastrephes tllecebrosus Les. L’Anse-au-Loup,.
15 f.; and Fox Harbor. (Stearns. )

380 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Worms.

Syrinx 2? sp. Salmon Bay, 8 f.

Phascolion strombi Theel. (Phascolosoma hamulatum
Pack.) Salmon bay, 8 f.

Gordius lacustr¢s Fabr.? Fauna Gronl. Caribou Is.

Pontobdella sp. Henley Harbor, 4 f.

Pontobdella ? ivida Pack. Belles Amours, 8 f.

Cerebratulus (Meckelia) oltvacea Rathke. Salmon
Bay 10 f., to Henley Harbor, 20 f.

Cerebratulus cylindricus Pack. Belles Amours, 8 f.

Lumobricus terrestris Linn.2 Square Is, and Hopedale.

Spirorbis vitreus (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, 4o-
50f.; Strawberry Harbor, 15 f.

Sprrorbts sinistrorsus Montagu. Henley Harbor, 4 f.

Sprrorbis luctedus Morch. (Sperorbes porrectus Miill.).

‘Whole coast, 11-30 f.

Sprrorbes cancellatus (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, go f.

Sprrorbts granulatus (Miill.). Whole coast, 10-40 f.

Sprrorbes sprrillum (Linn.). Whole coast.

Vermela serrula Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.

Amphitrite cirrata Mill. Cateau Harbor; Caribou
Island, Strait of Belle Isle, 8 f.

Amphitrite ? sp.

Ampharete Grubec Malmgren. Henley Harbor, 4 f.

Pectinaria granulata (Linn.). Czstentdes granulatus
Linn. non Johnst. Whole coast, low-water to 50 f.

Praxilla Miller? Malmg. Chateau Bay, 30-40 f.

Nicomache lumbricalis Malmg. Salmon Bay, 8 f.

Sprochetopterus typicus Sars. Chateau Bay, 30-40 f.

Arentcola marina (Linn.). (Arenzcola piscatorum
Lamk.)

CRUSTACEANS. 386

Trophonia aspera (Stimps.). (Siphonostomum as-
perum Stimps.) Salmon Bay, 8 f.

Trophonia plumosa (Miill.). Salmon Bay, 10 f.

Crrratulus ctrratus (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle.

Lleteronerets arctica Oersted? Strait of Belle Isle.

Nephthys longisetosa Oersted. Belles Amours, 5 f.

Nephthys ceca Oersted. Whole coast, 5-30 f.

Eteone cylindrica Oersted. Belles Amours, 5 f.

Phyllodoce grenlandica Oersted. Salmon Bay, 8 f.;
Square Island, 15-20 f.

Nothria conchylega Malmgren. Salmon Bay, 15 f;
Chateau Bay, 30 f.; Cateau Harbor, 15 f.

Nerews pelagica (Linn.). Whole coast, 10-30 f.

Nerers denticulata Stimps, Salmon Bay, between
tide-marks. :

Pholoé minuta Oersted. Belles Amours, 8 f.

Hlarmothoé imbricata Linn, Whole coast, 4-15 f.

Lepidonotus sguamatus (Linn.). Whole coast, low-
water to 20 f.

CRUSTACEANS. *

Nymphon grosstpes Fabr. Salmon Bay and Square
Island, 15-30 f.

Coronula diadema (Linn.). Taken quite frequently
from the skin of whales caught in the Gulf of St. Law-
rence.

Balanus crenatus Brug. Whole coast.

Balanus balanotdes Linn. Whole Coast.

Balanus porcatus Da Costa. Whole coast.

* Compare also “ List by Prof. S. J. Smith of Crustacea from Port Burwell,
collected by Dr. R. Bell in 1884.” Report of Progress of Geological and Nat-
ural History Survey and Museum of Canada, 1882-83-84. Appendix iv. 57
DD. (Port Burwell is an inlet on the Ungava side of Cape Chidley),

382 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Lernea branchial’s Linn.

Daphnia sp. Found abundantly in all the fresh-water
pools.

Cypridina excisa Stimps.

Branchinecta paludosa (Mill.). Found abundantly at
“Indian Tickle,” on the north shore of Invuctoke Inlet,
in a pool of fresh water.

Nebatia bepes Fabr. Henley Harbor, 4-8 f.

Bopyrus mystdum Pack.

/f-ga sp. One specimen was taken from the under
side of a cod in the Strait of Belle Isle.

Tanazs filum Stimps. Caribou Island, 8 f.

Praniza cerina Stimps. Chateau Bay, Long Island,
15 f.

Fera nivalis Kroyer. Indian Harbor, Sandwich Bay.

Idot@a marmorata Pack. Sloop Harbor, Kyuetar
‘buck Bay, 7 f.

Caprella septentrionalts Kroyer. Whole coast, 4-30 f.

flyperta medusarum Bate. Found with numerous
young in the stomach-cavity of Cyanea arctica, at Dom
ino Harbor.

Dulichia porrecta ( fide Boeck).

Cerapus rubriformis Stimps. Inhabits flexible tubes
in Halectcum halecina. Eight fathoms, sand, Caribou
Island, Strait of Belle Isle.

Amphithoé maculata Stimps. Henley Harbor, 8 f.

Gammarus locusta (Linn.) Leach.

Gammarus dentatus Kroyer. Square Island, 15-30
f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.; Chateau Bay, 20-30 f.

Paramphitoé panopla Kroyer.

Calliope leviuscula Bate. Henley Harbor, 4 f.; Stag
Bay, 15 f.

CRUSTACEANS, 383

Amphitonotus Edwardsi? Bate. Square Island, 30 f.

Amphitonotus cataphractus Stimps. Henley Harbor,
4f.

Atylus vulgaris Bate. Henley Harbor, 4 f. Square
Island, 15 f.; at Stag Bay, 15 f.

Atylus (Paramphitoé) tnermis (Kroyer). Henley
Harbor, 10-20 f.

Atylus (Paramphitoé) bispinosus Beck.

Monoculodes nubtlatus Pack. Caribou Island, 8 f.;
Henley Harbor, 4 f.

Ampelisca Gatmard:. Chateau Bay, 30 f.; Cateau
‘Harbor, 15 f.

Ampelista pelagica (Stimps). Chateau Bay, 30 f.;
Stag Bay, 10 f.; Caribou Island, 8 f.; Long Island, 15 f.;
Strawberry Harbor, 14 f.

Ampelisca Eschrichttt Kroyer. Caribou Island,
4 f.

Haploops tubrcole Kroyer. Cateau Harbor, 15 f.

Pontoporeia femorata Kroyer. Belles Amours, Strait
‘of Belle Isle, 5-8 f.

Anonyx ampulla (Phipps). Dumplin Harbor, Sand-
wich Bay, 4 f.

Anonyx lagena Kroyer. Sloop Harbor, 8 f.

Anonyx producta, 15 f., sand.

Lystanassa appendiculata Kroyer, Henley Harbor,
Strait of Belle Isle, go f.

Alauna Goodsir? Bell. Belles Amours, 6 f.; Thomas
Bay, 15 f.; Square Island, 15-30 f.; Henley Harbor, 8 f;
‘Cateau Bay, Long Island, 15 f.

Mysts oculata Fabr. Abundant along the whole coast.
The young go in schools, and the sea-trout consume
great numbers of them.

384 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Pandalus annulicornts Leach. Henley Harbor;
Sloop Harbor, 6 f.; Hopedale, to f.

Hippolyte aculeata (Fabr.) Kroyer. Caribou Island,
14 f.; Square Island, 15-30 f.; Domino Harbor, 7 f.;
Strait of Belle Isle, ro f.

Hippolyte polarts (Sabine) Kroyer. Square Island,
15-30 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 10 f.

Hippolyte Phippstz Kroyer. Domino Harbor, 7 f.

flippolyte turgida Kroyer. Belles Amours, 10 f.

ffippolyte macilenta Kroyer. Square Island, 15-30 f.

Hippolyte Sowerbyz Leach. Square Island, 15-30 f.

ffippolyte Gatmardi M. Edwards. Common on the
whole coast. Caribou Island, 15 f.; Square Island, 30f.;
Henley Harbor and Sloop Harbor, 8 f.; Hopedale, 1o f.

Hippolyte Fabric? Kroyer. Domino Harbor, 7 f.

Argis lar Owen. Square Island, 30 f.

Sabinea septemcarinata Sabine. Thomas Bay, 15 f.

Crangon boreas (Phipps). Caribou Island, 8 f.; Strait
of Belle Isle, 10 f.; Square Island, 30 f.; Henley Har-
bor, 4-10 f.

Crangon vulgaris Fabr. Caribou Island.

flomarus americanus M. Edw. Henley Harbor;
rare. This seems to be the northern limits of the lobster.

Eupagurus pubescens Stimps. Abundant on the
whole coast from low-water mark to fifty fathoms. Strait.
of Belle Isle, 50 f.; Hopedale, 10 f.

Lupagurus Kroyert Stimps. Found with preceding.

fTyas coarctata Leach. Henley Harbor, 30 f.

flyas aranea (Linn.). Abundant along the whole
coast, 5-50 f.

Chioneecetes opilio (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle,
10-50 f.; Chateau Bay, 30-50 f.

SPIDERS. 385

Cancer boreatis Stimps. Not uncommon at Caribou
Island, Strait of Belle Isle, but it did not occur to us
northward. I was informed.that it was found in Hamil-
ton Inlet, where the temperature of the water must be
higher than on the coast.

LIST OF THE SPIDERS, MYRIOPODS, AND
INSECTS OF LABRADOR.

A list of all the known species of terrestrial Arthro-
pods of the Labrador coast may prove convenient as a.
starting-point for future investigations. Hence I have,
besides enumerating the species of other groups, revised
the lists of Lepidoptera—Mr. Scudder kindly contribut-.
the list of butterflies. For changes in the names of the
Tortricide I am indebted to Prof. C. H. Fernald’s ex-
cellent catalogue of the Tortricidz of the United States ;
Prof. Fernald has also revised the list of Pyralide.

ARACHNIDA.

The spiders which I collected at various points on the
coast were sent to Prof. T. Thorell, of Upsala, for iden-
tification and description. Out of ten species collected,
seven were new to science. Prof. Thorell’s paper was
published in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of
Natural History, xvii., April 21, 1875.

Epetra patagiata (Clerck). Square Island, Straw-
berry Harbor.

Epetra Packardit Thor. Square Island.

Tetragnatha extensa (Linn.), Square Island. .

Linyphia Emertonit Thor. Square Island, and near
Dumplin Harbor.

386 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Clubtona frigzdula Thor. Square Island.

Guaphosa brumalis Thor. Strawberry Harbor.

Lycosa grentlandica Thor. Strawberry Harbor.

Lycosa furcifera Thor. Square Island, and near
Dumplin Harbor.

Lycosa fuscula Thor. Strawberry Harbor.

Lycosa labradorensts Thor. Strawberry Harbor and
Square Island.

AXysticus labradorensis Keys. K. K. Zool. Bot. Ges,
Wien., 479, 1887. Ungava Bay (Turner).

Myriopopa.

Fulus sp. Square Island.

INSECTS.

Orthoptera.

Caloptenus. A Pezzotettix-like species, with short
wings. Square Island.

Odonata.

Diplax sp., near rubccundula, Cariboulsland. Drag-
on-flies were very rare on the coast, and I saw none
north of the Strait of Belle Isle.

“Eschna sp. Caribou Island. Perhaps another
species (identified by Dr. P. R. Uhler) also occurred, |
and an A#schna-like form was observed at Tub Island.

Hemiptera.
Teratocorts sp.

Deltocephalus debtls Uhler. Hopedale. A few other
species of Cercopidee were seen at Caribou Island.

BEETLES. 387

Trigonotylus ruficornis Fallen. Hopedale.
Corixa sp.

Platyptera.
Pteronarcys regalts. Okkak. Hopedale.

Llectoptera.

Potamanthus marginatus Zett. This boreal European
May-fly, occurring in Lapland, we have found in abun-
dance in southern Labrador.

Perla sp. Belles Amours.

Chloroperla sp. Asmall greenish species was observed
at Strawberry Harbor.

Trichoptera.

Desmataulius plantfrons Kol. Okkak.

Limnophilus subpunctulatus Zett. his Lapland cad-
dis-fly is the most abundant species in Labrador, and
what are probably its cases are common in the pools of
fresh water. Three or four other species also occurred,
but have not been identified. No genuine Veuroptera
or Mecoptera (Panorpide) occurred.

COLEOPTERA.

Lepyrus colon (Linn.). Cape Chidley (R. Bell).
Pissodes? sp, Hopedale.

Coccinella lacustr’s Lec. Okkak.

Leptura sp. Caribou Island.

Criocephalus obsoletus Randall. Okkak.
Argaleus nitens Lec. Near Cape Harrison.
Telephorus fraxint Say. Hopedale.

Podabrus levicollis Kirby. Hopedale.

388 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Podabrus mandibularis Kirby. Caribou Island.

Sertcosomus tncongruus Lec. Square Island.

Eanus vagus Lec. Square Island.

E. pictus (Cand.) Horn. (£2. maculipennis Lec.)
Caribou Island to Square Island.

Cryptohypnus becolor Germ. Belles Amours, Straw-
berry Harbor and Indian Harbor.

Byrrhus americanus Lec. Caribou Island.

B. Kirbyt Lec. (B. piczpes). Caribou Island.

Atomaria. Not determined. Caribou Island.

Ips sanguinolentus Oliv. Caribou Island.

Bledius. Not determined.

Quedius sublimbatus M6kl. Blanc Sablon (R. Bell).

Tachyporus n. sp. Hopedale.

Creophilus vellosus Gray. Caribou Island.

Agathidium obsoletum Lec. Square Island.

Silpha Lapponica Linn. Caribou Island to Hopedale.

Philthydrus befidus Lec. Caribou Island.

Gyrinus pictpes Aubé? Square Island.

G. minutus Linn. Square Island.

G. affints Aubé? Square Island.

Colymbetes picipes Kirby. Caribou Island and Straw-
berry Harbor.

C. d¢notatus Harris (probably).

C. sculptelis Harris. Caribou Island, Square Island,
Hopedale.

C. nov. sp. Square Island.
Agabus parallelus Lec. Square Island.
A. longulus Lec.? Stupart’s Bay (R. Bell).

A. ambiguus Lec. (A. tnfuscatus Aubé), Caribou
Island.

A. subfasciatus Lec. Caribou Island.

BEETLES. 389

A. semipunctatus (Kirby). Caribou Island.

A. levidorsus Lec. Caribou Island.

A. punctulatus Aubé. Caribou Island.

A. discolor Lec. Indian Harbor.

flydroporus catascopium Say. Square Island and
Dumplin Harbor.

HT. tenebrosus Lec. Caribou Island.

HT. puberulus Lec. Sloop Harbor and Dumplin
Harbor.

fT, longicornts. Stupart’s Bay (R. Bell).

FZ, perplexus Shp. Stupart’s Bay (R. Bell).

Trechus micans Lec. Belles Amours.

Patrobus tenuzs Lec. Square Island.

P. hyperboreus Dejean. Belles Amours, Strait of:
Belle Isle; Cape Chidley (R. Bell).

Harpalus herbiwagus Say., var. proximus Lec. Square
Island.

Amara obtusa Lec.

Amara, near A. melanogastrica Esch., perhaps A.
brunnz.

A. pennis Dej. Caribou Island.

Amara, “no name.” Strawberry Harbor, Square
Island, and Hopedale.

A. similis Lec. (Stereocerus stmeles Kirby). Caribou
Island.

A. hematopus Kirby. Sloop Harbor, Hopedale,
Okkak (S. Weiz).

Pterostichus adstrzctus Esch., var. orcnomum Kirby.
Mecatina ; Gulf St. Lawrence.

Pterostichus hudsonicus Lec. Stupart’s Bay (R. Bell).

Fi., species not determined. Hopedale, Tinker Isl-
and, off Cape Harrison (Cape Webuc).

390 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Pt. luczottid Dej. Blanc Sablon (R. Bell).

Platynus sinuatus Dej. Belles Amours, Strait of
Belle Isle.

Calathus ingratus Dej. Whole coast.

Carabus chamtssonis Fischer. Domino Harbor and
Okkak.

Nebria Sahlbergit Fischer. Sloop Harbor, Cape
Chidley (R. Bell).

Notiophilus Stbiricus Motsch. Domino Harbor,
Square Island.

DIPTERA.

Scatina estotilandica Rondani, Archiv, etc. Canestrini
iii, fasc. 1, 35, Labrador. Osten Sacken adds: Mr.
Rondani, in the same place, mentions Scatophaga dia-
dema Wiedemann (Montevideo) as having been re-
ceived from Labrador.

flelophilus glactalis Loew. Stett. Ent. Zeit. vii., 121.

Helophilus grenlandicus (O. Fabr.).

Dolichopus stenhammarz Zett. Sloop Harbor, July 19.

Therwoplectes flavipes Wied.

Thertoplectes septentrionalis Loew. Verh. Zool. Bot.
Ges Wien., 1858, 593.

Tipula tessellata Loew. Cent. iv., 4.

Tipula septentrionalis Loew. Cent. iv., 3.

Micromyzaleucorum, Prof. C. W. Woodworth writes
me that on examining the collection of Diptera which
I made in Labrador, and which is now in the Cambridge
Museum, he detected the rare European Cecidomyid
Micromyia leucorum, ‘belonging to a genus hitherto
unrecorded for North America.” The collection consists
mostly of muscids, with some interesting Empide.

MOTHS. 3901

Amalopsis hyperborea O. Sacken. Monogr. iv., 269.
Dicranomyta halterata O. Sacken. Monog. iv., 71.

LEPIDOPTERA.

Tinetde.

Glyphipteryx sp. Caribou Island.

Tinea fuscipunctella Haw. ( = Gcophora frigidella
Pack.). Caribou and Square Islands.

Ccophora sp. Hopedale.

L[ncurvarta labradorella Clem. Caribou Island.

Ornzx boreasella Clem. Caribou Island.

Tinea sprlotella Tengstrém. Caribou Island, Square
Island, “ Okkak, June.” Christoph.

Gelechta contenuella Zell. Moeschl. ( = trimaculella
Pack.). Strawberry Farbor.

Gelechta labradorica Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Gelechia brumella Clem. Caribou Island.

Tortricvde.

Grapholitha nebulosana Pack. Strawberry Harbor.

Phoxopterts plagosana (Clem.). Caribou Island and
Square Island.

Phoxopteris tineana Hiibn. (Pandemis leucophale-
rata Pack.). Hopedale.

Sericorts btpartztana (Clem.). Caribou Island.

Pedrsca solicitana (Walk.) (Halonota packardiana
Clem.). Caribou Island.

Sericorts turfosana H. S.

Sericorts glactana Moesch]. Whole coast; common.

Penthina cupreana (Hiibn.).

Penthina murina Pack. Caribou Island.

392 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Penthina septentrionana Curtis. Sloop and Straw-
berry Harbors. (Polar regions, Curtis.)

Penthina tntermistana (Clem.). (P. tessellana Pack.).
Caribou Island to Hopedale.

Penthina fregidana Pack.

Conchylis deutschiana Zetterstedt (Lozopera? fusco-
strigana Clem. ; C. chalcana Pack.).

Sciaphila osseana Scopoli (Ablabia pratana Hiibn.)

Sciaphila moeschleriana (Wrcke).

Sciaphila niveosana Pack. Moravian Stations, Au-
gust.

Pyralide.

Crambus unistriatellus Pack. Caribou Island.
Crambus argitlaceéllus Pack. Square Island.
Crambus trichostomus Christoph. Moravian Stations.
Crambus labradorensts Christoph. ‘ Okkak, July.”
Crambus albellus Clem. Mouth of Esquimaux River,
Aug, 3
Crambus mornatellus Clem. Caribou Island, July ts.
Scoparia centurrella Sv. (Pempelta fusca Harv.
Ludorea? frigtdella Pack.).
Eudorea ? albtsinuatella Pack. Okkak.
Pyrausta borealts Pack. Square Island.
Pyrausta ephippralrs Zettst.
Pyrausta torvalis Moeschl.
Phlyctenia inguinatalis Zell. .(Scopula glacialis Pack.).
Hopedale.
Phalenide.
Eupithecta luteata Pack. Caribou Island, July.
_fupithecia gelidata Moeschl. Moravian Stations.
Glaucopteryx cestata (S. V.). Whole coast.

MOTHS. 393

Glaucopteryx polata (Dupon.). Whole coast.
Glaucopteryx phocatarta (Moeschl.). Moravian Sta-
tions.
Epirrita dilutata (Borkh.). Moravian Stations.
Petrophora truncata (Hufn.). Whole coast.
Petrophora prunata (Linn.). Whole coast.
Petrophora populata (Linn.). Whole coast.
_ Petrophora suspectata (Moeschl.). Moravian Stations,
Ochyrta munitarza Hiibn., and var. labradorensts
Pack. Caribou Island.
Ochyria abrasarza A. Sch. Caribou Island.
Rheumaptera lugubrata Staud. Whole coast.
Rheumaptera hastata (Linn.). Whole coast.
Rheumaptera disceptarta (F. R.). Moravian Stations.
Triphosa dubitaria (Linn.). Caribou Island.
Semrothisa dispuncta (Walk.). (Sex-maculata Pack.).
Square Island.
Anattis sororarza Hiibn. Moravian Stations.
Aspilates gilvaria SV. Moravian Stations.
Acidalia sentinarta Hiibn. Moravian Stations.
Acidalia frigtdaria Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Noctutde.

Brephos parthenias (Linn.). Moravian Stations.

Plusta u-aureum Botsd. Moravian Stations.

Plusia parities Hiibn. Moravian Stations.

Plusia divergens Fabr Moravian Stations.

Anarta funesta (Thunberg). Moravian Stations.

Anarta melanopa (Thun.). Moravian Stations.

Anarta melaleuca (Thun.). Moravian Stations.
Whole coast.

3904 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Anarta vidua Christoph. Moravian Stations.

Anarta cordigera (Thun.). Moravian Stations.

Anarta algida Lef. Moravian Stations.

Anarta lapponica (Thun.). Moravian Stations.

Anarta schonherri Zett. Moravian Stations.

Anarta zetterstedtid Staud. Moravian Stations.

Fladena exults Lef. Moravian Stations.

Hladena exornata Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Pachnobia carnea Thun. Moravian Stations. Whole
coast.

Pachnobia okakensis. Packard. Okkak.

Mamestra arctica Boisd. Whole coast.

Dianthoecta subdita Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Dianthoecta phoca Moeschl. Moravian Stations,

Noctua rava H. Sch. (umbratus Pack.). Moravian
Stations.

Agrotis septentrionalis Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Agrots fusca Boisd. Moravian Stations.

Agrotis Wocket Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Agrotis speciosa Hiibn. Moravian Stations.

Agrotts comparata Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Agrotis dissona Moeschl. Moravian Stations.

Agrotis confilua Tr. Moravian Stations.

A grotis littoralés Pack. Caribou Island.

Leucania rufostrigata Pack. Caribou Island.

Liparide.
Larzta Rosszz (Curtis). Whole coast.
Arctide.

Arctia Quenselit Paykull. Whole coast.
Platarctza borealzs (Moeschler). Moravian Stations.
Luprepia caja (Linn.). Whole coast.

BUTTERFLIES. 395.
flepialide.

Hepialus labvadorienstis Pack. Caribou Island.
Hepialus hyperboreus Moeschler. Moravian Stations.

* RHOPALOCERA.

Brenthis chariclea (Schneid.). This is the Argynnis:
boisduvalii of the previous list. A detailed description.
of the species, drawn up exclusively from American
material, will be found in the Proc. Bost. Nat. Hist.
Soc., Vol. xvii, p. 297, where most of the other species
are described. Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, and
from Square Island northward. July 14—August 3.
Abundant.

Brenthts triclarzs (Hiibn.) = Argynnis triclaris of the
previous list. Caribou Island to Hopedale, July 14—
August 3.

Brenthis polaris (Boisd.) = Argynnis polaris of the
former list. From Square Island northward. July 14
—August 3.

Brenthis frigga (Thunb.) = Argynnis frigga of the
former list. Okkak. (Rev. S. Weiz.)

Eugonia z-album (Boisd.-Lec.) = Grapta interroga—
tionis of the previous list. Okkak. (Rev. S. Weiz.)

nets gutta Hiibn. = Chionobas jutta of previous
list. Square Island, July 14; Hopedale, August 3.

* A revised list of the butterflies obtained in Labrador by Dr. A. S. Packard,
by Samuel H. Scudder. (The list was prepared for use in the present work.
The species have been arranged in the descending order by the author.) In
1866 I published a list of Dr. Packard’s collections in the Proceedings of the~
Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xi. The present list is merely a rede--
termination of the same material, in the light of larger collections since seen.
The same order as before is followed. The specimens are mostly in my collec—
tion and in that of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.—S. H.S.

396 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

CEners bore (Esp.) = Chionobas bore of former list.
Hopedale, Aug. 3.

(Eneis eno (Boisd.) = Chionobas oeno of former list.
Strawberry Harbor ; Hopedale, August 3.

Agriades aguilo (Boisd.) = Lyczena aquilo of former
list. Sloop Harbor, July 19; Henley Harbor, August
15; Hopedale, Aug. 3.

Pieris frigeda Scudd. I have not re-examined this.
Caribou [{sland, Strait of Belle Isle, July 14-30.

Eurymus labradorensis (Scudd.). This is the Colas
_paleno, as well as the C. dabvadorensts of the previous
list. The specimen referred to the former being of the
same species as the latter. I will not here venture on a
discussion as to the validity of the specific name retained
here, but as the species was described and figured suffi-
ciently for determination, and is the common form in
south-eastern Labrador, it is easily identifiable. Caribou
Island to Hopedale, July 14—August 3.

| We add-the following extract from W. H. Edwards,
Can. Ent. xxi. 67. Chionobas semidea Say “also flies
within the Arctic circle, as far north as Cumberland
Island, and in Labrador.” ]

TunicaTes (Ascidians).

Didemnium roseum Sars. Hopedale, to f.

A scrdia callosa Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 40-50 f.

Glandula glutinans Méller. Henley Harbor, 6 f.

Cynthia pyriformzs Rathke. Strait of Belle Isle.

Cynthia monoceros MOll. (C. condylomata Pack.)
‘Caribou Island, 8 f.

Cynthia echinata (Linn.). Chateau Bay, 50 f.

FISHES. 397

Cynthia carnea Ag. (C. placenta Pack.). Strait of
Belle Isle, 4o f.; Henley Harbor, 10-20 f.; Cateau
Harbor, 15 f.

Pelonata arenifera Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.

Boltenza boltent (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle.

FISHES.

Somniosus microcephalus (Block). ‘Sleeper shark.”
Not rare all along the coast. (Stearns. )

Scomber vernalts Mitch. A few mackerel are taken
in August in Salmon Bay and Red Bay. The Strait of
Belle Isle is evidently the northern limit of this genus.

Pygosteus Cuviert Brevoorti. (Gasterosteus Cuviert
Girard; Gasterosteus btaculeatus Auct. zx part). A
large number of specimens from a tidal fresh-water
spring, near Salmon River, Strait of Belle Isle.

Ammodytes dubtus Reinhardt. Four specimens from
Sloop Harbor, collected in July. They differ from the
A. americanus of our coast in having a much longer
body. This species is probably the American one con-
sidered by some authors as the A. ¢odzanus. (Putnam.)

Sebastes norvegicus Cuv. Young specimens were
dredged in fifteen fathoms.

Gymnacanthus patris (Storer). Three specimens
from Henley Harbor, collected in July.

Cottus scorpioides Fabr. Sculpin. (Stearns.)

Cottus grenlandicus Cuv. and Val. Northern sculpin.
(Stearns. )

Gymnacanthus pistilliger (Pallas). (Stearns. )

Hippoglossoides platessoides Fabr. Arctic dab. Com-
mon in harbors. (Stearns.)

398 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Pleuronectes americanus Walb. Flounder. Whole
southern coast. (Stearns.)

Cyclopterus lumpus Linn, Strait of Belle Isle.

Gadus arenosus Mitchill. Eight specimens from
Sloop Harbor, collected in July. From a careful com-
parison I am satisfied that these specimens are the same
species as the common cod of New England, the Gadus
and Morrhua americana of authors, and which Prof.
Gill considers as identical wlth the Gadus arenosus of
Mitchill. Prof. Gill also has considered specimens of
the cod from Labrador, which he had examined, as iden-
‘tical with our common species. (Putnam.)

It happened that our vessel touched at the different
harbors from Mecatina Island in the St. Lawrence Gulf
to Hopedale, a distance of over six hundred miles, at
times when the cod was successively making its first ap-
pearance. Thus at Gore Island, near Little Mecatina
Island, we found the cod was just beginning to be taken
by the fishermen, June 16. A few were seined July 6th,
at Square Island, on the Atlantic coast. July 12th they
were evidently breeding, as the females were full of
spawn, their livers poor, with little oil in them, and the
fish were generally in poor condition. At Tub Island
Harbor, which is situated on the south side of Hamilton
Inlet, the fishery had not begun July 17th. Three days
later a few were seined at Sloop Harbor, on the north
side of Hamilton or Invuctoke Inlet, while at Strawberry
Harbor, about fifty miles to the northward, they were
caught in abundance on the 25th of July. The season
was so cold and stormy, owing to the presence of the
drift ice in an unusual quantity, and for a much longer
period than for many years previous, that the fishery

FISHES. 399

,

was almost a failure, scarcely half as many fish having
been taken as during the preceding year. It was the
‘same with the salmon and the capelin.

The “rock cod,” or duffy, as it is termed by the fisher-
‘men, which they consider less valuable than the deep
water cod, swarms about the boats when the fisherman
are seining the capelin, and are seen snapping them up.

Gadus ogac Richardson, Greenland codfish. (Stearns. )

Merluctus vulgaris Fleming? I was told by a fisher-
man that he had taken but one hake during a period of
forty summers spent on this coast. He had never seen
a haddock on this coast. Both of these species are
abundant at the mouth of the St. Lawrence in Bay
‘Chaleur.

Brosmius flavescens Lesueur? <A “cusk” was caught
in eighty fathoms in the Strait of Belle Isle. The speci-
men is in the Collection of the Lyceum of Natural His-
tory, Williams College.

Salmo salar Linn. Owing to the great lowering of
the climate by the drift ice, the salmon fishery was al-
most a failure this season. ‘The fishery had just begun
at Henley Harbor, opposite Belle Isle, on the 28th of
June, 1864. At Square Island they were not netted be-
fore the 12th of July; here they disappear usually about
the 15th of August. July 23d they had not appeared at
this point. At Thomas Bay, near Cape Harrison, they
appeared on the 22d of July. At this place the salmon
was said to disappear about the 20th of August. At
Groswater Bay, (Hamilton Inlet), only two hundred
tierces were taken during the whole season, when usually
five times that number are caught.

The salmon remains upon the coast at the mouth of

400 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

streams about a month, during the Labrador mid-summer,
which corresponds in temperature to that of the middle
of May in New England.

At Hopedale the salmon is quite rare, and I was in-
formed that it was not common north of this point. It
seems to be a rare species in Greenland, thus showing
the close correspondence of the climate of the Labrador
coast in latitude 57° to that of the southern coast of
Greenland. One young specimen from a tidal stream
at Belles Amours, Strait of Belle Isle, was collected June
28th.

Salmo tmmaculatus H.R. Storer. Three specimens.
from near Hopedale were collected July 29th. These
specimens are unquestionably referable to the S. zmacu-
fatus of Storer, and are distinct from the S. ¢ratfa of
Europe, with which species Perley and others have con-
founded them, They differ from S. trutta by having
larger scales, and being without spots, as their name in-
dicates. (Putnam.)

Salmo sp? Two specimens from the Island of Ponds,
near Domino Harbor, collected in July. This species,
which, from its rather imperfect condition, I have not
been able to recognize, appears to be closely allied to.
the S. ¢rutta of Europe, being spotted as in that species,.
but of somewhat different shape, especially of the head.
There are also specimens from Greenland belonging to
this species in the collection of this Society, collected by
the Williams College expedition to Greenland and Lab-
rador in 1860. (Putnam.)

Salmo hudsontcus Suckley. Three specimens from a
tidal pond of brackish water on Square Island were col-
lected July 15th. These specimens are identical with

FISHES. 401

those mentioned by Dr. H. R. Storer as S. fontznalzs,
which Dr. Suckley referred to his S. hudsonzcus ; but
from a comparison of the limited number of specimens,
Tam yet in doubt whether the Labrador brook trout
differs specifically from the S. fontznalzs of New Eng-
land. (Putnam.)

Maltlotus villosus Cuv. The capelin, capelina of the
Portuguese fisherman (Parkhurst, 1578), was very late
in making its appearance on the coast this season, owing
to the great quantity of ice, which likewise detained the
cod. At Square Island, the 12th of July was the earliest.
date of their appearance in great numbers. July 4th,
the young, about one inch in length, were seen swim-
ming in the water, their bodies very transparent, so as.
to enable the vertebree and ribs to be distinctly seen, and
provided with very plainly marked heterocercal tails, in
the upper and larger fork of which the vertebral column
terminated. .

The capelin spawns on pebbly shores near the water’s
edge, and I was informed by two fishermen who had
each observed the act, that during the spawning of the
female, two males swim close to her and press her be-
tween them, being enabled by the large and prominent
ridge on the sides of the body to retain the female in
this position between, and a little below them, so that as
the eges are pressed out they are fecundated by both
males. This probably accounts for the much greater
proportion of males to the other sex, as in a boat-
load of these fish it was often difficult to find a single
_ female.

A very close observer, the Jate Capt. Nathaniel E.
Atwood, who fished as far north as Groswater Bay as
female.

402 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

early as 1819, tells us in his autobigraphy :* ‘‘ When the
capelin came on the coast the first that arrived were
males. You can tell the male from the female by ex-
ternal signs, so as to distinguish the sexes perfectly well.
When the males had been on the coast about a week,
then came a mixture of females. They look very much
like asmelt, and are soft and full of spawn. We did not
use them for food. On an average about one-tenth of
the capelin were females. When they had deposited
their spawn the males deposited their milt and made the
whole water white. Then the females went off. Soon
after the fishing slacked off, and we used to say they
were capelin sick.”

According to information received from intelligent
fishermen, the capelin remains upon the coast the year
round, but in winter retires to deep water. Is it not
probable that the cod has the same habit of going from
deep water in-shore and to elevated “ banks,” for the pur-
pose of spawning during the spring andsummer; andin
the winter of retiring to depths inaccessible to the fish-
rman? Should the cod be found to present local vari-
eties at intervals along the Atlantic coast, as seems prob-
ably the case, it would be a natural inference that it did
not migrate for hundreds of miles northward, following
the coming of spring from Massachusetts to Hudson’s
Bay. It is abundant in Massachusetts Bay and on the
coast of Maine during the same time in summer that it
abounds on the Labrador coast and in Greenland. All
the facts observed by us tend to prove that the cod does
not migrate extensively, as commonly supposed.

*U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The Fishery Industries at the
United States. Section IV. Fishermen, 1887. p. 151.

THE HERRING FISHERY. 403

Clupea harengus, Linn. The herring fishery begins
in the Strait of Belle Isle during the middle of August,
after the cod fishery is over. The fact elicited from
several intelligent fishermen, that the herring does not
spawn abundantly upon the coast of Northern Labrador,
that is, above the Mingan Islands, but visits the coast in
schools after the breeding season is over, while it breeds
abundantly on the coast of New Brunswick, at Bay Cha-
leur, the Magdalen Islands, and on the southern coast of
Newfoundland, affords excellent data for limiting the
southern boundary of the Arctic fish fauna on the.eastern
Atlantic coast. This line agrees with what we have de-
fined* as the southern limits of the “ Syrtensian Fauna,”
-which as an assemblage peoples the coast of Labrador,
and extends around the northern shore of the continent
into Hudson’s Bay; and southward, follows the line of
floating ice, thus partially excluding Anticosti, embracing
the Banks of Newfoundland, the banks lying off Nova
Scotia and New England, such as Jeffries and St.
George’s . Banks, and more faintly indicated on those
banks of New Jersey which are swept by the southern
extension of the Labrador or Polarcurrent. Anoutlier
of it is also found at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.
On the southern shores of Newfoundland, which are
partially protected from the Polar current sweeping by
to the eastward, upon which the Gulf Stream slightly
. impinges, though with a much diminished force, the
herring breeds, as here the species is surrounded by
physical and climatic conditions very precisely corre-
sponding to those of Nova Scotia and Maine, thus con-

* Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Dec., 1863.

404. THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

stituting an outlying area isolated from, and yet belong-
ing to the Acadian. district or fauna. Therefore it ap-
pears that the line of floating ice, which extends down
the coast of Labrador asfar asthe Mingan Islands, is the
northward limit of the haddock and mackerel, while the
herring, a member of the Acadian fauna, does not breed
in any comparative abundance north of this point. The
distribution of Radiates, Mollusca, Articulates, -and
Fishes thus agrees very closely on the northeastern.
shores of the continent.

One person at Henley Harbor takes upon the average
eight hundred quintals during the short summer season,
and cures them there. A few herring were seined at
Square Island on July 6.

I find in a lecture on the Herring Fishery by M. A.
Warren, Esq., who owns one of the largest fishing estab-
lishments on the coast of Labrador, some observations.
on the herring as observed in Labrador and Newfound-
land, which are here quoted, as the article is not likely
to fall into the hands of American naturalists.

“The female herring in Newfoundland come near the
shore in moderate weather, and deposit their spawn,
generally at night, in from 3 to5 fathoms of water. The
males follow and shed their milt over it.” ... “It is
impossible, without seeing it, to form any idea of the
prodigious abundance of the ova of the herring yearly
deposited in Fortune Bay, and other of the favorite
spawning-beds of the herring. The water will at times
be seen white with milt for many acres.” .. . “From
personal observation, and from all the information I can
obtain, I believe there are several schules of herring that
come in on different portions of our coast to spawn. It

BATRACHIANS. 405

is certain there are several varieties of the common her-
ting. differing in size, shape, and solidity of flesh. In
Fortune Bay the spawn is deposited in the months of
March and April; in St. George’s Bay, in the month of
May, and a fortnight later on St. Barbe’s. My impres-
sion is that on the southern shore of the Labrador coast
the spawn is deposited in June, or early in July. During
the-months of August and September the Labrador
coast from Mecatina to Bear Island is visited by vast
shoals of large fat herring, which have in them neither
roe nor milt. I consider these herring, by their size and
appearance, to be of the same species or the same shoal
as those which spawned in St. George’s Bay, in May or
in June, on the Labrador coast, and which pass on in
September and October to the Arctic waters, or more
probably to the depth of the ocean.

‘Of late years herring-seines have been much used on
the Labrador coast, almost entirely superseding the use
of nets, to the manifest injury of the fishing population.
These immense seines, most of them more than one
hundred and twenty fathoms long, often enclose over
three thousand barrels of herring. During the first two
to three years over one hundred and fifty seines were
used on the coast by Nova Scotia fishermen.”

BATRACHIA.

Rana septentrionalis Baird. Okkak. Frogs were
heard and seen at Stag Bay, Domino Harbor, Lewis
Bay, Henley Harbor, and on the coast of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence.

Bufo americana Lec. Salmon Bay.

406 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Plethodon glutinosa Baird? A salamander of a dark
slate color, with a paler dorsal stripe was observed at
Belles Amours.

BIRDS.

LIST OF THE BIRDS OF LABRADOR, INCLUDING UNGAVA,
EAST MAIN, MOOSE, AND GULF, DISTRICTS OF THE HUD-
SON BAY COMPANY, TOGETHER WITH THE ISLAND OF
ANTICOSTI*

The scope of country intended to be embraced with-
in the above heading is bounded on the north by Hud-
son Strait, extending from east to west; on the east by
the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to where the parallel of 50 degrees north lati-
tude strikes the land, then west to the intersection of the
82d degree of east longitude. The western boundary is
the 82d degree of west longitude north to Hudson Strait.

The period during which my own observations were
made extends from June 15, 1882, to October 3, 1884.

The principal scene of my investigations was in the
vicinity of Fort Chimo, situated about 27 miles up the
Koksoak River, flowing into Ungava Bay, which is an
immense pocket towards the eastern portion of the south
side of Hudson Strait. At this place I remained from
August 6, 1882, to September 4, 1884.

The southern portions of the country are entirely sub-
arctic in character, while the northern portions are
strictly arctic.

The topography of the region is so diversified that

*By Lucien M. Turner. Reprinted by the author’s permission from the
Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 1885, pp. 233-254. Revised and
brought down to 1891, by J. A. Allen.

BIRDS. , 407

even a scanty description is impracticable in this connec-
tion.

The climate is scarcely less diverse, the range of the
thermometer at Fort Chimo being, for the period men-
tioned above, 863 degrees for the maximum, and just
50 degrees below zero for the minimum, giving a range
of 136.5 degrees for that period.

Winter begins (zero of temperature) about the 1st of
November and continues to the last of April. Snow
falls every month in the year, and the lowest temperature
of each month in the year is never above the freezing
point. The warmest night showed only 54 degrees.
Snow remains from the last of September to the end of
May ; snow-shoes have been used as late as the 19th of
May. Rain seldom falls before the 11th of May, and
rarely after the middle of October.

The bird-life is abundant in individuals if not in species.
Some of the birds which most certainly occur within the
territory, yet of which no satisfactory evidence of actual
occurrence has been recorded, are with one or two
exceptions omitted for obvious reasons. 777nga mart-
tima, for instance, certainly occurs somewhere along the
coast, but has not been detected and recorded; the same
with species of Fulix.

Reference is made to the following authorities, and.
extracts made without comment or responsibility for
their assertions :

Audubon, J. J. Birds of America; seven volumes, published

from 1840 to 1844.

Nuttall. Manual of Ornithology, 2d edition, 1840.

Verrill, A. E. Notes on the Natural History of Anticosti,
summer of 1861. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural

History, vol. ix., pp. 132 to 150, inclusive.

408 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Coues, E. Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador, summer of
1860. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil-
adelphia, August, 1861, pp. 215 to 257, inclusive.

Stearns, W. A. Notes on the Natural History of Labrador
(with few additions on authority of Coues), 1880-’81—’82, pp. 111
to 138, inclusive, of the Proceedings of the United States Na-
tional Museum, 1883.

Brewster, William. Notes on the Birds observed during a
summer cruise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Proceedings of
the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xxii., pp. 364 to 412,
inclusive, October 3, 1883.

Richardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. ii.

Kumlien, L. Bulletin of the United States National Museum,
No. 15. Contributions to the Natural History of Arctic Amer-
ica, made in connection with the Howgate Polar Expedition,
1877-78. Washington, 1879, pp. 69 to 105.

[The following, mostly issued since the publication of
Mr. Turner's paper, are of interest as bearing upon the
bird-fauna of Labrador :

Stearns, W. A. Bird-life in Labrador, American Field, April
26-Oct. 11, 1890. <A series of twenty-five articles, giving at
length the author's observations on the birds of Labrador.

Merriam, Dr. C. Hart. List of birds ascertained to occur
within ten miles of Point de Monts, Province of Quebec, Canada,
based chiefly upon the notes of Napoleon A. Comeau, Bull. Nutt.
Orn. Club, vol. vii., 1882, pp. 233-242; vol. viii., 1883, p. 244; The
Auk, vol. i., 1884, p. 295; ii, 1885, p. 113.

Palmer, William. Notes on the birds observed during the
cruise of the United States Fish Commission Schooner “ Gram-
pus” in the summer of 1887. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. xiii,
1890, pp. 249-265.

See also a review of Mr. Turner’s List in ‘‘ The Auk,”
vol. ii, p. 368, and Mr. Turner’s reply thereto (“ Auk,” iii.,
p. 140).

BIRDS. 409

The nomenclature here adopted is that of the American
Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American
Birds. In Mr, Turner’s list, as originally published, the
names adopted, were, in the main, those of Ridgway’s
“ Nomenclature of North American Birds,” forming
“ Bulletin 21” of the U. S. National Museum. In the
present reprint, aside from the revision of the nomen-
clature to bring it into conformity with the system now
almost universally adopted, the only changes are the
addition of a few titles to the list of authorities cited,
the numbering of the species consecutively instead of in
conformity with the Ridgway ‘‘ Nomenclature,” and the
addition of critical remarks on a few species attributed
to Labrador on doubtful evidence.

An asterisk (*) prefixed toa name indicates that the
species is resident throughout the year. A dagger (+)
similarly placed indicates breeding.

J. A. Aten. |

1. Turdus mustelinus (Gmel.). Wood Thrush.

Stearns, p. 116, asserts that he heard this species in
Southern Labrador. [Labrador is quite beyond the
normal range of this species, which is found only spar-
ingly in Northern New England. Mr. Stearns omits
the species from his later ‘‘ Bird Life in Labrador,” cited
above. |

2. Turdus fuscescens (Steph.). Wilson’s Thrush.

Audubon, vol. iii., p. 27, saw young July 20, 1833.

Brewster, p. 368, saw a pair July 24, 1881, on Anti-
costi. [This species can reach Labrador only as a
straggler, being of rare occurrence even in Northern

New England. |

410 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

+ 3. Turdus alicte Baird. Gray-cheeked Thrush.

Rare in Ungava. Common in southeastern and
southern portions. Breeds wherever found in summer.
Nest and eggs procured at Fort Chimo, June 28, 1884.
_ 4. Turdus ustulatus swainsont (Caban.). Olive--
backed Thrush.

Brewster, p. 369, obtained an adult female at Fox.
Bay, Anticosti, July 11, 1881.

Verrill reports it very common (p. 137) on Anticosti.
Specimens were obtained June 13 and in July, 1860, at.
Rupert House, by Drexler.

5. Zurdus aonalaschke pallasit (Caban.). Hermit
Thrush.

Brewster, p. 369, found it an abundant species at.
Anticosti and on the south shore of Labrador.

Verrill, p. 137, found it common at the same place.

+ 6. Merula migratorza (Linn.). American Robin.

Abundant throughout the country. Breeding plenti-
fully at Fort Chimo, Ungava.

7. Saxicola enanthe (Linn.). Stone Chat.

Coues, p. 218, obtained, August 25, 1860, at Henley
Harbor, Labrador, a single individual of this bird.

+ 8. Regulus calendula (Linn.). Ruby-crowned King-
let.

Common in southern portions. Audubon, vol. ii., p.
168, found them June 27, 1833, ane saw the young of
the year a month later.

Coues obtained a specimen August 6, at Rigolet, vzde
p. 219.

' Stearns shot a single specimen at Old Fort Island,
October 11, 1881, vzde p. 116.
t 9. Regulus satrapa Licht. Golden-crowned Kinglet.

BIRDS. 41E

Audubon, vol. ii, p. 165, found them feeding their
young in August. .

10. Parus atricapillus Linn. Black-capped Chickadee..

I am informed by credible persons, long resident in
the country, that two species of chickadees occur at.
Northwest River, at the head of Hamilton Inlet.

Verrill, p. 138, reports it very common on Anticosti.

*¢+ t1. Parus hudsonicus Forst. WHudsonian Chick-.
adee.

Abundant everywhere in the wooded tracts. Young
of the year were obtained July 19, 1882, at Davis Inlet,.
and in early August at Fort Chimo.

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 155, states that they found a nest
in Labrador. .

12. Sztéa canadensis Linn. Red-bellied Nuthatch.

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 179, states that he saw one in
Labrador which had probably been driven there by a
storm.

Verrill, p. 138, reports it as common on Anticosti.

13. Troglodytes hyemalis Vieill. Winter Wren.

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 129, found this species in South-
ern Labrador, July 20, 1833.

Verrill, p. 138, states that he observed a small wren
at Southwest Point, Anticosti, in July, which he thought
was this species.

+ 14. Motacclla alba Linn. White Wagtail.

Four individuals of this species were seen by Alex.
Brown and James Lyall (of the Hudson Bay Company),
August 29, 1883, at Hunting Bay, 4 miles south of Fort
Chimo. These persons described the bird accurately,
and declared they were the two parents and two young”

412 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

of the year. I must add that I place the fullest reliance
in their assertion.

+ 15. Anthus penstlvanicus (Lath.). American Tit-
lark.

Abundant throughout the territory. Nests and eggs
obtained at Fort Chimo, where it breeds plentifully. |

» 16. Mnzotdlta varza (Linn.). Black-and-white

“Creeper.

A specimen was obtained at Moose Factory, May 13,
1860, and also on the 31st of that month, by C. Drexler.

Brewster, p. 369, obtained a specimen at Fox Bay,
Anticosti, July 11, 1881.

17. Helminthophila peregrina (Wils.). Tennessee
“Warbler.

Obtained by Drexler, at Fort George, in June and
July, 1860.

Brewster, p. 370, obtained a specimen near Fox Bay,
Anticosti; July 11, 188.

18. Compsothlypis americana (Linn.). Blue Yellow-
backed Warbler.

Brewster, p. 370, saw a male at Fox Bay, Anticosti,
July tr, 1881.

19. Dendrorca tegrina (Gmel.). Cape May Warbler.

Specimen obtained by Drexler, May 28, 1860, at
Moose Factory.

20. Dendroica e@stiva (Gmel.). Summer Yellow
Bird.

Specimen obtained by Drexler, July 12, 1860, at Fort
George.

Brewster, p. 370, reports it as abundant on Anti-
Costi.

BIRDS. 413.

t 21. Dendrotca coronata (Linn.). Yellow-rump War--
bler.

Audubon, vol. ii, p. 24, found them plentiful in Lab-
rador, with young scarcely able to fly.

Drexler obtained specimens, July 21, 1860, at Moose
Factory.

t+ 22. Dendrotca maculosa (Gmel.). Black-and-yellow
Warbler.

Drexler obtained a specimen at Moose Factory, May
28, 1860.

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 66, reports it common, with eggs
and nest in beginning of July, 1833.

Brewster, p. 371, found it abundant on Anticosti.

23. Dendroica cerulescens (Gmel.). Black-throated
Blue Warbler.

Audubon, vol. i1, p. 63, states he found a dead one in
Labrador. [This species is erroneously entered in Mr.
Turner’s list as “ Dendrozca cerulea (Wils.). Cerulean
Warbler.” | :

24. Dendrotca castanea (Wils.). Bay-breasted War-
bler.

Drexler obtained a specimen at Moose Factory, June
2, 1860.

Three individuals were seen at Black Island, Hamil-
ton Inlet, by me July 9, 1882. Two were shot, but lost
in the thick undergrowth ; one of the birds was actually
in my hand, but escaped.

+25. Dendroica striata (Forst.). Black-poll War-
bler.

Abundant throughout the wooded portions of the
region. Breeds plentifully at Fort Chimo, where seven
nests and eggs were obtained in 1884 by me.

414 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

26. Dendroica blackburnie (Gmel.). Blackburnian
“Warbler.

Audubon, vol. ii, p. 48, saw several in Labrador.

27. Dendrowca virens (Gmel.). Black-throated Green
‘Warbler.

Brewster, p. 371, saw two or three on Anticosti.

+ 28. Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea (Ridgw.).
Red-poll Warbler.

A specimen was obtained by Drexler at Moose Fac-
tory in July, 1860. :

Audubon, vol. ii., p.55, found them plentiful in Labra-
dor. Young seen in August.

+29. Securus aurocapillus (Linn.). Golden-crowned
Thrush.

Stearns, p. 116, records this species as breeding in
Southern Labrador.

Brewster, p. 371, saw a pair at Ellis Bay, Anticosti,
July at.

Verrill, p. 137, obtained specimens at Anticosti, July
15, 1861.

+30. Sezurus noveboracensts (Gmel.). Small-billed
Water Thrush.

Several individuals, young of the year among them,
‘were procured by me at Davis Inlet in August, 1884.

A specimen was procured at Moose Factory, May
26, 1860, by Drexler.

31. Geothlypis trichas (Linn.). Maryland Yellow-
throat.

Common in southern portions of Labrador.

Stearns, p. 116, reports it from Natashquan.

Brewster, p. 371, found it at Fox Bay, Anticosti
July 11.

BIRDS. 415

t 32. Sylvanda pusilla (Wils.). Black-capped Yel-
tow Warbler.

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 21, records it as breeding in Lab-
rador, and a nest obtained,

Brewster, p. 371, records it from Anticosti.

t 33. Sylvanzta canadensts (Linn.). Canadian Warb-
ler. bs

Audubon, vol. ii, p. 15, reports it as breeding in Lab-
rador.

+34. Setophaga ruticilla (Linn.). American Red-
‘start.

Verrill, p. 137, records it as breeding on Anticosti,
with young ones just able to fly, July 18, 186r.

A specimen was obtained by James McKenzie at
Rupert House, September 3, 1860.

Brewster, p. 372, records it from Ellis and Fox Bays,
Anticosti, and from Mingan, on the south shore of Lab-
rador.

35. Vireo oltvaceus (Linn.). Red-eyed Vireo.

Verrill, p. 138, reports it as common on Anticosti.

36. ‘Vireo philadelphicus (Cass.). Philadelphia Vireo.

Individual obtained from Moose Factory, June 2,
1860, by Drexler.

37. Vireo noveboracensts (Gmel.). White-eyed
Vireo. Audubon, vol. iv.,.p. 148, states that a few were
seen in Labrador. [Audubon was probably mistaken,
Labrador being beyond the known range of this
species. |

* + 38. Lantus borealts Vieill. Great Northern Shrike.

Not common at Fort Chimo. Breeds there. Young,
unable to fly more than a few rods, were taken by the
hand at that place, June 30, 1884. Said to be common

416 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

in the more southern portions, and there known as. the
“ Silky Jay.”

39. Ampelts cedrorum (Vieill.). Cedar Wax-wing.

Specimen obtained August 26, 1860, by Drexler, at
Moose Factory.

+ 40. Petrochelidon lunifrons (Say). Cliff Swallow.

Verrill, p. 137, reports it breeding in large numbers,
July 15, 1861, on Anticosti.

tat. Cheltdon erythrogaster (Bodd.). Barn Swal-
low.

Breeds at Northwest River, at the head of Hamilton
Inlet.

+42. Tachyctneta bicolor (Vieill.). |White-bellied
Swallow. ,

Common at ‘“ Big” Island, in the Koksoak River, near
Fort Chimo, where it breeds abundantly. Abundant
throughout the northern portions,

Brewster, p. 372, saw two at Anticosti, June 9.

t 43. Clivzcola riparza (Linn.). Bank Swallow.

Audubon, vol. i., p. 189, states that it rarely begins to
breed before June, and lays only once. Said to be plen-
tiful on south shore of Labrador.

Verrill, p. 138, reports it plentiful on Anticosti.

* +44. Pinicola enucleator (Linn.). Pine Grosbeak.

Abundant in summer only, at Fort Chimo; breeds
there; nest and eggs obtained.

Plentiful in southern districts among the timbered
tracts. Resident south of the “Height of Land.”
This bird is known asthe ‘* Mupe.”

45. Carpodacus purpureus (Gm.). Purple Finch.

Kumlien, p. 75, obtained one on shipboard off Resolu-
tion Island.

BIRDS. 417

Drexler obtained it at Moose Factory, May 28, 1860.

Occurs plentifullv in southern portions.

* +46. Loxza leucuptera Gmel. White-winged Cross-
bill.

Abundant at Fort Chimo in winter, rare during other
winters. None observed in summer. Birds of the year
are taken in early winter. Breeds in central portions
and resident there.

47. Acanthis hornemannt (Holb.). Mealy Redpoll.

Very abundant in winter. Not occurring in summer
from May 15 to September 1 of each year.

* +48. <Acanthts hornemannt extlipes (Coues).
White-rumped Redpoll.

Abundant and resident. Breeds plentifully at Fort
Chimo, where nests and eggs were obtained.

* + 49. Acanthis linaria (Linn.). Common Redpoll.
Abundant and resident. Breeds plentifully at Fort
Chimo, where nests and eggs were obtained.

50. Acanthis linarta rostrata (Coues). Greater Red-
poll. ,

Rather common in winter. None to be seen from
May 15 to September 1 of each year.

51. Spznus tristis (Linn.). American Goldfinch.

Kumlien, p. 76, caught av adult male on shipboard off
Cape Mugford, August 22, 1877.

Occurs in southern portions of Labrador.

A bird called “Goldfinch” was described accurately,
and asserted to occur occasionally at Fort Chimo, but I
did not succeed in finding it.

52. Spinus pinus (Wils.). Pine Goldfinch.

Recorded by Audubon, vol. iii., p. 126, as common.

Brewster, p. 373, saw a flock, July 24, on Anticosti.

418 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

* + 53. Plectrophenax nivalis (Linn.). Snow Bunting.

Abundant at Fort Chimo. Breeds on the islands in
Ungava Bay and occasionally on the mainland. Resident
in the southern portions of Labrador.

+54 Calcartus lapponicus (Linn.). Lapland Long-
spur.

Abundantat Fort Chimo. Breeds near the mouth of the
Koksoak River and on the larger islands in Ungava Bay.

+ 55. Ammodramus sandwichensts savanna (Wils.).
Savannah Sparrow.

Common throughout the region. Breeds at the mouth
of the Koksoak River and at Davis Inlet.

+ 56. Zonotrichia leucophrys (Forst.). White-
crowned Sparrow.

Very plentiful throughout the country. Breeds
abundantly at Fort Chimo.

+57. Zonotrechia albicoll’s (Gmel.). White-throated
Sparrow.

Reported by Stearns, p. 117,as common and breed-
ing in Southern Labrador.

Audubon, vol. iil, p. 154, states that this species is
common, and that he saw young late in July.

Drexler obtained this species at Moose Factory, May
31, 1860.

Verrill, p. 138, reports this species as by far the most
common singing bird at Anticosti.

+58. Spzzella monticola (Gmel.). Tree Sparrow.

Common throughout the entire country. Breeds plen-
tifully at Fort Chimo, where eggs and nests were taken.

+59. Funco hyemalzs (Linn.). Black Snowbird.

Not observed in the Ungava district. Common in
the eastern and southern portions of Labrador. Breeds

BIRDS, 419

at Davis Inlet and Rigolet. Known as the “Stone
Chat” on the east coast.

t 60. Melospiza lincolnt (Aud.). Lincoln’s Finch.

Rare at Fort Chimo ; a male obtained June 10, 1883.
Common in southern portions.

Audubon, vol. iii, p. 117, found young July 4, 1833.

Drexler procured specimens at Moose Factory, May
23, 1860.

61. Melospiza georgiana (Lath.). Swamp Sparrow.

Audubon, vol. iil, p. 111, states it to be abundant in
Labrador.

Brewster, p. 375, found it plentiful on Anticosti.

+ 62. Passerella tlaca (Merrem). Fox-colored Spar-
TOW.

Common in southern portions. Young obtained at
Rigolet late in June and early July, 1882.

63. Prpilo erythrophthalmus (Linn.). Chewink;
‘Towhee.

Audubon, vol. iii., p. 168, states that it occurs north-
ward to Labrador. [Doubtless an error. |

+ 64. Scolecophagus carolinus (Miill.). Rusty Black-
bird.

Common. Breeds at Fort Chimo, where young just
from the nest were obtained, July 10, 1884.

* +65. Corvus corax principalis Ridgw. American
‘Raven.

Abundant throughout the region. Breeds at Fort
Chimo; nearly fledged young seen in nest May 18.
66. Corvus americanus Aud. Common Crow.

Rare and only found in southern portions,

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 89, states few were to be seen in
Labrador.

420 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Coues, p. 226, saw one flying.

Stearns, p. 117, reports it from Eskimo River.

Verrill, p. 138, records it as very common on Anti-
costi. Not known to breed in Labrador.

* +67. Pertsoreus canadensis (Linn.). Canada Jay.

Plentiful in interior of southern and westen portions.
Breeds and resident wherever found.

* + 68. Pertsoreus canadensis nigricapillus (Ridgw. ).

Coastwise and interior especially abundant. Resident
and breeds at Fort Chimo. .

t 69. Otocords alpestrzs (Linn.). Shore Lark.

Common. Breeds at the mouth of the Koksoak River
and at Rigolet.

t+ 70. Tyrannus tyrannus (Linn.). Kingbird; Bee
Martin.

Audubon, vol.i., p. 207, found it breeding in Labrador.

71. Contopus borealis (Swains.). Olive-sided Fly-
catcher.

Audubon, vol.i., 215, records it from the coast of
Labrador.

+ 72. Contopus richardsonz (Swains.). Western Wood.
Pewee.

Audubon, vol. i., p. 220, states that he found it breed-
ing in Labrador. [This was erroneously entered in Mr.
Turner's list as “Sayornes phaebe (Lath.). Phoebe
Bird.” |

73. Contopus virens (Linn.). Wood Pewee.

Audubon, vol. i, p. 233, records it [probably erro-
neously | from Labrador.

74. Empidonax flaviventris Baird. Yellow-bellied
Flycatcher,

Brewster, p. 380, reports it common at Ellis Bay,
Anticosti.

BIRDS. 421

+ 75. Empidonax minimus Baird. Least Flycatcher.

Audubon, vol. i., p. 237, found it nesting in Labrador.

Obtained by Drexler at Moose Factory, May 30, 1860.

76. Trochilus colubris Linn. Ruby-throated Hum-
ming-bird.

A single individual, male, was seen within 4 feet of
me July 17, 1882, on the hill-top (825 feet elevation)
back of the station at Davis Inlet.

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 195, states that few were seen in
Labrador.

77. Chordetles virgintanus (Gmel.). Nighthawk.

Stearns, p. 117, records it from Natashquan.

Obtained by Drexler in August, 1860, at Moose
Factory.

* +78, Dryobates villosus leucomelas (Bodd.). Hairy
Woodpecker. :

Resident in southern portions of Labrador; probably
does not occur north of the “ Height of Land.”

* +79, Dryobates pubescens (Linn.). Downy Wood-
pecker,

Common and resident in southern portions ; probably
does not range north of 56°.

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 249, reports it from Texas to
Labrador.

Brewster, p. 381, found it breeding at Fox Bay, Anti-
costi, July 11.

* 480, Prcoddes arcticus (Swains.). Black-backed
Three-toed Woodpecker.

Common and resident throughout the wooded por-
tions.

* +81. Prcotdes americanus Brehm. Banded-backed
Three-toed Woodpecker.

422 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Common and resident throughout the wooded por-
tions.

+ 82. Colaptes auratus (Linn.). Yellow-shafted
Flicker. :

An accidental straggler was procured from the main-
land near Akpatok Island, Hudson Strait, in October,
1882. Reported to be a Common summer visitor to
Northwest River.

+ 83. Ceryle alcyon (Linn.). Belted Kingfisher.

A summer visitor to Northwest River, where it breeds.

Drexler obtained a specimen, May 26, 1860, at Moose
Factory.

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 208, records that he has met
with it from Texas to Labrador.

84. Coccyzus americanus (Linn.). Yellow-billed
Cuckoo.

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 296, states that even in Labrador
he has met with a few of them [— a statement requiring
confirmation ].

85. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus (Wils.). Black-billed
Cuckoo.

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 301, states that they saw a few
in clumps of low trees a few miles from the shore of the
gulf. (The text evidently refers to Labrador. )

* 2+ 86. Aszo accipitrinus (Pall.). Short-eared Owl.

Common insummer only at Fort Chimo. Specimens
obtained there and at Davis Inlet. A very light-colored
individual was seen, July 18, 1882, at Davis Inlet.
Downy young individual was obtained at Fort Chimo.
Plentiful on the east shore of Hudson Bay. Not known
to winter in the Ungava district.

87. Scotzaptex cinerea (Gmel.). Great Gray Owl.

BIRDS. 423

Specimen (No. 32306 2) in the Smithsonian Institu-
tion collection was obtained by James McKenzie at Moose
Factory. No record from other parts of the country.

88. Nyctala acadica (Gmel.). Saw-whet Owl.

Specimen (No. 32301) in Smithsonian Institution
was obtained at Moose Factory by James McKenzie.

* +89, Bubo virginianus saturatus Ridgw. Dusky
Horned Owl.

Not rare at Fort Chimo. Resident. Downy young
obtained June 20, 1884.

* + 90. Myctea nyctea (Linn.). Snowy Owl.

Common throughout the country. Breeds at Fort
Chimo.

*+o1. Surnia ulula caparoch (Miill.). American
Hawk Owl.

Rare at Fort Chimo. Eggs obtained June 8, 1884,
and downy young nearly ready to leave the nest were
taken June 20.

* + 92. Falco tslaundus Briinn, White Gyrfalcon.

Common at Fort Chimo and east coast of Labrador.
Resident in northern portions, breeds at Fort Chimo.

+ 93. Falco rusticolus Linn. Iceland Gyrfalcon.

Winter specimens only obtained at Fort Chimo.
Not known to breed in the Ungava district.

* + 94. Falco rusticolus obsoletus (Gmel.). Labrador
Gyrfalcon.

Abundant at Fort Chimo. Eggs obtained May 24.
Young and adult specimens of this bird procured. Very
rare in winter at Fort Chimo.

+95. Falco peregrinus anatum (Bon.). American
Peregrine Falcon; Duck Hawk.

Abundant at Fort Chimo. Eggs, downy young, and

424. THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

adults taken there. Does not pass the winter in the
Ungava district.

+ 96. Falco columbarius Linn, Pigeon Hawk.

Audubon, vol.'i., p. 89, states that eggs and nest were
found about June 1.

Coues, p. 216, met with it on two occasions; one at
Groswater Bay on August 5, and on the 25th of August
“t Henley Harbor.

97. Falco sparvertus Linn. Sparrow Rawk.

Coues, p. 216, saw a single individual in Labrador.

+ 98. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis (Gm.). American
Osprey; Fish Hawk.

Mr. John Ford assured me that the Fish Hawk breeds,
four or five pairs of them, about 4 miles above the
station of the Hudson Bay Company on Northwest
River.

Nuttall, page 81, reports it from Labrador.

Brewster, p. 382, records that few were seen at Anti-
costi.

99. Czrcus hudsonzus (Linn.). Marsh Hawk.

Audubon, vol. i., p. 105, saw it in Labrador.

100. Accipiter velox (Wils.). Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Richardson, vol. ii., p. 44, states that one was killed
near Moose Factory and deposited by the Hudson Bay
Company in the muscum of London.

Verrill, p. 137, reports having seen this species near
Salmon River, July 3, 1861. :

* + 101. Accipiter atricapillus (Wils.). American
Goshawk.

Resident in Ungava district. Winter specimen ob-
tained in early December, 1882. Breeds at the ‘‘ Chapel”

BIRDS. 425

near Fort Chimo. Specimen obtained from Rigolet.
Known as “ Partridge Hawk.”

102. Buteo latissimus (Wils.). Broad-winged Hawk.

Specimen (No. 33209 @) in Smithsonian Institution
collected by James McKenzie in 1862 at Moose Factory.

+ 103. Archibuteo lagopus sanctr-johannts (Gmel.).
American Rough-legged Hawk.

Both light and dark phases, with their eggs, young,
and adults, collected at Fort Chimo. Apparently more
abundant on eastern and northern shores than on the
southern portions of Labrador. Downy young were
also obtained, of the black phase, July 17, 1882, at Davis
Inlet. Termed “ Squalling Hawk” by the planters.

+ 104. Aguzla chrysaetos (Linn.). Golden Eagle.

Specimens procured in Ungava district. Breeds in
the northeastern portions among the hills. A pair also
breed at the ‘“ Forks’ in the Ungava district. The
Eagles are termed “Grepe” by the planters, and is a
word derived from some of the earlier Scandinavian
settlers on the coast who apply the term Grege to a
Vulture.

t+ 105. Halieetus leucocephalus (Linn.). Bald Eagle ;
‘Gray Eagle.

Nuttall, p. 75, records it as breeding and rearing its
young in all the intermediate space from Nova Scotia
or Labrador to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

106. Lctopistes migratorius (Linn.). Passenger
Pigeon. .

Specimen obtained August 16, 1860, by C. Drexler,
at Moose Factory.

Verrill, p. 138, saw a single individual at Heath

426 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Point, Anticosti, and was informed that they are very
rare there.

*+ 107. Dendragapus canadensis (Linn.). Canada.
Grouse; Spruce Partridge.

Abundant throughout the wooded tracts. Resident.
Eggs, downy young, and adults procured at Fort Chimo.

*+ 108. Bonasa umbellus togata (Linn.). Ruffed.
Grouse..

Occurs rarely at the head of Hamilton Inlet, but only
on the south side; rather common at Paradise River,
flowing into Sandwich Bay, and abundantly in the val-
leys to the southward, where birch grows plentifully.
These birds are known as “ French Hens.”

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 80, reports it as common from
Maryland to Labrador.

* + 109. Lagopus lagopus (Linn.). Willow Ptarmi-
gan.

Exceedingly abundant throughout the country.
Breeds by thousands at Fort Chimo, where eggs, adults,
and young in all stages were procured.

*+ 110. Lagopus rupestris(Gm.). Rock Ptarmigan.

Plentiful everywhere on the treeless areas. Eggs,
young in all stages, and adults were procured from vari-
ous places.

111. Ardea herodias Linn. Great Blue Heron.

An individual was seen by Mr. John Saunders (of the
Hudson Bay Company) to fly from the creek which is
the outlet of Whitefish Lake, near Fort Chimo, in the
summer of 1880. A specimen was obtained at Moose
Factory by James McKenzie, August 29, 1860. ~

Verrill, p. 138, states that a large Heron, which ap-

BIRDS. 427°

peared to be of this species, was seen at Ellis Bay, Anti-.
costl.

112. Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.). American
Bittern.

According to Coues, p. 227, a wing of a Bittern was:
seen in the possession of a native at Rigolet (?).

Drexler found it breeding at Moose Factory, and ob--
tained specimens August 29, 186-.

Verrill, p. 138, records it as common at Anticosti. A.
young one, just able to fly, was caught August 4.

t 113. Hematopus palliatus Temm. American.
Oystercatcher.

Audubon, vol. v., p. 237, found several breeding in
Labrador.

+ 114. Avenarca interpres (Linn.). Turnstone.

Occasional at Ungava Bay. A young bird of the year
was obtained there in the middle of September, 1382,
and an adult at Davis Inlet. Not rare on the east coast.

115. Charadrius sqguatarola (Linn.). Black-bellied.
Plover.

Stearns, p. 118, reports it plentiful in South Labrador.
Not observed in the Ungava district, Not breeding.

116. Charadrius dominicus Mill. American Golden.
Plover.

Occurs, in fall only, at the mouth of the Koksoak.
Common in the southern and western portions near the
coast. Not known to breed there.

+117. 4égtalitis semipalmata Bonap. Semipal-
mated Plover.

Occurs abundantly throughout the coast region.
Eggs, downy young, and aduits obtained from Ungava,

428 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

and downy young with their parents obtained from
Davis Inlet. Known as “ Beach Bird” in Labrador,

118. Philohela minor (Gmel.). American Wood-
cock.

Several persons assured me that they had killed wood-
‘cocks on the eastern portions of the Labrador shore.

+ 119. Gallinago delicata (Ord.). Wilson’s Snipe.

I heard and sawa male making the peculiar noise
with its wings, in early June, over a swamp to the north
of Davidson’s Lake, a few miles from Fort Chimo.
Specimens were procured, June 15, 1860, by Drexler, at
Rupert House.

Coues, p. 229, met with a single specimen.

120. Macrorhamphus griseus (Gmel.). Red-breasted
Snipe ;. Gray Snipe.

Rare at Fort Chimo. Common in southern and
western portions. Specimens obtained at Fort Chimo
and Davis Inlet.

121. 7r¢nga canutus Linn. Knot; Robin Snipe.

Audubon, vol. v., p. 256, states that it ranges along
the coast from Texas to Labrador, but does not record
having met with it in the latter country.

Coues, p. 229, obtained at Henley Harbor a few spe-
ccimens in immature plumage.

122. Tringa marztima Brinn. Purple Sandpiper.

Although I can find no record of the occurrence of
this species in Labrador, yet it abounds on the Atlantic
coasts to the north and south of Labrador in spring and
fall.

+123. Tringa maculata Vieill. Pectoral Sandpiper.

Common almost everywhere on the coast. Specimens

BIRDS. 429:

procured by Coues, p. 230; Stearns, p. 119, and by my-
self.

124. Tvinga fuscicolls Vieill. Bonaparte’s Sand-
piper. ¢

Excessively abundant at the mouth of the Koksoak
River in July, August, and September; also on the
eastern shore of Labrador. Not known to breed in the
country.

+125. Trénga mdnutilla Vieill. Least Sandpiper.

Not common at Ungava. I have reason to believe
that occasional pairs breed at the mouth of the Koksoak
River.

Audubon, vol. v., p. 282, states that he found nest.
and eggs, July 20, 1883, in Labrador.

Coues, p. 232, observed it to be plentiful in Labrador.

Brewster, p. 386, observed a few daily on the beach
at Anticosti.

Stearns, p. 119, records it common in spring and fall,
and breeds in summer.

+ 126. Lreunetes puszllus (Linn.). Semipalmated
Sandpiper.

Occurs sparingly at the mouth of the Koksoak River,
and from its actions indicated breeding.

Audubon, vol. v., p, 278, states he found them dis-
persed in pairs and having nests early in June in Lab-
rador. 7

Stearns, p. 119, reports this species as common in
spring and fall.

127. Calidris arenaria (Linn.). Sanderling.

Three individuals were seen at the mouth of the Kok-
soak River associated with 7rzuga fuscecollis. Two of
_ these were obtained.

430 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Audubon, vol. v., p. 288, states he saw young in Lab-
rador early in August, 1833, moving southward.

128. Limosa hemastica (Linn.). Hudsonian Godwit.

Rare. Drexler obtained a specimen near Rupert
House, July 30, 1860.

Steatns, p. 119, obtained a single individual at Old
Fort Island.

+ 129. Totanus melanoleucus (Gmel.). Greater Yel-
low-legs ; Tell-tale. .

Not common in Ungava district. Specimens obtained
at the mouth of the Koksoak River and only in the fall.

Audubon, vol. v., p. 319, states he found this species
‘breeding in June in Labrador.

130. Totanus flavipes (Gmel.). Yellow-legs.

A single individual was seen October 8 about 50
miles above Fort Chimo, on the Koksoak River, flying
from a bar.

Audubon, vol. v., p. 313, states he found few of these
birds in Labrador.

+131. Totanus solitarcus (Wils.). Solitary Sand-
piper.

A single individual was obtained near Fort Chimo in
July. Its actions indicated breeding.

132. Tryngztes subruficolles (Vieill.). Buff-breasted
Sandpiper.

Coues, p. 235, obtained asingle individual August 20,
1860.

+ 133. Actetis macularia (Linn.). Spotted Sand-
piper.

Common at Fort Chimo, where downy young and
adults were procured.

Audubon, vol. v., p. 303, states he found it breeding

BIRDS. 431

in Labrador, July 17, 1833, and obtained fully-fledged
young July 29.

134. Mumenzus longtrostris Wils. Long-billed Cur-
lew.

Most diligent inquiry failed to satisfy me that this
species occurs on the north, east, or southern portions
of Labrador. Coues apparently satisfied himself, from
inquiry, that the bird does occur there, vzde p. 235.

135. Mumenius hudsontcus Lath. Hudsonian Curlew.

I saw three individuals of this species in September,
1882, at the mouth of the Koksoak.

Coues, p. 235, procured a few individuals.

136. Mumencus borealis (Forst.). Eskimo Curlew.

Several large flocks were seen September 4, 1884, fly-
ing over the mouth of the Koksoak River. Plentiful in
the fall in the southern portions and as far north as
Davis Inlet; they do not halt above this latter place
while on their way southward.

+ 137. Crymophilus fulicartus (Linn.). Red Phala-
rope.

Abundant on the Labrador coast north of Davis Inlet.
Common in Hudson Strait. Rare in Ungava Bay,
where a specimen was obtained. Breeds sparingly in
Hudson Strait.

+ 138. Phalaropus lobatus (Linn.). Northern Phala-
rope.

Breeds on the islets in Ungava Bay. Common on
northern portions of the Labrador coast.

139. Rallus virgintanus Linn. Virginian Rail.

A single specimen was taken in Hamilton Inlet a few
years ago and submitted to M. Fortesque, Esq. (of the

432 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Hudson Bay Company), who identified it beyond ques-
tion.

140. Porzana carolina (Linn.). Sora Rail.

Obtained by Drexler, August 26, 1860, at Moose
Factory.

141. Fulica americana Gmel. American Coot.

A specimen was shot’ on a lake near Nain several
years ago. Several persons who saw the stuffed bird
described this species beyond possibility of doubt.

142. Olor columbtanus (Ord). Whistling Swan.

An occasional straggler over the southern portions
only of Labrador. The Eskimo of the western side and
northern end of the region apply the name Kéogzhook
to this bird, and is exactly the same name as is given to
it by the Eskimo of Norton Sound, Alaska.

143. Chen hyperborea nivalis (Forst.). Greater Snow
Goose.

Occasionally a straggler is seen in the western portions
and along the western end of Hudson Strait. Eskimo
from the eastern shore of Hudson Bay reported it to be
very plentiful during the migration. Those people ap-
ply the term Kangodk to this species, and what is rare
among the names of birds is, that the same term is ap-
plied to this species by the Eskimo of Norton Sound,
Alaska.

+ 144. Branta canadensis (Linn.). Canada Goose.

Common throughout the territory. Breeds along
Hudson Strait near the mouth of St. George’s River,
where eggs, young, and adults, were procured,

Breeds plentifully on Anticosti, according to Verrill,
Br T39>

145. Branta bernicla (Linn.). Brant.

BIRDS. 433

Seen in spring only at Fort Chimo. Not known to
breed in the region.

Audubon, vol. vi., p. 205, states that it breeds from
Labrador northward. ‘

146. Anas boschas (Linn.). Mallard.

Rare at Fort Chimo. Common on eastern and more
plentiful on southeast coast. Specimens obtained from
Davis Inlet and at the mouth of the Koksoak River;
known in Labrador as Mallard and Green Head.

+ 147. Anas obscura (Gmel.). Black Mallard.

Not common in Hudson Strait.. Doubtless breeds.
there, as a female obtained in July had the abdomen
bare and no quills in the wings.

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 246, found eggs and young July
5, 1833.

Verrill, p. 139, states that it breeds abundantly on An-
ticosti. :

+ 148. Anas strepera (Linn.). Gadwall.

Not observed in Hudson Strait.

Verrill, p. 139, states that few specimens were seen on
Anticosti, and a half-grown young one was caught near
the middle of July.

149. Anas americana (Gmel.). Baldpate.

Mr. John Ford assures me that the Widgeon is com-
mon in Hamilton Inlet and on the southeast shore of
Labrador.

150. Anas déscors (Linn.). Blue-winged Teal.

Brewster, p. 389, records that fishermen report its oc-
currence at Anticosti.

151. Anas crecca (Linn.). English Teal.

Coues, p. 238, obtained a male in Labrador, July 23,
1860.

434 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. ‘“
152. Anas carolinensis (Gmel.). Green-winged Teal.
Fully-fledged young females were obtained at Fort

Chimo late in July.

Coues, p. 238, saw it in a collection at Rigolet.

153. Dafila acuta (Linn.). Pintail.

A single (young of the year) female was taken at the
mouth of the Koksoak River. An adult was procured
at Davis Inlet. It is very doubtful that this species
breeds in the Ungava district.

154. dzx sponsa (Linn.). Wood Duck; Summer
Duck.

Stearns, p. 120, reports ‘it not rare in the interior of
Labrador.

155. Aythya americana (Eyt.). Redhead.

Stearns, p. 120, reports it as common, and saw an in-
dividual, September 20, in Baie des Roches.

156. Glauczonetta tslandica (Gmel.). Barrow’s
Golden-eye.

Obtained specimens from Davis Inlet. Plentiful in
the fall on the Labrador coast.

157. Glauctonetta clangula americana (Bp.). Ameri-
can Golden-eye.

Specimens were obtained from Ungava Bay, where it
is abundant in fall, as it is also on the Labrador coast.

158. Hestrzonicus histrionzcus (Linn.). Harlequin
Duck.

Abundant in Hudson Strait. Specimens from Un-
gava Bay, where this duck certainly breeds. Plentiful
on the eastern coast of Labrador.

t 159. Clangula hyemalis (Linn.). Long-tailed
Duck; Old Squaw.

Abundant in the proper season along the entire coast.

BIRDS. 435

Eggs, downy young, and adults were procured at Fort
Chimo.

160 Camptolaimus labradorzus (Gmel.). Labrador
Duck.

Formerly abundant. Now supposed to be extinct.

*¢ 161. Somaterta mollissima borealis Brehm.
Common Eider.

Abundant in Hudson Strait. Eggs, young of the
year, and adults procured in Ungava Bay. Plentiful on
eastern and southern coasts.

® + 162. Somaterza dressert Sharpe. American Eider.

Common on south shore of Labrador.

* + 163. Somateria spectabilrs (Linn.). King Eider.

Abundant on Atlantic coast of Labrador, where it is
reported to breed. Nest and eggs were found by N, A.
Comeau near Mingan (vzde Canadian Naturalist and
Sportsman, vol. i, No. 7, p. 51, July 15, 1881). Not
known to enter Hudson Strait.

164. Ozdemia americana Sw. & Rich. American
Scoter.

Obtained at the mouth of the Koksoak River. Abun-
dant in Hudson Strait and eastern shore of Labrador,
where it is reported to breed sparingly.

+165. Ozdemia deglandi Bonap. American Velvet
Scoter.

Obtained from the eastern shore of Labrador. Com-
mon along all the coast.

The @. fusca of Audubon, vol. vi, p. 333, doubtless
refers to this species, and he reports it as common.
Nesting and young able to swim from June 1 to July 28.

+ 166. Oxdemia perspicillata (Linn.). Surf Duck.

430 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Rare in Hudson Strait. Abundant on the eastern
coast of Labrador, where it breeds sparingly.

167. Merganser americanus (Cass.). American Shel-
drake.

Stearns, p. 121, reports he has seen one individual of
this species near Fort Island. Thisis probably the “ Pie
bird” that I heard of on the Labrador coast.

* + 168. Merganser serrator (Linn.). Red-breasted
Sheldrake.

Abundant throughout the country. Breeds. Downy
young, unfledged young, and adults were procured at
Ungava and Davis Inlet. Known as “ Shell-bird” on
the Labrador coast.

169. Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.). Hooded Shel-
drake.

Stearns, p. 121, records it as rather rare, but: occa-
sional in Southern Labrador.

+ 170. Phalacrocorax carbo (Linn.). Common Cor-
morant.

_ Not observed in Hudson Strait. Plentiful, and breed-
ing along the eastern and southern coasts.

t 171. Phalacrocorax dilophus (Sw. & Rich.).
Double-crested Cormorant.

Plentiful, and breeding along the eastern and southern
coasts. Not observed in Hudson Strait.

+ 172. Sula bassana (Linn.). Gannet.

Abundant and breeding on southeast and southern
shores of Labrador.

173. Gavia alba (Gunn.). Ivory Gull.

Audubon, vol. vii., p. 150, records it from south shore
of Labrador. Not known to enter Hudson Strait.

* +174. Ressa tredactyla (Linn.). Kittiwake Gull.

BIRDS. 437

Breeds plentifully on the northern portions of the
Atlantic coast of Labrador.

Brewster, p. 398, found young on Anticosti. Occurs
but rarely in Hudson Strait. One individual was seen
over 100 miles up the Koksoak River, October 13, 1883.

Verrill, p. 141, reports them breeding in immense
numbers on the eastern and northern shores of Anticosti.

+175. Larus glaucus Briinn. Glaucous Gull; Bur-
gomaster.

Not rare in Hudson Strait. Not known to breed
there. Breeds plentifully on the eastern and southern
coasts of Labrador.

176. Larus leucopterus Faber. White-winged Gull.

Audubon, vol. vii., p. 159, states that few were seen
in Labrador.

+177. Larus marinus Linn. Great Black-backed
Gull. :

Not observed in Hudson Strait.

Audubon, vol. vil, p. 174, reports it common and
breeding on Labrador coast.

Coues, p. 244, obtained young, a few days old, at
Sloop Harbor, June 4, 1860.

Brewster, p. 395, found young of few days old on
Anticosti.

Known as the “Saddler” or ‘‘Saddle-back” on the
coast.

+178. Larus argentatus smtthsonianus Coues. Amer-
can Herring Gull.

Excessively abundant in Hudson Strait, where eggs,
young, and adults were obtained. Common on the
Atlantic coast of Labrador.

t+ 179. Larus delawarensts Ord. Ring-billed Gull.

438 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Coues, p. 246, obtained three young of the year at
Henley Harbor, August 21, 1860.

180. Larus philadelphia (Ord.). Bonaparte’s Gull.

Coues, p. 247, saw immature birds.

Stearns, p. 122, reports it to be abundant in fall on the
southern coast. Not known to breed in any part of
Labrador.

181. Xema sabinec (Sab.). Sabine’s Gull.

A single male was obtained in the middle of July,
1884, near the mouth of George’s River, flowing into
the eastern side of Ungava Bay.

182. Sterna tschegrava Lepch. Caspian Tern.

An individual was obtained by James Mc Kenzie at
Moose Factory.

+ 183. Sterna hirundo Linn. Common Tern.

Audubon, vol. vii., p. 100, reports it breeding in Lab-
rador.

+ 184. Sterna paradisea Briinn. Arctic Tern.

Breeds plentifully on islets in Ungava Bay ; young of
the year and adults and eggs were procured there.
Abundant on the other coasts of the country. Known
as the “ Rittick” at Ungava; an Orkney Isle word.

185. Sterna antillarum (Less.). Least Tern.

Audubon, vol. vii, p. 119, reports it abundant and
breeding on western (southern) shore of Labrador.

186. Megalestrds skua (Briinn,). Skua Gull.

A single individual was seen near the vessel, sitting in
the water off the north side of the Strait of Belle Isle,
June 22, 1882.

187. Stercorartus pomartnus (Temm.). Pomarine
Jaeger.

One was shot by Coues, p. 243.

BIRDS, 429

188. Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.). Parasitic
Jaeger.

Coues, p. 243, records having seen this species in Lab-
rador. Not known to enter Hudson Strait.

189. Stercorartus longicaudus Vieill. Long-tailed
Jaeger.

_ A single individual was obtained in Ungava Bay in
the early part of July. Several wereseen. Brewster, p.
395, saw a single individual July 20, near Mingan Har-
bor.

t+ 190. Fulmarus glactal’s (Linn.). Fulmar Petrel.

Not observed in Hudson Strait. Excessively abun-
dant from Cape Chidley to Strait of Belle Isle. Thou-
sands were seen in July near the former locality.

191. Puffinus kuhliz (Boie). Cinereous Shearwater.

Kumlein, p. 102, reports it common from Belle Isle
to Grinnell Bay. ;

[This species is regarded as doubtfully North Ameri-
can. No American specimen is known to be extant. ]

192. Puffinus major Faber. Greater Shearwater.

Kumlein, p. 102, reports it from Belle Isle to Resolu-
ion Island.

193. Puffinus strickland? Ridgw. Sooty Shearwater.

Coues, p. 243, states that he saw, on August 19, 1860, .
few of this species with individuals of P. mazor.

194. Procellaria pelagica Linn. Stormy Petrel;
Mother Carey’s Chicken.

One obtained (middle of July, 1882) 20 miles up the
Koksoak River. Another was seen 70 miles up that
river, October 9, 1882.

195. Oceanttes oceantcus (Kuhl.). Wilson's Petrel.

440 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Atlantic coast of Labrador ; observed mostly in spring
and fall, then plentiful.

196. Cymochorea leucorrhoa (Vieill.). Leach’s Petrel.

Atlantic coast of Labrador; observed mostly in spring
and fall, then abundant.

197. Colymbus auritus (Linn.). Horned Grebe.

A single Grebe was seen in a tide poo] at the mouth of
the Koksoak River, September 15, 1882. I will not un-
dertake to assert what species it was, as it appeared to
be a bird of the year. Stearns, p. 132, reports Podzceps
holbélld as “not rare in spring and fall. Occasionally
breeds.” The individual seen by me may have been of
this species.

* + 198. Urinator imber (Gunn.). Loon.

Occurs in Hudson Strait, east and south shores of
Labrador. Specimens procured from Davis Inlet and
Rigolet.

199. Urznator arcticus (Linn.). Black-throated
Diver. ;

Stearns, p. 122, records that two specimens were pro-
cured off the Labrador coast by one of the French
priests at Bersimis. One in 1880.

+200. Urinator lumme (Gunn.). Red-throated
Diver.

Very plentiful throughout the county. Eggs, downy
young, and adults were procured at Ungava. Known in
Labrador as ‘‘ Waby.”

201. Plautus tmpennis (Linn.). Great Auk.

Supposed to have formerly occurred on the Labrador
coast. Undoubtedly extinct now.

+ 202. Alea torda Lian. Razor-billed Auk.

BIRDS. 441

Not observed in Hudson Strait. Abundant on east-
ern and southern shores, where it breeds plentifully.

+ 203. Fratercula arctica (Linn.). Common Puffin.

Plentiful on eastern and southern coast of Labrador,
where it breeds. Not known to enter Hudson Strait.

*+ 204. Alle alle (Linn.). Sea Dove; Dovekie.

Common in Hudson Strait. Winter (December 19,
1882) specimen taken 100 miles up the Koksoak River.
‘Occurs in myriads along the eastern shore of Labrador.
Known as the “ Bullbird.” Breeds plentifully in certain
localities not visited by me.

* + 205. Cepphus grylle (Linn.). Black Guillemot.

Common in Hudson Strait, east and south shores of
Labrador. Breeds wherever found in summer.

* + 206. Cepphus mandi (Licht.). Mandt’s Guille-
mot.

Occurs in Hudson Strait occasionally only, according
to my own observation. Plentiful on the eastern coast
of Labrador. Specimens procured:at Fort George by
Drexler, July 17, 1861. Breeds wherever found in sum-
mer. Known as ‘ Pigeon” or “Sea Pigeon” on the
eastern coast.

* + 007. Urda troile (Linn.). Common Guillemot.

Plentiful on eastern and southern coast of Labrador.
Not observed in Hudson Strait.

* +208. Ura lomvia (Briinn.). Briinnich’s Guille-
mot.

Obtained only from Hudson Strait, where it breeds.
Abundant on eastern and southern coasts.

Besides these species the following was collected by
Dr. Robert Bell, and recorded by him in the Report of
the Canadian Geological Survey for 1882-83-84.

442 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Procellaria tenutrostr?ts Aud. Slender-billed Fulmar.
Port Burwell, 28th September.

MammMaAts. ,

Vespertilio subulatus Say. Little Brown Bat. Natash-
quan. (Stearns.)

Lepus americanus Erx\. (Stearns.)

Erethizon dorsatum (Linn.). Near Hopedale.

Fiber zibethicus Cuv. Henley Harbor.

Castor canadensts Kuhl. Rapidly becoming extinct
on the coast.

Sciuropterus volu cella (Pallas). Specimens found at.
St. Augustine. (Stearns.)

Scturus hudsonius Pallas. ‘Common in the woods,
along the southern coast. (Stearns.)

Arctomys monax (Linn.). ‘Common at Mingan,
growing scarce towards Bonne Esperance.” (Stearns. ):

Zapus hudsonicus (Zimmermann). Not rare on the
dry tops of many of the islands along the southern coast.
(Stearns. )

Hesperomys leucopus (Rafinesque). Not rare.
(Stearns. )

Arvicola sp. (Stearns).

Balenoptera. The Fin-back is frequently seen upon
the coast.

Balena mysticetus Linn. The Hump-backel Whale
iscommonly seen. This species shows its tail and the
pale underside of the body when it ‘ breaches”; the
Fin-back does not show its tail.

Physeter macrocephalus Linn. For many years the
fishermen on the coast have noticed a school of nine

MAMMALS. 4435

sperm whales passing up and down the coast. Lately
the number has been reduced to five, one of which, prob-
ably, was seen off Domino Harbor, in a large school of
“ Finners” and ‘‘Hump-backs.”

Stbbaldius borealis (Fischer). A Sulphur-bottom.
Whale was towed ashore at Old Fort Island in 1878 or
1879. (Stearns.)

Monodon monoceros Linn. While the Narwhal is.
abundant, going in schools, in Hudson’s Strait, it had
not been seen at the Moravian settlements since at least
1830.

Delphinapterus catodon (Linn.). The White Whale is:
not uncommonly seen passing in schools along the coast.
in the summer-time.

Orca gladiator (Bonnaterre). The Az//er, which was
described to me as having the head much shorter and
blunter, and with longer teeth than the Grampus, from
which it is easily distinguished by its sharp, dorsal fin,
five or six feet high, is commonly said, by the fishermen,
to attack the Right and Finback Whales, “ gouging out
lumps of flesh.” At Belles Amours, an individual was.
captured, from whose stomach five shoulders of the seal.
were taken.

Globicephalus tntermedius (Harlan). The Black-fish,
or Grampus, abounds on the whole coast.

‘Grampus griseus (Cuvier). The Grampus occurs.
along the coast as far as Belle Isle, and perhaps farther.
(Stearns. ) ‘

Odobenus rosmarus (Malm.). Atlantic Walrus.

Phocavitulina Linn. Harbor Seal. Ascends the rivers:
into fresh water.

AAA THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Phoca fetida Fabr. In harbors in spring and autumn.
(Stearns. )

Of the Phoca hzspida Erxl., no information could be
obtained.

Pagophilus grenlandicus Gray. (Phoca groenlandica
uct.) This species is most abundant and extensively
hunted by the sealers. The young soon after birth
‘weigh 70-80 pounds, while the adult weighs 140-150
pounds. (Common in migrations all along the shores
south of Belle Isle.)

Erignathus barbatus Gill. (Phoca barbata Fabr.). It
is probably the species which is called by the sealers the
“‘Square Flipper.” It is very rare, and much the largest
species known. The young weigh 140-150 pounds,
while the adult will weigh 500-600 pounds.

Cy'stophora cristata Nilsson. The Hooded Seal is not
uncommonly, during the spring, killed in considerable
numbers by the sealers. The young “‘ pelt” weighs 70-80
pounds, while the old male or “dog hood,” weighs 400
pounds.

Rangifer caribou Baird. Livesin summer on the hill-
tops away from the woods,

Ovrbos moschatus Blainville. As the Labrador Es-
kimo have a distinct name for the musk-ox, it is natur-
ally inferred that it may have formerly inhabited the
northwestern part of the peninsula, as it once occurred on
the opposite coast of Hudson’s Bay as far south as
‘Churchill River.

Ursus maritimus Linn. White bear.

Ursus americanus Pallas. The black bear is abundant
-on the southern coast, where it leaves its winter quarters
in May, but above Hopedale is very rarely seen.

MAMMALS, 445,

Procyon lotor Storr. Raccoon. Square Island.

Lutra-canadensts Sabine. Common along the whole
coast.

Mephitis mephitica (Shaw). Rarely seen on the
southern coast. (Stearns.)

Gulo luscus (Linn.). Wolverine. Generally distrib-
uted along the coast. (Stearns. )

Putortus vison (Schreber). The Mink is common
along the coast.

Putortus vulgarzs (Erx].). This and the Ermine are
common everywhere.

Putorius erminea (Linn.).

Mustela americana Turton. The American Sable or
Marten is common.

Mustela pennant? Erx). The Fisher is occasionally
seen in Southern Labrador. (Stearns.)

Vulpes fulvus Linn. The Red Fox occurred com-
monly at Stagg Bay, with the following species of the
silver and black fox. The former is not uncommon, the

black very rare. '
Vulpes lagopus Linn. The “Blue Fox” is exceed-

ingly rare about the mouth of Hamilton Inlet. An old
hunter told me he had seen but three of them within a
period of forty years. Their fur is shorter, and the tail
shorter and more bushy than the “ Patch Fox.” On a
high isolated rock much frequented by sea-birds, I no-
ticed a Patch Fox with a murre’s egg in its mouth. It is
very tame and unsuspicious on the outer islands, where it
lives evidently by robbing the nests of sea-birds, It is
the common statement of the hunters that the different
varieties of this species are found in the same litter.

.446 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAS'T.

Canis lupus Linn. The Gray Wolf is said by Stearns
to be very rare.

Lynx canadensis (Desm.). The Lynx is common in
‘winter. (Stearns. )

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XV. ZOOLOGY.
By an unfortunate oversight the end of the list of in-
-sects was left out of its proper place.
LE PIDOPTERA—concluded.

Eurymus nastes (Boisd.) = Colias nastes of former
list. I have not re-examined specimens, as they are ap-
parently no longer extant.

Pamphila comma (Linn.) = Hesperia comma of my
former list. The single specimen obtained was not ex-
amined by me in my study of the species of Pamphila
(Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. ii, 341), and is the
only specimen I have seen of P. comma from America.
It belongs to the var. catena Staud. found in northern
Scandinavia and Lapland, and exactly resembles the
specimen of that variety figured by me in the memoir
referred to above Moschler has already noted that it
is this variety which occurs in Labrador.

flesperta centaure@ Ramb.

HYMENOPTERA.

Urocerus flavicornis Fabr. Common on Caribou
Island.

Urocerus cyaneus Fabr. Hopedale.

Euura orbttalis Norton. Var. a. b. Caribou Island.

Nematus Labradorzs Norton. Caribou Island.

Nematus malacus Norton. Caribou Island.

Nematus fallax Norton. Caribou Island.

Nematus monela Norton. Caribou Island.

Nematus fulvipes Norton. Caribou Island.

INSECTS. 447

Nematus placentus Norton. Caribou Island.
Allantus originalis Norton. Caribou Island.

Macrophya (Pachyprotasts) omega Norton. Caribou
Island.

Tenthredo mellinus Norton, Caribou Island.
Tenthredo cinctztzbzzs Norton. Caribou Island.
Formica herculanea Linn. Whole coast.

Formica sanguinea Latr. Strait of Belle Isle.

Vespa maculata Linn. Southern coast, Mecatina
Island.

Vespa norvegica Fabr. Caribou Island.

Bombus lacustrts Cresson. Whole northern coast ;
common.

Bombus kirbyellus Curtis. Sloop Harbor and Hope-
dale.

Bombus frigzdus Smith. Square Island and Hope-
dale.

Bombus nivalis Dahlb. Caribou Island and whole
coast northward.

* Ichneumon larie Curtis. Ross’ Voyage. Fig. 1.
Okkak.

‘This species labelled 7. evxythrosomus by Holmgren
seems to me to be the same as /. /arze of Curtis, only
differing in the color from our specimens from Green-
Jand.” (C. Aurivillius in letter.)

Lchneumon nigrorufus. Fide Holmgren. Caribou
Island.

Ichneumon Packard Holmgren MS. Hopedale.

Cryptus Fabricet Schiocdte. Tub Island.

Campoplex arcticus Curtis? Caribou Island.

*The Ichneumonidz were partially named by the late Mr. A. E.. Holmgren
‘of Sweden, the work having been interrupted by his death. Besides these about
awenty other species were collected, with two or three species of Chalcidide.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Very little herbalizing has been done on the shores of
this region and none at all in the interior. The earliest
paper devoted especially to Labrador botany appears to
be E. Meyer's De fplantes labradoriczs published at
Leipzig in 1830. The late Rev. Samuel Weiz, for many
years missionary at Hopedale, kindly allowed us while
at that station in 1864 to make a copy of his list of
northern Labrador plants. As regards the botany of
the St. Lawrence or Gulf Coast of Labrador we know
more. The Rev. S. R. Butler, a missionary and succes-
sor of the Rev. C. C. Carpenter at Caribou Island, near
the mouth of Eskimo River, botanized several seasons
on Caribou Island, at Forteau Bay and L’Ance Amour,
and the results are given in his excellent list entitled
‘Labrador Plantes,” published in the Canadian Natural-
ist.* This list was added to by Mr. W. A. Stearns,+ who.
collected at Harrington Harbor, Baie des Roches, Bonne
Espérence and Salmon Bay and at a point seven miles
up the Eskimo River. Miss MacFarlane also afforded
Mr. Butler “much valuable material.” Reference may
also be made to Sir John Richardson’s list of plants col-

* Vol. v. 1870. September No.
t Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vi. No. 8. Aug. 1. 1883.

448

NORTHERN LIMITS OF TREES, 449

lected on the Island of Anticosti and coast of Labrador
in 1860, While the plants of the Gulf coast are a mix-
ture of arctic, subarctic and Alpine floras with that of
the northern Canadian shores of the St. Lawrence River,
those of northern Labrador are naturally more purely
arctic.

The extreme northern point touched by an observer
of plant life in Fort Chimo. In the introduction to
his list of birds of Labrador * Mr. Turner thus refers to
the vegetation :—‘‘ The limit of trees ceases only 10
miles north of Fort Chimo. The principal trees are
species of Abies, Larix, Betula, Populus, Alnus, Salix,
and Juniperus. The more common flowering plants are
Anemone, Ranunculus, Draba, Viola, Arenaria, Stellaria,
Lathyrus, Potentilla, Rubus, Ribes, Saxifraga, Epilo-
bium, Heracleum, Taraxacum, Vaccinium, Kalmia,
Rhododendron, Ledum, Pinguicula, Gentiana, Empe-
trum, Habenaria, Iris, and Smilacina. Of sedges and
grasses, Juncus, Scirpus, Eriophorum, Carex, Poa, Ely-
mus, and Aira are the more common.” Dr. Robert
Bell collected plants on the northern coasts, which were
identified by Prof. Macoun, and-are embraced in the
list given beyond.

Dr. Kocht thus writes regarding the forests and vege-
tation at Nain, a point not far from the northern limit
of trees: “The northernmost valleys in which firs grow
open into Napartok Bay. North of Napartok Bay ft
(Napartok means fir) [more properly spruce] are found
only dwarf willows and birches ; mosses and lichens form

* Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vitt. Nos, 15, 16, 1885.
+ Deutsche Geographische Blatter, Bremen, 1884.
{ Napartok Bay is just south of the 58th parallel of latitude.

450 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

the principal covering of the ground. In the south,
near the coast, the forests have been partly destroyed by
reckless cutting, and the devastated character of the
region about Hopedale is due in great part to the
destruction of the forests on the valley sides by the
Eskimo. As everything naturally grows slowly on ac-
count of the short summer, the trunks of the firs are
subjected to great tension, so that those which have lost
their bark seem twisted like corkscrews. Hand in hand
with this goes on a rapid new growth of the thickness
of the trunk towards the top; both causes render the
wood useless for timber. On account of the short spring
this country, like other arctic regions, has a flora numer-
ically rich in individuals but poor in species, and it
reminds one of the alps and the mountains of Norway.
Of the plants, besides bilberries and cranberries, only a
kind of cochlearia and cloudberry (in Eskimo 4 £dz£)
are useful, the latter being used by the Eskimo in attacks
of scurvy, hence for that reason it is much valued and
gathered. In consequence of this many places are
named for it, for example Akbikse, Akbiktok, zzz.
places where Akbik grows.

‘“Moreover the missionaries raise potatoes and cab-
bages, but not only is the seed sown with much trouble
—for the garden must-be dug out of the snow in spring
—but also during the summer they must be covered
every night with mats on account of the nightly frosts.”

Of the mosses of Labrador what is known is probably
comprised in apaper entitled J/oosvegetation and Moos-
beaude tn Labrador.

PLANTS. 451

CATALOGUE OF THE PLANTS REPORTED
BY VARIOUS TRAVELLERS AND
OTHERS AS GROWING ON THE
COAST OF LABRADOR.

CoMPILED By JoHN Macoun, NATURALIST OF THE De-
PARTMENT. OF INTERIOR, OTTAWA, CANADA.

RANUNCULACE.

7. <Anemone parviflora Michx. Coast of Labrador:
(Torr. and Gray, p. 12) ; common on the highlands of
Forteau (W. E. Stearns); Hopedale (Weiz).

20. Thalictrum dioccum Linn. On Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler) ; common on highlands along the mar-
gins of streams, and in the interior at Forteau (W. E.
Stearns).

22. Thalictrum Cornute Linn. Coast of Labrador
at Forteau (McGill Coll. Herb).

34. Ranunculus affints R. Br. Hopedale (Weiz).
- 40. Ranunculus pygmaeus Wahl. Coast of Labrador
(Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz). Z.

44. Ranunculus nivalis Linn. From Labrador and
Spitzbergen (Torr. and Gray, page 21); Hopedale
(Weiz).

54. Caltha palustris Linn, Strait of Belle Isle (J. Rich-
ardson); Hopedale (Weiz). See &. Americanus
(J. M.).

57. Coptzs. trifolia Salisb. Labrador and north to
lat. 58° (Hooker); on hills, Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

452 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

NYMPHAACE.,

95. Nuphar advena Ait. Ponds, Caribou Island (S.
R. Butler).

SARRACENIACE.

100. Sarracenia purpurea Linn. Not infrequent in
bogs. (Hooker).

PAPAVERACE.

102. Papaver nudicaule Linn. Hopedale Islands,
Weiz.

CRUCIFERA.,

Cardamine pratensis Linn. Wet, swampy meadows
(Brunot); Hopedale (Weiz). See C. Celéidzfolza.

143. Aradbes alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador (Col-
master); Forteau Bay, by the seashore (S. R. Butler) ;
Hopedale Islands (Weiz).

144. Aradzs strecta Huds. Coast of Labrador (Col-
master vzde Pursh). This is very likely Arabis confinis,
Watson. Hopedale Island (Weiz).

169. Draba alpina var. (?) corymbosa, Durand. Coast.
of Labrador (Abbé Brunot).

170. Draba stellata var. nivalis, Regd. Coast of
Labrador (Colmaster vzde Hooker).

175. Draba encana Linn. D. contorta Ehrh.; Weiz’
List. D. glabella Richardson; Weiz, List. Coast of
Labrador (Pursh); Hopedale (Weiz).

Var. confusa Poir. Nachvak, coast of Labrador (R.
Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

176. Draba arabisans Michx. Hopedale (Weiz).

177. Draba aurea Vahl. Hopedale (Weiz).

PLANTS. 453

182. Cochlearza officinalis Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Abbé Brunot); Hopedale (Weiz).

185. Cochlearia tridactylites Banks. Coast of Labra-
dor (Sir Joseph Banks); Cape Charles (Abbé Brunot) ;
Hopedale (Weiz); Seashore, Caribou Island (S, R.
Butler).

197. Capsella bursa-pastoris Moench. Introduced.
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

VIOLACE.

240. Vrola canina var. sylvestris, Regel. V. Muhlen-
bergii ? Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Isl-
and (S, R. Butler).

229. Viola blanda Willd. Hopedale (Weiz).

CARYOPHYLLACE&,

263. Szlene acaulis Linn, Caribou Island (S. R. But-
ler); Hopedale (Weiz).

264. Lychnis apetala Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Judge Morrison).

266, Lychnts alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Judge Morrison); Ungava Bay (Barnston); Nach-
vak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

281. Arenarza verna Linn. A. juniperina Pursh;
Weiz’ List; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler); Cape
Charles and Amour Bay (Abbé Brunot); Coast of
Labrador (Pursh); Hopedale (Weiz).

287. Arenarta Grenlandica Spreng. Nain and
Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell); Hopedale (Weiz) ; summits
of low hills at Baie des Roches, abundant (W. E.
Stearns); Caribou Island (Butler).

454 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

288. Arenaria serpyllifolia Linn. Coast of Labra-
dor. Introduced. (Abbé Brunot.)

291. Arenaria peploides Linn. Honkenya peploides
Ehrh.; Butler’s List; Coast of Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler); Hopedale (Weiz).

295. Stellaria borealis Bigel. Hopedale (Weiz).

298. Stellarta crassifolia Ehrh. Arenaria norvegica ?
Weiz’ List. Rather common in damp localities along
the coast (W. E. Stearns); Hopedale, Weiz.

300. Stellaria longipes Goldie. Var. minor, Hook.
Hopedale (Weiz); Nain (R. Bell).

Var. Edwardsiz Torr. and Gr. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Coast of Labrador (Miss Macfarline) Caribou Island?
(Butler. )

305. Stellarza humzfusa Rottb. Arenaria Purshiana,
Seringe ; Weiz’ List ; Nain, along the coast (R. Bell);
Hopedale (Weiz) ; seashore of Labrador (Pursh) ; Sea-
beach, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

311. Cerastium alpinum Linn. Forteau Bay (S. R.
Butler) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz) ; Ford’s Harbor and
Nain (R. Bell).

Var. glabratum Hook. Hopedale (Weiz); Nach-
vak (R. Bell).

318. Sagena nodosa E. Meyer. Mingan Islands and
Labrador Coast. (St. Cyr); Caribou Island (SS. RK
Butler).

321. Spergularza salina Presl. Brackish sands along
the coast (Abbé Brunot).

PORTULACACEA,

340. Montia fontana Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Gmelin.)

PLANTS. 455

LEGUMINOSEA,

499. Astragalus alpinus Linn. <A. Labradoricus,
Hook.; Weiz’ List. Caribou Island or Forteau Bay
(S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz); Nain and Nachvak
CR. Bell).

525. Oxyttopis podocarpa Gray. Labrador and the
Arctic regions, (Dr. Gray).

527. Oxytropis campestris L. Var. cerulea, Koch.
Coast of Labrador, (Abbé Brunot) ; Ford’s Harbor and
Nachvak (R. Bell); Hill-sides near Forteau Light-
house, (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

533. Hedysarum boreale Mott. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler).

556. Lathyrus maritimus Bigel. Pisum maritimum,
Linn.; Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler. )

559. Lathyrus paluster Linn. Caribou Island and
Forteau Bay, (S. R. Butler.)

ROSACEA.

571. Prunus Pennsylvanica Linn. Cerasus——?
Butler’s List. Caribou Island. (S. R. Butler.)

588. Rubus Chamemorus Linn. Ford's Harbor (R.
Bell); Straits of Belle Isle (St. Cyr.); Hopedale
(Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

589. Rubus arcticus Linn. Peat bogs, coast of Lab-
rador (Abbé Brunot) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Is-
land (S. R. Butler).

Var. grandiflorus Ledeb, Coast of Labrador
(Hooker) ; Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell).

592. Rubus triflorus, Rich. Forteau Bay (S. R.
Butler).

456 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

605. Dryas octopetala Linn. D. tenella, Pursh ; Weiz’
List. Hopedale (Weiz); Nachvak and Cape Chudley
(R. Bell) ; Hill tops, Point Amour (S. R. Butler).

612. Geum rivale Linn. In_ springy places along
the coast (W. E. Stearns).

613. Geum triflorum Pursh. Dry rocky ground
(Judge Morrison ).

618. Szbbaldia procumbens Linn. Coast of Labrador
(M’Gill Coll. Herb.); Hopedale (Weiz).

625. Potentilla Norvegica Linn. Forteau Bay and
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Nain (R. Bell).

637. Potentilla nivea Linn. Hopedale (Weiz).

641. Potentella maculata Poir.

P. Salisburyensis Heenke ; Weiz’ List.

P. aurca Oeder; Weiz’ List.

P. crocea Haller; Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell); on hills at Amour (S R.
Butler).

643. Potentzlla emarginata Pursh. Coast of Labrador
(Colmaster).

. 645. Potentilla palustrés Scop.

Comarum palustris Linn.; Weiz’ List. Hopedale
(Weiz) ; Caribou Island. (S. R. Butler).

647. Potentilla fruticosa Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Hooker).

648. Potentilla tridentata Solander. Hopedale
(Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

649. Potentilla Anserzna Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

653. Alchemilla vulgarzs Linn. South coast of Lab-
rador near Amour (S. E. Butler); collected in several

PLANTS. 457

localities along the coast (W. E. Stearns); Hopedale
(Weiz). |

656. Potertum Canadense Benth. & Hook. Sanguz-
sorba Canadensis, Linn.; Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz);
‘common on dry sloping flats along the coast (W. E.
Stearns); Caribou Island (Butler).

674. Pirus Americana DC. Var. microcarpa, Torr.
& Gr. Caribou Island, (S. R. Butler). Not rare on
the coast (W. E. Stearns); Hopedale (Weiz).

685. Amelanchier Canadensis Var. (?) oligocarpa, T.
& Gr. South coast of Labrador at Amourand Caribou
Island (S. R. Butler).

SAXIFRAGACE,

686. Saxzfraga oppositefolza Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
on rocks at Amour (S. R. Butler).

688. Saxzfraga Azzoon Jacq. Coast of Labrador
(Judge Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

690. Saxzfraga cesprtosa Linn. Var. Groenlandica,
Wahl; S. Groenlandica, Linn.; Weiz’ List. Hopedale
(Weiz); Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler); Nachvak (R.
Bell).

693. Saxifraga rivularzs Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
‘Coast of Labrador, (M’Gill Coll. Herb.) ; Nachvak
(R. Bell).

695. Saxtfraga cernua Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Coast of Labrador (Pursh).

698. Saxdfraga nivalis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Cari-
bou Island, (S. R. Butler). .

702. Saxifraga hieractfolia Waldst. and Kit. Hope-
dale (Weiz).

458 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

713. Saxifraga tricuspidata Retz. Coast of Labra-
dor (McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Nachvak (R. Bell).

714. Saxtfraga azzordes Linn. Southeast coast of
Labrador (S. R. Butler); Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nach-
vak (R. Bell).

724. Mitella nuda Linn. Cool damp places (Hooker).

737. Parnassta palustr7s Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;.
Coast of Labrador (Hooker).

740. Parnassta Kotzebuet Cham. and Schlecht. Hope-
dale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (M’Gill Coll. Herb. ).

753. Ribes prostratum L’Her. R. glandulosum, Ait.;.
Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

CRASSULACEE,

769. Sedum Rhodiola DC. Nain, Nachvak, and Ford's.
Harbor (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

DROSERACE,

771. Drosera rotundifolia Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

HALORAGEA,

781. Hippurus vulgarzs Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Hooker); Hopedale (Weiz).

ONAGRACEA,

786. LEpilobium angustifolium Linn. Hopedale
(Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Caribou Island,
(S. R. Butier) ; Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell).

787. Epilobium latifolium Linn, Hopedale (Weiz) ;

PLANTS. 45>

Amour Bay, on the south coast, and Caribou Island (S.
R. Butler).

789. Epilobtum alpinum Linn. E. nutans, Lehm.;
Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; south coast of Lahra-
dor (Abbé Brunot).

794. Lpilobcum palustre Linn. Var. me: Gray.

Hopedale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Judge Morri-
son).

UMBELLIFERA,

’ 871. Archangelica atropurpurea Hoffm. Angelica.
Archangelica, Schrank; Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz) ;.
On the south coast at Amour Bay and Caribou Island.
(5.1. Butler).

872. Archangelica Gmelint DC. Coast of Labrador,.
(McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Strait of Belle Isle (St. Cyr).

864. Ligusticum Scoticum Linn. Caribou Island (S.
R. Butler).

883. Heracleum lanatum Michx. Caribou Island,.
(S. R. Butler) ; Coast of Labrador (Hooker).

CORNACE.

885. Cornus Canadensis Linn. Caribou Island, and
Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler); Nain (R. Bell); Hope-
dale (Weiz).

896. Cornus Suecica Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Abbé Brunot) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler); Ford's
Harbor (R. Bell).

CAPRIFOLIACEA,

916. Viburnum pauciflorum Pylaie. Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

465 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

919. Linnea borealis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Cari
bou Island (S. R. Butler).

929. Lonicera caerulea Linn. In_ bogs, frequent
(Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

RUBIACE.

941. Galium trifidum Linn. (G. Claytont Hook.;
‘Weiz’ List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

COM POSIT.

984. Solidago macrophylla Pursh. (S. thyrsocdea E.
Meyer; Weiz List.) Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Is-
land (S. R. Butler) ; Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

986. Solidago Itrgaured, var. alpina Bigel. Hope-
dale (Weiz) ; Ford’s Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell).

987. Solidago multiradiata Ait. Along the coast of
Labrador (Judge Morrison),

101g. «ister Radula Ait., var. strzctus Gray. Cari-
bou Island (S. R. Butler); Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of
Labrador (Pursh).

1079. Evigeron untflorus Linn. Hopedale (Weiz);
‘coast of Labrador (Colmaster); Nachvak (R. Bell).

1092. Lrzgeron acrzs Linn. Coast of Labrador (Torr.
and Gray); Hopedale (Weiz).

1098. Antennarta diorca Gertn. Coast of Labrador
(Hooker) ; Hopedaie (Weiz).

1099. Axtennarza alpina Gertn. Coast of Labrador
(Colmaster) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

1100. Antennaria Carpathica R. Br. Coast of La-
-rador (Dr. Gray).

PLANTS, 461

1106. Guaphalium Norvegicum Gunner. (G. sylvati-
cum Linn.; Weiz’ List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of
Labrador (Torr. and Gray).

1110. Guaphalium supinum Vill. (G. pusillum
Henke; Weiz’ List.) Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morri-
son) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

1173. Achillea Millefolcum Linn., var. nigrescens
E. Meyer. Hopedale (Weiz); Nain (R. Bell); Cari-
bou Island (S. R. Butler).

1193. Artemista borealis Pall., var. spithamea Torr.
and Gray. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Hopedale
Islands (Weiz).

1214: Petasttes palmata Gray. Swamps, Labrador
coast (Hooker) ;- Hopedale Islands (Weiz).

1122. Arnica alpina Murr. Coast of Labrador (Torr.
and Gray); Hopedale Islands (Weiz); Nachvak and
Cape Chidley (R. Bell).

1242, Senxecto Pseudo-Arnica Less. Hopedale Islands
(Weiz); coast of Labrador (Hooker).

1244. Senecio frigidus Less. Coast of Labrador (Dr.
Gray).

1237. Seneczo aureus Linn., var. dorealzs, Torr. and
Gray. Nachvak (R. Bell); Hopedale Islands (Weiz).

1286. Hzeractum vulgatum Fries. Coast of Labrador
(Colmaster) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz).

1308. Zaraxicum offictnale Weber, var. alpinum,
Koch. Not uncommon along the coast of Labrador
(W. E. Stearns) ; rocky soil, Nachvak and Nain (R.
Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

462 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

CAMPANULACEA,

1341. Campanula unzflora Linn. Hopedale (Weiz);
-Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R. Bell).

1344. Campanula rotundtfolra L., var. arcteca Lange.
Hopedale (Weiz); Middle Bay, Belles Amours, and
L’Anse Amour (S. R. Butler); common at Forteau
Bay (W. E. Stearns).

ERICACEA,

1352. Vaccentum Pennsylvanicum, var. angustifolium
Gray. Nain (Lundberg) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou
Island (Martin, S. R. Butler).

1356. Vaccentum uliginosum Linn. Hopedale
(Weiz) ; common on the coast at Nain, Ford's Harbor,
and Nachvak (R. Bell); Caribou island (S. R. But-
ler).

1358. Vacctntum cespitosum Michx. Hopedale
(Weiz); on hill-sides at Belles Amours and on Caribou
Island (S. R. Butler).

1364. Vaceentum Vetes-[dea Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

1365. Vaccintum Oxycoccus Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Caribou Islands (S. R. Butler).

1366. Vacctntum macrocarpon Ait. By lakelets
along the coast. (Abbé Brunot).

1367. Chzogenes hisprdula Torr. and Gray. On moss,
along the coast (Hooker). ,

1369. Arctostaphylos alpina Spreng. (Arbutus alpina
Linn.; Weiz’ List.) Hopedale (Weiz); Ford’s Harbor
and Cape Chidley (R. Bell).

1383. Andromeda polrfolia Linn. Hopedale (Weiz);
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

PLANTS. 453

1376. Cassandra calyculata Don. Borders of lakelets
and swamps along the coast (Hooker); Square Island
Harbor (B. P. Mann).

1378. Casstope hypnordes Don. Andromeda hyp-
noides Linn.; Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz); Nain
and Cape Chidley (R. Bell); coast of Labrador (Dr.
Morrison). ,

1381. Casszope tetragona Don. Andromeda tetragona
Linn.; Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz); coast of Lab-
rador (Colmaster); abundant along the coast at Nain
and Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler’.

1389. Bryanthus taxtfolius Gray. Andromeda ceru-
tea Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz); coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison); Nain, Nachvak, and Ford’s Harbor
(R. Bell).

1393. Aalmiaangustzfolia Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison).

1394. Kalmia glauca Ait. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Cari-
bou Island (S. R. Butler); coast of Labrador (Dr.
Morrison).

1395. Ledum palustre Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr.
Morrison); Hopedale (Weiz); Ford’s Harbor and
Nachvak (R. Bell).

1396. Ledum latifolium Ait. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison); Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler),

1386. Lozseleuria procumbens Desv. Azalea procum-
ens Linn.; Weiz’ List. Hopedale (Weiz); coast of
Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

1402. Rhododendron Rhodora Don. Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

1405. Rhododendron Lapponicum Wahl. (Azalea

464 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

Lapponica, Weiz’ List.) Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morri-
son) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; ona hill-top at Belles Amours

(S. R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. Bell).
14009. Pyrola minor Linn. Cold woods, Labrador

(Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

1410. Pyrola secunda, var. pumila Gray. Cool boggy
ground, Labrador (Storer) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

1411. Pyrola chlorantha Swartz. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison).

1413. Pyrola rotundifolia L., var. pumtla Hook.
Hopedale (Weiz); quite common along the northern.
coast (R. Bell).

1416. AZoneses uniflora Gray. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison); Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler). /

DIAPENSIACE,

1424. Dapensta procumbens Linn. Hopedale
(Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; common
on hilltops, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler); Nain and
Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

PLUMBAGINACE:,

1426. Armerza vulgaris Willd. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison); Hopedale (Weiz); Nain and Nach-
vak (R. Bell).

PRIMULACE&.

1427. Primula fartnosa Linn. Hopedale Islands
(Weiz); Caribou Island and L’Anse Amour (S. R.
Butler).

1428, Premula Mistassintca Michx. Bonne Espér-
ance and neighboring islands, and at Forteau (S. R.
Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

PLANTS. 465

2192. Primula Lgaliksensts Wornem. Northern
Labrador (Turner).

1213. Zvrzentalis Amertcana Pursh. Coast of Labra-
dor (Hooker); Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

GENTIANACE#.,

1480. Gentiana Amarella L., var. acuta Hook.
Coast of Labrador (Hooker); Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

1482. Gentiana propingua Richards. On hillsides at
Amour and lowlands at Bonne Espérance (W. A.
Stearns) ; more likely the preceding species (Macoun)..

2194. Gentzana nivales Linn. Labrador, collected by
Moravian missionaries (Gray) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

1500. Pleurogyne rotata Griseb. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Gray); on the flats at Caribou, and shores of
Esquimaux River, and at Bonne Espérance (S. R.
Butler).

1501. Pleurogyne Carinthtaca Griseb., var. puszlla
Gray. Coast of Labrador (Pursh).

1504. Hlalenta defiexa Griseb. Forteau Bay (Miss
Brodie) ; on the hillsides at L’Anse Amour and the low-
lands at‘ Bonne Espérance (W. E. Stearns) ; Caribou
Island (S. R. Butler).

1506. Menyanthes trzfoliata Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison); Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

BORRAGINACEA,

1570. Mertensta maritima Don. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

466 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

SCROPHULARIACE#.

1674. Veronica alpina Linn, Nain (Lundberg;
Hopedale (Weiz).

1689. Castzlleca pallida Kunth, var. septentrzonales
Gray. (Bartsta pallida Linn.; Weiz’ List.) Hopedale
(Weiz); Ford’s Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell).

1696. Euphrasza officinalis Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

Var. Tatarzca Benth. Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ;
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

1697. Bartsta alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Colmaster) ; Ungava Bay (McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Nach-
vak (R. Bell).

1702. Pedicularts Grenlandica Retz. Coast of Lab-
rador (Dr. Morrison); Nachvak (R. Bell); Hopedale
(Weiz).

1704. Pediculares Lappontca Linn. Coast of Labra-
dor (Colmaster) ; Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

1706. Pedicularis euphraszoides Stephan. Coast of
Labrador (Colmaster); Hopedale (Weiz); Ford’s
Harbor (R. Bell).

1714. Pedicularis hirsuta Linn. Ford’s Harbor and
Cape Chidley (R. Bell).

1715. Pedtcularis flammea Linn. Hopedale (Weiz);
coast of Labrador (Colmaster); Ford’s Harbor and
Nachvak (R. Bell).

1718. Rhinanthus Cristagalli Linn. Common along
the whole Labrador coast (W. E. Stearns) ; Caribou Isl-
and (S. R. Butler); Hopedale (Weiz).

.PLANTS, 467

LENTIBULARIACEA,

1737. Pinguicula vulgares Linn, Ungava Bay (Mrs.
Lizzie Crawford); L’Anse Amour Bay (S. R. Butler) ;
Hopedale (Weiz); Nachvak (R. Bell).

1738. Pinguccula villosa Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Gray); Hopedale (Weiz).

1739. Pinguicula alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Steinhauer).

PLANTAGINACEA,

1808. Plantago maritima Linn. Crevices of rocks,
coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou
Island (S. R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. Bell).

POLYGONACE.,

1869. Polygonum aviculare Linn. Hopedale (Weiz).

"1892. Polygonum viviparum Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Ford’s Harbor and Cape Chidley (R. Bell).

1902. Oxyrta digyna Campdera (Rumex digyna
Pursh.; Weiz’ List). Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Lab-
rador (Dr. Morrison) ; Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R.
Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

1904. Rumex occidental’s Watson. Coast of Labra-
dor (Storer) ; Bonne Espérance (J. A. Allen).

1867. Kenigza [slandica Linn. Hopedale (Weiz).

SANTALACEA,

1930. Comandra tivida Rich. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison); Hopedale (Weiz).

BETULACEA,

1977. Betula papyrifera Michx. Coast of Labra
dor (Prof Sargent).

468 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

1979. Betula pumila Linn. Coast of Labrador
(Hooker).

1981. Betula glandulosa Michx. Coast of Labrador
(Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

1982. Betula nana Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr.
Morrison).

1986. Alnus virrdis DC. Coast of Labrador (Dr.
Morrison) ; Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

SALICACEA.

2004. Salex adenophylla Hook. Coast of Labrador
(Dr. Morrison and Bebb).

2007. Salix arctica R. Br. Coast of Labrador (Dr.
Morrison) ; Nachvak and Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

2008. Salix argyrocarpa Anders. Ungava Bay (G.
Barnston) ; Forteau Bay and Carrall Cove (Allen).

2010. Salzx balsamifera Barratt. Chateau and Square
Island (Allen).

2012. Salex candida Willd. Forteau Bay (Allen).

2013. Salex chlorophylla Anders. Nain and Ford’s
Harbor (R. Bell).

2021. Salix glauca Linn. Damp places at Nachvak
and Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

2022. Salix herbacea Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr.
Morrison) ; Nain and Cape Chidley (R. Bell).

2042. Salix reticulata Linn. Nachvak and Cape
Chidley (R. Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison).

2050. Salex vestita Pursh. Coast of Labrador (Col-
master) ; Nachvak (R. Bell).

2051. Salzx Uva-urst Pursh. Coast of Labrador
(Colmaster) ; Dead Islands (Allen).

2053. Populus tremulotdes Michx. On dry slopes in
the interior (Hooker).

PLANTS. 469

EMPETRACE.

2059. Empetrum nigrum Linn. (Curlew-berry).
Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell); Hopedale (Weiz).

CONIFERA,

2068. Funiperus communus, var. alpina Linn. Coast
of Labrador (Hooker).
2082. Prcea nigra Link. Not uncommon (Hooker).
2083. Picea alba Link. Not uncommon (Hooker).
2094. Larzx Americana Michx. Swampy soil
(Hooker).
ORCHIDACEA.

2221. Lestera cordata R. Br. Coast of Labrador
(Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

2243. Habenaria hyperborea R. Br. Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

2248. Habenarza obtusata Rich. Caribou Island (S.
R. Butler).

2246. Habenaria dilatata Gray. Hopedale Islands

(Weiz).
IRIDACEA,

2270. lrts Hookert Penny. (ZL. sebertca Weiz’ List.)
Hopedale Island (Weiz).

LILIACE,

2287. Streptopus amplexzfolius Dc. Caribou Island

(S R. Butler).
2288, Streptopus roseus Michx. Caribou Island (S.
R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

2289. Smlicina stellata Desf. Caribou Island (S.

R. Butler).

470 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

2293. Smzlicina trifolca Desf. Caribou Island (S.
R. Butler).

2294. Mazanthemum Canadense Desf. Caribou Isl-
and (S. R. Butler).

2329. Tofieldia borealis Wahl. Ford’s Harbor (R.
Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz).

2341. Clintonza borealis Raf. Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

JUNCACE#,

2367. Funcus triglumzs Linn. Ungava Bay (G. Barn-
ston).

2369. Funcus castaneus Smith. Ungava Bay (G. °
Barnston).

2389. Luzula spadicea, var. parviflora Meyer. Nain
and Nachvak (R. Bell).

2394. Luzula spicata Desv. Ungava Bay (G. Barn-
ston) ; Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

2396. Luzula arcuata Meyer. Ungava Bay (G.
Barnston) ; Nachvak (R. Bell).

TYPHACEA,

2401. Sparganium simplex Huds. Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

2403. Sparganium hyperboreum Laest., var. Amert-
canum Beeby. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler),

NAIADACE,

2424. Trziglochin palustre Linn. Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

PLANTS. 471

2425. Trzglochin maritimum Linn. Coast of Lab-
rador (Dr. Morrison).

CYPERACEA.

2489. Eriophorum vaginatum Linn. Hopedale
(Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler); Bonne Espér-
ance (Allen); Dumpling Harbor (Mann).

2490. Eriophorum russeolum Fries. Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler, Martin); Hopedale (Weiz); Forteau
(Allen); Nain (Lundberg).

2491. Eriophorum polystachyon, var. angustifolium
Gray. Hopedale (Weiz).

Eriophorum Scheuchzert Hoppe. Coast of Labra-
* dor (Martin); Nain (Lundberg).

2476. Sczrpus cespitosus Linn. Hopedale (Weiz).

2556. Carex canescens Linn. Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

2564. Carex lagopina Wahl. Maritime rocks, Labra-
dor (Allen).

2566. Carex pratenszs Drejer. Middle Bay, Labra-
dor (Allen).

2598. Carex vulgaris, var. hyperborea Boott. Nain
and Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

2604. Carex lenticularis Michx. Coast of Labrador,
Lat. 51° 30’ (Allen).

2608. Carex salina Wahl. Coast of Labrador(Bailey).

2609. Carex ambusta Booth. Ungava Bay, North
Labrador (Bailey).

2617. Carex Magellanica Lamarck. Caribou Island
(S. R. Butler).

2618. Carex rartflora Smith. Coast of Labrador
(Miss Brodie and Allen).

472 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

2627. Carex vaginata Tausch. Northern Labrador
(Furner).
2672. Carex oligosperma Michx. Swamps on the
- coast of Labrador (Allen).
2674. Carex miliaris Michx. Ungava Bay (Turner).
2678. Carex rotundata Wahl. Ungava Bay (Turner).

GRAMINE®,

2726. Hierochloa alpina Roem. and Schultes. Ford's
Harbor (R. Bell); Ungava Bay (G. Barnston).

2807. Deschampsia alba Roem. and Schultes. Ungava
Bay (G. Barnston); Nain (R. Bell).

2812. Trisetum subspicatum, var. molle Gray. Nain
(R. Bell). :

2848. Poa alfina Linn. Nain and Cape Chidley (R.
Bell).

2854. Poa centsia All. Ford’s Harbor (R. Bell).

2905. Festuca ovina, var. brevifolia Watson. Ford’s
Harbor (R. Bell).

2949. Elymus mollis Trin. Nain and Ford’s Harbor
(R. Bell).

EQUISETACE,

Equisetum sylvaticum Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ;
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler).

Equisetum arvense Linn. Hopedale (Weiz).

FILICES.

Botrychium Lunaria Swartz. Caribou Island (S. R.
_ Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz).
Cystopteris fragilis Bernh. Nain (R. Bell).

PLANTS. 473

Polypodium Dryopterzs Linn. Caribou Island (S. R.
Butler).

LYCOPODIACEA,

Lycopodium Selago Linn. Nain and Ford’s Harbor
“(R. Bell).
_ Lycopodium luctdulum Michx. Caribou Island (S.
R. Butler).

APPENDIX.

The following notes and corrections to this chapter
have been made by Mr. Sereno Watson, who kindly read
the proof in the absence of Prof. Macoun. Proof of
pp. 448-459 was read after the pages had been printed.
Mr. Watson writes me that the earliest paper on the
Labrador flora was one by Schrank in the first volume
of the Regensburg ‘ Flora” (1818), on some plants sent
to Schreber by the Danish missionary Kohlmeister*.
It was not completed, however. Meyer’s list includes
I98 species.

P. 448, line 5, for plandes read plantzs.

P. 448, line 14, for Ance read Anse.

P. 451, line 15, for cornzutz, Linn. read polyganum,
Muhl.

P. 451, line 23, dele See R. Amerzcanus (J. M.).

P. 452, line 20, for Draba alpina Var. (?) corymbosa,
Durand, read Draba Fladnitzensis, Wulf.

P. 452, line 21, add Dead Islands (J. A. Allen).

P. 452, line 24, after Labrador (Pursh), add from the
next line, Nachvak, coast of Labrador (R. Bell).

* Spelt Colmaster in the foregoing list.

474 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST.

P. 452, line 25, dele Var. confusa Poir.

P. 452, line 26, dele Hopedale (Weiz).

P. 452, line 27, for Draba read Var.; and for Michx.
read Watson.

P. 453, line 10, dele sy/vestrzs Regd. V.

P. 453, line 11, for Weiz’ List read Gray.

P. 454, line 27, for Spergularia salina Presb. read
Buda borealis Watson.
P. 454,’line 28, add Bonne Espérance (J. A. Allen).

P. 455, lines 5, 6, for and the arctic regions (Dr.) read
Schweinitz in Herb. Gray.

P. 455, line 10, add Ungava Bay (L. M. Turner);
Square Island (J. A. Allen).

P. 455, line 11, for Mott read Nutt.

P. 455, line 13, for marztimum read marztimus, and
dele Prsum marttimum Linn, Weiz’ List.

P. 455, line 20, after Caribou Island insert (S. R.
Butler).

P. 457, line 10, dele Canadenszs Var.(?) ; and for I &
Gr. read Roem.

P. 457, line 30, for Hit. read Kit.

P. 459, line 6, dele palustre Linn. Var.; and for Gray
read Muhl.

P. 459, line 10, for Hoffm. read Linn.

P. 459, line 14, for Archangelica read Celopleurum ;
and for Db. read Lecheb.

CHAPTER XVII.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES RELATING TO THE
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVIL AND NATURAL HISTORY OF
LABRADOR.

Tuis list is merely a tentative one, and will doubtless.
be found quite imperfect, especially in titles relating to.
early discovery, and early maps and charts. The au-
thor is indebted for certain titles, also for advice, to Dr.
Franz Boas, who has kindly lent him Chavanne’s “ The
Literature on the Polar Regions of the Earth,” from
which a number of titles have been copied. Acknowl-
edgment of aid should also be made to Mr. W. F.
Ganong for titles of the North American Pilot. The
titles of the works of Ramusio, Eden, Gilbert, Frobisher,
and Hakluyt have not been included.

A. ExpioraTIons, GEOGRAPHY, AND History.

Anon. A brief account established among the Esqui-
maux, on the coast of Labrador. London, 1774, 8vo.

—— TheGrand Falls of Labrador. (Goldthwaite’s.
Geographical Magazine, Feb. 1891, vol. 1. No. 2; pp.
117-119.)

| Anspach (C. A.). Geschichte und Beschreibung von

Neufundland und der Ktiste Labrador. Aus dem
475

476 : BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Engl. 30. Bd. der Bibliothek der neuesten Reisebeschrei-
bungen von Bertuch. Weimar.

— -— History of the island of New Foundland
and the coast of Labrador. London, 1819.

Ashe (Lieut. &. D.). Journal of a voyage from
Quebec to Labrador. (Nautical Magazine, 1861, Janu-
ary; pp. I-13.)

Journal of a voyage from New York to
Labrador. (Trans. Lit. and Historical Society of Quebec ;
Iv; April, 1861. Appendix. 8vo, pp. 1-16.)

Aufzeichnungen (Aus den) eines Kabeljanfischers in
Labrador. (Globus, Hildburghausen, 11; 1862; pp.
281, 314.)

Baddeley (Lieut. F. H7.). Geology of a portion of the
coast of Labrador. Trans. Lit. and Hist. Soc. Quebec,
I. art. vi. pp. 72-79, 1829. (His account and measure-
ments of Castle Island are based on Capt. Campbell’s
explorations made in the autumn of 1827.)

Ballantyne (R. M.). Ungava: a tale of Esquimaux
Land. London, Nelson, 1857; 1860,

Bancroft (George). History of the United States,
vol. 111; 1840. (‘Scandinavians may have reached the
shores of Labrador.” J. Winsor’s Narr. and Crit. Hist.
America I. p. 93.)

Barrow (Sir Fohn). Voyages to the arctic regions.
London, 1818. Places Vinland in Labrador or New-
foundland. (J. Winsor’s Narr. and Crit. Hist. America,
Lp. 93.)

Bayfield (Rear-Admiral Henry Woolsey). Sailing
directions for the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence. 2
vols. London, 1837-43.

Beschretbung der Kiiste von Labrador vom Cap St.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 477

Charles bis zur Sandwich-Bucht. : [Aus Hydrographic.
' Notice, No. 3, London, 1873.] (Hydrogr. Mittheil.,
Berlin, 1. 1873 ; pp. 175-177.)

Beschretbung einiger Hiafen, Buchten, und Anker-
platze an den Kiisten von Neufundland und Labrador.
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1883, 8vo, pp. 236-247. With a plate.)

Butler (Samuel R.). Labrador Plants. (Canadian
Naturalist, v. Sept. 1870).

Coues (Eliot). Notes on the ornithology of Labra-
dor. (Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia, Aug. 1862; p. 215-257, 8vo.)

Deane (Ruthven). Great Auk. (Aka impennis).
Amer. Nat. vi. 1872, pp. 368-369. Note of a specimen
said to have been found dead near St. Augustine, Lab-
rador, and sold for $200. Sent to France to be mounted
for an Austrian museum (fide A. Lechevallier), “If
such a specimen were really found, it seems to have
utterly disappeared” (Lucas).

Fletcher (Fames). List of diurnal lepidoptera and
coleoptera collected by Mr. J. S. Cotter at Moose Fac-

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 493

tory in 1888, and by Mr. J. M. Macoun on the south
coast and islands of James’ Bay in 1887. (Appendix 1.
to A. P. Low’s report on explorations in James’ Bay,
etc. Report Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada for
1887-88 ; 111, pt. 2, 1889.)

Hind (Henry Youle), Observations on supposed
glacial drift in the Labrador peninsula. (The Canadian
Naturalist and Geologist. August, 1864; p. 300-304.
Also Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of
London. Jan. 20, 1864, p. 122.)

Kumlien (Ludwig). Bulletin of the U. S. National
Museum, No. 15. Contributions to the natural history
of Arctic America, made in connection with the How-
gate Polar Expedition, 1877-78. Washington, 1879,
pp. 69-105.

Macoun (F. M.). List of plants collected on the
Rupert and Moose Rivers, along the shore of James’
Bay, and on the islands in James’ Bay, during the sum-
mers of 1885 and 1887. (Appendix 1. to A. P. Low’s
Report on Explorations in James’ Bay, etc. Report of
the Geol. Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada for 1887-88 ; 111,
pt. 2, 1889.)

Lieber (Oscar M.). Notes on the geology of the
coast of Labrador. Report of the U. S. Coast Survey
for 1860; pp. 402-408.

Low (A. T.). Report on the Explorations in James’
Bay and country east of Hudson’s Bay, drained by the
Big, Great Whale, and Clearance Rivers. (Report J.
Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada.
New Series, 111. part 2, 1887-88. Montreal, 1889.)

Lucas (Frederic A.). The expedition to the Funk
Island, with observations upon the history and anatomy

494 BIBLIOGRAPHY.

of the great auk. From the report of the U. S. National
Museum, 1887-88; pp. 493-529. Washington, 1890.
s
Meyer (£.). De plantis labradoricis. Libri 11.
Lipsiae, Voss, 1830, 8vo. .
Nuttall (Thomas). A manual of the ornithology of
the U. S. and Canada, 1832-34; 2d edition, 1840.
Packard (Alpheus Spring). A list of animals
dredged near Caribou Island, southern Labrador, during
July and August, 1860. Canadian Naturalist and Geo-
logist. pp. 29. 2 plates, 8vo.
Results of observations on the drift phe-
nomena of Labrador and the Atlantic coast southward.
Amer. Journ. Sc. and Arts. 2d ser. xxi, Jan. 1866.
pp. 30-32. 8vo.
List of vertebrates observed at Okkak, Lab-
rador, by Rev. Samuel Weiz, with annotations by A. S,
Packard, Jr, M.D, Prog, Bost. Soc, Nat. Hist. x,
April, 1866. pp. 264-277. 8vo.
View of the lepidopterous fauna of Lab-
rador. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. March, 1867. pp.
32-63. 8vo.

Observations on the glacial phenomena
of Labrador and Maine, with a view of the recent inver-
tebrate fauna of Labrador. Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat.
Hist. 1. pp. 210-303, 1867. 4to, 2 plates.

The Esquimaux of Labrador. Appleton’s
Journal, Dec. 9, 1871. pp. 657-659. (Reprinted in
Beach’s Indian Miscellany, Albany, 1877.)

List of the Coleoptera collected in Labra-
dor. Ann. Rep. Peab. Acad. Science, Salem, for 1871
pp. 92-94; April, 1872. 8vo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 495

Packard (A.S.). One of fifty days in southern Labra-
dor. Appleton’s Journal, Aug. 22, 1874. pp. 241-243.
Glacial marks in Labrador. American
Naturalist, Jan. 1882. pp. 30-33.

——-—— Do Labrador dogs bark ? American Nat-
uralist, XVIII p. 1063. 1884.

—— The bees, wasps, etc., of Labrador.
American Naturalist, xv. p. 1267. 1884.
Life and nature in southern Labrador.
American Naturalist, xIx. 269-275, 365-372; Mar.,
April, 1885. 8vo.

—— —— Notes on the Labrador Eskimo and their
former .range southward. Amer. Nat., x1x. 471-481,
553-560. May, June, 1885. 8vo.

List of the spiders, myriopods, and insects
of Labrador. Canadian Naturalist, Aug. 1888. pp. 141-
149.

Payne (f.'F.). (Eskimo of Hudson Strait. Proce.
Canadian Institute, 1889.)

Pilling (Fames Constantine). Smithsonian Institu-
tion | Bureau of Ethnology | J. W. Powell, Director |
Proof-sheets | of a | bibliography | of | the languages |
of the | North American Indians | By | James Constan-
tine*Pilling | (Distributed only to collaborators) |

Washington | Government Printing-office | 1885. pp.
I-XL, I-1135. 29; facsimiles. 4to. Only 100 copies
printed.

—— -—— Smithsonian Institution | Bureau of Eth-
nology: J. W. Powell, Director | Bibliography | of the
| Eskimo language | By James Constantine Pilling |
Washington | Government Printing-office | 1887. pp.

I-v, I-116.

496 BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Plantes du Labrador. (Bulletin de la Soc. de Geogr.
Paris, 1 Sér. vi. p. 132.)

Richardson (Str Fohn). Fauna Boreali-Americana.
Vol. 1-1v. London, 1829-1837. 4to.

—— (Fohn). List of plants collected on the island
of Anticosti and coast of Labrador in 1860. Canada,
Botanical Society Ann. 1, 1861-1862. pp. 58-59.

Scudder (Samuel Hubbard). Description of some
Labradorian Butterflies. Proc. Soc. Nat. Hist. Boston,
XVII, 1874. pp. 294-314.

—— —— A revised list of the butterflies obtained in
Labrador by Dr. A. S. Packard, Canadian Entomologist,
Aug. 1888. p. 148.

Spencer (Miles). Notes on the breeding habits of
certain mammals, from personal observations and en-
quiries from Indians. (Appendix 111. to A. P. Low’s
Report on Explorations in James Bay, etc. Report
Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada for 1887-88, 11.
p. 82. 1889.)

Stearns (Winfred Alden). Notes on the natural his-
tory of Labrador. Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum. vi. Aug.
1, 1883. 8vo. pp. 111-137.

Stearns (Winfred A.). Bird life in Labrador. Re-
printed from the American Field, Chicago, Ill. 1890.

Sternhaur (fHenry). Notes on the geology of the
Labrador coast. Trans. Geol. Soc. London, 1, 1814.
pp. 488-494.

Stupart (R. F.). The Eskimo of Stupart Bay.
(Can. Institute, new ser, Iv. pp. 95-114. Toronto,
1886. 8vo.)

Turner (Lucien M.). List of the birds of Labrador,
including Ungava, East Main, Moose and Gulf districts

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 497

of the Hudson Bay Company, together with the island
of Anticosti. Proc, U. S. National Museum, vim, July
13, 1885.

—— On the Indians and Eskimos of the Un-
gava district, Labrador (Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, sect.
11; 1887. 99-119.)

Physical and zoological character of the
Ungava District, Labrador. (Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada,
sect. Iv, 1887. pp. 79-83.)

Thorell ( Tamerlane). Notice of some spiders from
Labrador. (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. xvu, Boston,
1875. 8Vv0. pp. 490-504. )

Vogelsang (f7.). Sur le Labradorite coloré de la céte
de Labrador. (Verhandl. d. Geolog. Reichsanst., Wien.,
1868; p. 107.)

Cc. CHARTS.

Besides the ancient maps and charts illustrating the
discoveries of the early voyagers, and referred to or
copied on pp. 33-59, Winsor (Narr. and Crit. History of
America, I, 120) states: ‘‘ What was apparently a work-
ing Portuguese chart of 1503, grasps pretty clearly the
relations of Greenland to Labrador.”

Northern Labrador, Greenland with Baffin’s Bay,
Straits Davis’s and Hudson. Amsterdam, P. Mortier,
1700.

Canada et pays voisin. Par Guillaume Delisle, Pre-
mier Géographe du Roi. Paris, 1703.

A Collection of charts of the coasts of New Found-
land and Labrador, with the particular plans of the prin-
cipal harbors. Drawn from original surveys taken by

498 BIBLIOGRAPHY.

James Cook and M. Lane, and J. Gilbert. ... chiefly
engraved by Thomas Jefferys, geographer to the king.
London, J. Jefferys, 1766-1770.

Arrowsmith (A.). Northern seas between Europe
and America, including the American coast (New
Foundland, Labrador, and Greenland). London, 1808.
(Name of Hamilton Inlet applied to Invuctoke Bay.)

The North American pilot | for Newfoundland, Lab-
rador, | the Gulf and River St. Lawrence: | being a col-
lection of | sixty accurate charts and plans, | drawn from
original surveys: | taken by | James Cook and Michael
Lane, surveyors, | and Joseph Gilbert, and other officers
in the king’s service. | Published by permission of the |
Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty :

| chiefly engraved by | the late Thomas Jefferys, geog-
rapher to the king. | On thirty-six large copper-plates. |

London :! Printed according to Act of Parliament and
sold by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, No. 53, in Fleet Street.

| MDCCLXxxIx. | N.B. Of whom may be had Sailing Direc-
tions to the above charts.

A new and enlarged edition of this work was published
in 1799, containing 61 charts on 37 copper-plates.
Printed and published by Robert Laurie and James
Whittle.

(The edition of which the title is quoted above seems
to be simply a reprint of the rst edition, which appeared
in 1775. I have not been able to see a copy of the latter,
but from its title on Harvard College Library Catalogue
cards, think the title is exactly as given below.

Sailing directions | for this | North American Pilot: |
containing the | Gulf and River St. Lawrence, | the
whole island of Newfoundland, | including | the Strait

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 499

of Belle Isle, | and the coast of Labrador. | Giving a
particular account, etc. | London. | Printed for R. Sayer
and J. Bennett. | mpccLxxv. |

(Small 4to. Divided into sections, each paged sepa-
rately. 148 pp. in all.)

Partie de Amérique Sept., qui comprend le Canada,
la Louisiane, le Labrador, le Groenland, la Nouv. Angle-
terre, la Floride, etc. p. Bonne. Carte color. 2 feuilles.
Paris, 1771. Chaque 30 x 44 cm.

Labrador and Greenland, including the north-west
passage of Hudson, Frobisher, and Davis, with Plan of
Manvers Port, 1808-1863.

Chart of part of the coast of Labrador, from Cape
Charles to Sandwich Bay, surveyed by order of Hon.
Commodore Byron. By Michael Lane, surveyor. 2 ed.
London, W. Faden, 1809.

Morse (Fedidiah). The American Gazetteer, etc.
(Map.) Third edit. Boston, July, 1810. Art. Labra-
dor. (The map gives some names of places on the
Labrador coast which we have not seen on other
maps. )

—— —— The American Universal Geography ;,
etc. (Map). Seventh edition, Vol. 11, 1819. 8vo.,

Reichel (Levin Th,). Missionatlas der Briider-Unitat.
15 Karten in Qu. Folio, Farbendruck mit Text, Herrn-
hut, Expedition der Missions-Verwaltung, 1861.

Labrador. Spear Point to Camp Islands, including
St. Lewis Sound and Inlet, surv. by Bayfield, 1835,
1:72,000. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1863, No. 133.

Labrador Coast, Hamilton Inlet. Capt. Sir F. Mc.-
Clintock, 1860. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1864.

Labrador Coast, Indian Harbor, Commander Chim-

500 BIBLIOGRAPHY.

mo, 1867, 1:12,172. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1868,
No. 222.

Labrador Coast, Webeck and Hopedale Harbors and
Allik Bay. Commander Chimmo, 1867, 1:24,344. Lon-
don, Hydrogr. Office, 1868, No. 223.

Labrador Coast, Indian Tickle and Occasional Har-
bors. Commander Chimmo, 1867, 1:24,344. London,
Hydrogr. Office, 1868, No. 225.

Labrador Coast, Domino Run. Lieut. J. J. A.
Gravener, 1867, 1:18,255. London, Hydrogr. Office.

Labrador Coast, Cape Charles to Sandwich Bay, vari-
ous authorities, corrected to 1867. 1:243,440. London,
Hydrogr. Office, 1869, No. 263.

Labrador, with plans of Port Manvers and Eclipse
Harbor. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1871, No. 1422.

Labrador, Commander Maxwell’s Chart. London,
1871?

Retwchel(L. Th.). Labrador. Aivekték oder Eskimo
Bay, 1873. Lith. 1:2,300,000. Missionsblatt der
Briidergemeinde.

Labrador, compiled from various documents in the
Hydrographic Office, London, 1881. (Large corrections,
June, 1881. Small corrections 1x, 1884, with plans of
Port Manvers and Eclipse Harbor.)

Werz and Packard. Map of Labrador, compiled by
J. Leuthner, from British Admiralty maps, and an un-
published Moravian map (prepared by Rev. Samuel
Weiz). Bulletin of the American Geographical Society,
No. 4, 1887.

Cape Cod to Belle Isle. Imray & Son, London, 1886.
(‘‘ By far the best map we have of this coast.” Ganong,

p. 126.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 5oI

Winsor ( Fusten). Bibliography of Ptolemy’s Geog-
raphy. Harvard University Bulletin. Bibliographical
Contributions, No. 18, 1884.

Ganong (W. F.). Cartography of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence from Cartier to Champlain. Proc. and Trans.
Royal Soc. of Canada, vol. vii. for 1889. 1890.

ERRATA.

Pp. 120 and 140, for Cape St. Michael's read Cape St. Michael.

P. 396. The remainder of the list of insects will be found on pp. 446 and 447.

P. 484, Add to Bibliography, Humboldt (Alexander von), Examen critique.
See p. 29, foot-note.

INDEX. .

Abbot, C. C., 245
Acadian fauna, 337
Ailik Head, 318
Alca impennis, 342, 360
Allagaigai, Mount, 6, 182
Allen, J. A., 406
Alpine fauna, 176, 356
flora, 66, 341
American Island, 166
Anorthosite formation, 282
Anse-au-Loup, 118
Anse-au-Sablon, 236, 281
Aphanite, 285
Arachnida, 385
Arctic fauna, 63, 356, 365
Arenaria groenlandica, 63, 340, 345
Ascidians, 396
Auk, great, 256, 342, 360
Aulatsivik gneiss, 284
Island, 228
Auroras, 78
Bache, Mount, 7, 294
Banks, Labrador, 241, 318
Basalt, doleritic, 134
Battle Island, 136
Point, 221
Bayfield’s charts, 58
Beaches, raised, 130, 162, 170, 178,
195, 206, 210, 230, 315, 353, 305,
307, 309, 310, 317
Beacon, 197
Bear, black, 34
white, 35, 149, 160, 165, 357
Beetles, 387
Bell, Robert, 8, 9, 301, 322
Belle Isle, 119, 129, 134, 280
Belles Amours, 110, 112, 234, 281,
316

Bethuks, 257
Biarne’s Voyage, 21
Birch, dwarf, 177
paper, I51
Bird rocks, 96
Birds, list of, 406
Birds, sea, g1, 126, 167
Black and White Island, 168, 289
Blanc Sablon, 43, 116, 219, 234, 237,
307
Boas, Franz, 226
Bonne Espérance, 232
Bowlders, 150, 303
Brachiopods, 373
Bradford, William, 93

:

‘Bradore, 116, 262, 280 "

Bay, 281

Hills, 6
Brest, 108, 239, 265
Butterflies, 395
Button’s voyage, 56
Cabot, Mount, 165
Cabot’s voyages, 33
Cambrian rocks, 117, 281
Caniapuscaw, Lake, 15
Canso, Gut of, 94
Capelin, 154, 401
Carabus groenlandicus, 160
Caribou, 209
Caribou Island, 65, 85

upper, 137

Carpenter, C. C., 64, 245, 266

Cartier, J., Voyages of, 41
Mount, 108, tog
Cartwright, George, 256
Cartwright’s Tickle, 290
Castle Island, 286, 307
Cephalopods, 379

503

504 INDEX.

Chadbourne, Paul A., 60
Charles, Cape, 136
Charlevoix, 258
Chateau Bay, 130, 239, 247, 250, 31I,
Chert, 290
Chidley, Cape, 8,279
Chimo, Fort, 16, 231, 406.
Chionobas, 167
semidea, 341
Chudleigh, Cape, 8, 279
Clays, Leda, 323, 339, 351
Clione limacina, 112
Cloudberry, 69
Coast, elevation of, 322, 324
Coats, W., 249
Cod, bull-dog, 179
fishery, 124, 126, 146, 154, 156,
240 , 398
Ceelenterates, 368
Coleoptera, 387
Cormorant, 103
Cortereal’s voyage, 37
Crantz, 250
Crustaceans, 381
Curlewberry, 63, 107
Curlews, 78, 91
Cusk, 399
Davis Inlet, 53
Davis’ voyage, 52
Despair Harbor, 19
Devil’s Dining Table, 120, 128, 134
Dewitz, A., von, 273
Diptera, 390
Domino gneiss, 159, 286
Harbor, 159, 218, 286, 310
Run, 159, 219
Dredging, 76, 110, 113, 125, 127, 145,
153, 160, 218, 223
Duck, eider, 101, 105
Duffy, 179, 399
Dumplin Harbor, 161, 164, 218, 287
Echinoderms, 370
Eggers, 104
Elevation of coast, 322, 324
Entry Island, 96
Eskimo, 67
camp, 193
dress, 200
game, 254
graves, 207, 263
in New Foundland,246, 252
house, 270
longevity of, 208, 269
mean height, 199
numbers of, 235, 261, 272
population, 235

Eskimo, ruins, 262
their former range, 245
yearly life, 275
Esquimaux Island, 265, 267
River, I, 2, 11, 73, 74, 80,
232
Falco candicans, 181
Fauna, circumpolar, 337, 356
Fiords, 18, 228
Fisheries, 124, 126, 132, 146, 154,
156, 240, 243
herring, 132, 240
Fishes, 397
Fishing Ship Harbor, 138
Flies, 390
Fly, black, 74, 86, 89
Flora, Labrador, 63, 69, 143, 201, 344
Flounder, 398
Ford’s Bight, 191
Forests, dwarf, 86
Forteau, 117
Fossils, quaternary, 75, 79, 107, 124
Fox, 133, 187, 209
blue, 180, 209
Frobisher’s voyage, 48
Frog, 126, 405
Game, 72, 101, 133, 167, 194
Gasteropods, 376
Geology, 279
George, River, 15
Gibbons’ voyage, 56
Glacial beds, 336
marks, 150, 216, 293
Glaciers, 172, 219
Gneiss, Domino, 159, 286
Laurentian, 280
Gore Island Harbor, 316
Grand Falls, 231
River, 121, 231
Granite, 285
Grasshopper, 150
Greely Islands, 163
Greville’s Fort, 129, 239
Groswater Bay, 166
Grouse, 73
Gull Island, 319
Hake, 399
Hamilton Inlet, 53, 166, 288, 298
geology of, 285, 288
River, 12
Handy, Ichabod, 93
Harrison, Cape, 181, 215, 283, 286
Hebron, 199, 311
Helluland, 29, 32
Hemiptera, 386
Henley Island, 129, 310

’

INDEX. 505

Henley Harbor, 120, 132, 220, 280,
281, 285, 307
Herring fishery, 132, 240, 243, 318,

: 403
Hind, H. Y., ro, 13, 318
History of Labrador, 234
Holme, Randle F., 231
Hopedale, 197, I99, 253, 283, 286
310, 323
Horsford, E. N., 30
Horsechops Island, 165, 301
House, winter, 124
Hudson Bay Co. posts, 234
Hudson’s voyage, 56
Huntington Island, 163, 287, 289.
Hydroids, 368
Icebergs, 135, 157
Ice, floe, 110, 173, 205, 317, 357
foot, 173, 313
Tickle, 170, 218
Indian Harbor, 170, 216, 288, 299
Harbor Islands, 321
Indians, red, 188, 256, 359
Insects, 63, 102, 141, 150, 176, 207,
225, 386
Iron, magnetic, 285
Isle of Demons, 119
Ponds, 158, 289
Ivuctoke Inlet, 53, 166
Jasper, 290
Kaubkonga River, 229
Kauk River, 229
Kaumajet, Mount, 9, 227, 284
Kayak, 207
Keith, Lake, 285
Kenamou River, 13
Kiglapeit, Mount, 9, 227, 284
Killer, 152
Kippokok Bay, 195, 255, 318
Koch, R., 227, 274
Kohl, J. G., 21
Kohlmeister, 2, 15
Koksoak River, 15, 406
Knoch, 2, 15
Kypocock Bay, 318
Labradorite, 282
Labrador current, 320, 357
Maps of, 3
Lamellibranchs, 373
Latrobe, B., 273
Laurentian rocks, 117, 279
Leda arctica, 347, 350
portlandica, 347, 350
clays, 292, 323, 339, 352
Leif’s voyage, 27, 30
Lepidoptera, 391

Lieber, O. M., 284
Limacina helicina, 215
Lobster, 71, 203, 384
Long Island, 163
Lunoid glacial marks, 216, 298
Mackerel, 397
Magdalen Islands, 96, 223
Maggovik Bay, 209
Magnetite, 285, 290
Mammals, 442
Mealy mountains, 6, 13, 159, 164
Mecatina, Cape, 100
Little, Island, 99, 280, 300
Mercator’s map, 46
Meshikumau River, 2, It 73, 74, 80
Minerva, 239
Mirage, 99, 136, 138
Misery, Mount, 6,182.
Moisie River, 10
Molluscs, 373
quarternary, 326

Montaignais, 14, 67, 189, 239, 264
Moravian settlements, 199
Mosquito, 86, Ig
Moths, 391
Mount Allagaigai, 6,182

Cabot, 165

Cartier, 109

Misery, 6, 182
Mountaineers, 14, 67, 189, 239, 256,

264

Mountains of Labrador, 6, 7, 8
Mugford, Cape, 9, 319
Murre, 101, 170, 180
Muskrat, 155
Myriopoda, 286
Nain, 199, 327, 229, 253, 3IT
Nachvak Inlet, 9, 284, 315
Nascopi Indians, 239, 256, 264
Nasquapee Indians, 239, 256, 264
Nautilus, voyage of, 60
Newfoundland, 61
Newfoundlanders, 240
Nisbet’s Harbor, Igt
Norsemen, 21
North, Cape, 163, 289
Nucula expansa, 108
Occasional Harbor, 139
Odonata, 386
Okkak, 199, 201, 202, 227, 253
Orthoptera, 386
Otter, 68
Pandorina arenosa, 108
Parroqueet Island, 43 y
Penguin, 256
Pike’s Harbor, 164

506 INDEX.

Pikkintit Islands, 284
Pitt’s Arm, 124, 308, 323 1
Plants, list of, 447
Platyptera, 387
Plectoptera, 387
Polyommatus franklinii, 1
Polyps, 368 nee
Polyzoans, 371
Porcupine, Cape, 321
Port Burwell, 9
Manvers, 9
Neuf, 234
Potentilla tridentata, 69, 340, 345
Ptarmigan, 72
Puffin, 83, 90, 341
Pussel, 64, 75

Rama, 228
Reichel, L. T., 274
Rigolet, 167

Rise of land, 322
River terrace, 322
Robin, 151, 410
Roger’s Harbor, 184
St. Francis, Cape. 138
Harbor, 138
Lewis Bay, 137
Sound, 319
Michael, Cape, 140
Bay, ‘40
Modeste, 118
Paul’s Bay, 265
Salamander, 106, 112
Salmon Bay, 71, 87, 222
Fishery, 133, 154, 186, 187,
193, 216, 399
Sand, magnetic iron, 285
Sealer, 121
Seal fishery, 122, 145
Island, 158
Seal’s flippers, 81
Semed , 18
Shallop Island, 117
Shag’s nest, 103
Shells, quarternary, 326
Silurian fossils, 325
Sister Islands, 163]
Skralings, 246
Sloop Harbor, 168, 179, 288, 310, 313
Snails, 194, 202
South River, 15
Spear Harbor, 138

Spear Point, 138
Spotted Island, 158, 162. 319 y
Spruce, 188

cat, I9I

skunk, 192

white, I9gI
Square Island, 138, 140, 282
Stag Bay, 182, 185
Strawberry Harbor, 190, 215, 283,

286, 308, 313
Stony Island, 163, 319
Syenite, Laurentian, 280
Syrtensian fauna, 334, 338
Taconic rocks, 281
Terraces, river, 322
rock, 144, 197, 315

Thomas Bay, 209, 210, 283, 310
Thoresby, Mount, 284
Tickle, 140, 183
Tilt, 121, 141
Tinker, 180

Island, 179
Toad, 160, 405
Trap dykes, 168, 285, 286, 289
Trees, northern limits of, 201
Trichoptera, 387
Trout, 68

salmon, 193, 400
Tub Island, 165, 218, 287, 288, 289, 299
Tuckermel bush, 86
Tucking bush, 86
Tunicates, 396
Turner, L. M., 231, 406
Tylor, E. B., 246
Ungava Bay, 406 .
Vetromile, Father, 258
Walrus, 104, 147, 162, 366
Wasp, 87, 103
Watson, Sereno, 473
Weasel, 68,114
Webuc, Cape, 181, 215, 283, 286

Range, 185
Weiz, Samuel, 5, 226
Whale, humpback, 137

sperm, 220
Whiteley, W. H., 232
Wolf, 194
Wolverene, 203 ‘
Worms, 380
Zoar, 199
Zoology of Labrador, 355

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI.

REcENT EXxpLoRATIONS.—REDISCOVERY OF THE GRAND
FALLs.

ON page 231 we referred to Mr. Randle Holme’s ascent
of the Grand River, to a point within fifty miles of the
Grand Falls, which he claimed to be ‘the most stupen-
dous falls in the world,” giving a greatly exaggerated
estimate of their height. During the summer of 1891,
the Bowdoin College expedition to Labrador, in charge
of Professor Leslie A. Lee, sent a party up the Grand
River, which happily solved the mystery which has hung
over the subject, and thus achieved the most important
geographical discovery which has been made in the
interior of Labrador since the first discovery of this cata-
ract by white men... The following account has been
prepared from dispatches, sent to the daily press, and has
been kindly revised by Professor Lee and Mr. Cary.

The expedition left Rockland, Me., early in July in
the Julia Decker, a schooner of ninety tons, the party
consisting of nineteen members.

The party left Rigolet for Grand River, July 27,
equipped with two Rushton boats, a kodak, surveying

instruments, firearms, and provisions for a month. E,
507

508 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS.

B. Young and D. M. Cole were in one boat; W. R.
Smith and Austin Cary, who was chief of the exploring
party, in the other.

Twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river the first
falls were reached. They make a descent of 70 feet in
two leaps, and necessitate a portage up a steep ascent of
210 feet, then half a mile through woods, and finally a
descent to the river of 140 feet. With much labor this
portage was accomplished in four hours, .A cache of
provisions was made below the falls. Then the struggle
began. Up to this point the current had been easy and
the river about a mile wide; but above the falls the river
narrowed somewhat and the current became swifter, so
that tracking was rendered necessary at times. This
was no small labor, as the banks are rugged and jagged
rocks, bowlders and fallen timber obstructed the way
of the trackers. After a struggle of forty miles of this
sort the Gull Island Rapids presented a still more serious
difficulty in the way of tracking. Here the boats had.to
be lightened and guided through a short but extremely
difficult rapid—a slow and laborious task. For a dis-
tance of fifteen miles above, the river flowed very swiftly
between high wooded banks, rendering rowing very
often impossible and tracking difficult.

After this the next hard work was in the Horseshoe
Rapids. In these a most unfortunate accident happened
to one of the boats. While tracking around a turn the
boat in charge of Cary and Smith was over-turned, the
keel and sharp prow ill adapting it to such rapid water.
A large part of the provisions, cooking utensils, the shot-
gun, the barometer, and a revolver were lost. But though
crippled the party were undismayed and pushed on up

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 509

to the Mininipi Rapids, the most formidable of all
except the Gull Island Rapids. The route here laid
through a burnt district. Precipitous banks lined the
river and the current was very fierce. After a stretch
of smooth water and then alternate rowing and tracking,
next in succession came the Mouni Rapids, which were
comparatively easy. Between the Mininipi and the
Mouni another cache was made. After passing the
Mouni Rapids the voyagers glided into Lake Wami-
nikapou, a most beautiful sheet of water 4o miles in
length and 150 miles from the mouth of the river. The
scenery here was simply grand. High precipitous shores
studded with high groves, towered six or eight hundred
‘feet above the placid bosom of the lake.

Holme in 1887 had succeeded in reaching the middle
of the lake when he was obliged to relinquish his under-
taking, estimating his distance from the falls at 50 miles,
20 of which would have been in the dead water of the
lake. .

The Bowdoin party had a comparatively easy time
rowing across, and had pushed five miles beyond when
a halt was called because of the disablement of one of
the party. For some days Young had been suffering
from a severe sore on his hand, which, irritated by row-
ing and aggravated by exposure, was beginning to
develop serious symptoms and was very painful. Owing
to this and the loss of provisions in the Horseshoe
Rapids it was decided to divide the party—Cole to con-
tinue with Cary, and Young and Smith to return. Up
to this time the party had been eleven days on the river.
Young and Smith made the return to the mouth in five
days without incident. They were well received by Mr.

510 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS,

McLaren, Hudson Bay Co.’s factor at Northwest River,
and thence were conveyed across Lake Melville in a
yawl, with their Rushton boat intow. During the night
a severe storm arose and filled the Rushton, making it
necessary to cut it loose. Parties going up the lake
some days later found the boat dashed to pieces on the
rocks. Young and Smith reached Rigolet August 18,
and found very comfortable quarters with Mr. Bell, factor
of the Hudson Bay Co., who showed them every kind-
ness.

Meanwhile Cary and Cole pushed on for sixty-five
miles, finding the distance much farther than it had been
estimated. Most of this was made in easy rowing water,
but tracking was necessary for the last eight or ten miles.
At this point a short reconnoitre satisfied the men that
it would be impossible to proceed farther with the boat
because of the extremely heavy water above. Conse-
quently a cache was made of the boat, and all unneces-
sary luggage and provisions, and the two men struck
out through the woods to gain the plateau, which was
a very arduous task. Upon reaching the table-land a
mountain, rising from five to eight hundred feet from
the surface, was sighted about six miles away ; and as it
was the highest land anywhere around they ascended to
get a view of their surroundings. The whole country
was spread out beneath them, but there was as yet no
sign of the falls. They called this mountain Mt. Hyde
in honor of the president of Bowdoin College. Bear-
ings were taken from the summit and an attempt made
of surveying, but the black-flies became intolerable and
compelled them to beat a retreat to the river valley,
where they camped for the night. Next day the journey

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. SII

was continued for seven miles along the river to a point
where the river issues from a remarkable gorge, worn.
out of the solid Archzean rock five hundred feet or more
in depth and from 150 feet toa quarter of a mile in
width.

Once more they were obliged to take to the high
ground, and for the rest of that day and part of the next
skirted the gorge. They were proceeding in this man-
ner when a distant rumbling led them to approach the
river. It was flowing at their own level. Below them
were the long-sought-for falls, and three cheers for Bow-
doin immediately mingled with their roar.

As was expected, reports concerning them were greatly
exaggerated. The falls themselves are 150 feet wide
and do not exceed 150 feet in height. For five or six
miles above was a series of heavy rapids with several
smaller falls varying from ro to 25 feet in height and
making about 1oo feet more fall. The water, as it ap-
proached the brink of the Grand Falls, makes a long,
graceful bend downward and then shoots straight down-
ward into the canon. The river above the falls flows
almost due south by compass (really S. E.) while im-
mediately upon striking the bottom of the gorge it
makes a sharp turn to the east and continues in that
direction for several hundred yards when it again resumes
its general southeasterly course, and goes roaring down
the canon in heavy rapids. Although reports concern-
ing them were greatly exaggerated, the falls were found
to be truly grand. But probably the most remarkable
feature of all is the great gorge, worn as it is in the solid
granite. It is probably one of the oldest drainage lines
in the world. This was named the Bowdoin Canon.

512 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS.

Several hours were spent at the falls measuring and
photographing, but the results are as yet not available.

The Labrador Plateau has been estimated by other
parties to be 2,000 feet above the sea-level, but owing to
the loss of the barometer our men were unable to deter-
mine the accuracy of this estimate. The plateau is for
the most part level with occasional prominences. It is
well wooded with spruce timber, the largest of which are
perhaps eight inches through. A heavy carpet of moss
lies underfoot and there is very little underbrush to make
travelling difficult. Innumerable lakes dot the surface
in all directions, a large chain of which are undoubtedly
drained by the Grand River. The black-flies on the high
ground were terrible.

The falls were reached on the morning of the 13th
of August. On the next day the successful explorers
started to retrace their course of 300 miles. They had
reached the end of their provisions and were worn out
and hungry. On the afternoon of the 15th, with no
little joy, they sighted the location of their cache of boat,
luggage, and provisions. But their joy was soon turned
to dismay, for, instead of the pleasant sight they had ex-
pected, nothing but smoking and charred remains greeted
their eyes. Rifle, ammunition, instruments, boat, pro-
visions—everything that had been left behind was burned,
and there they were nearly 300 miles from the mouth of
the river. It is supposed that the camp-fire still hung in
the moss and peat soil after it was thought to be com-
pletely extinguished, and later revived and spread to the
cache.

About three pints of parched flour and as much rice,
together with one can each of burned baked beans and

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 513

tongue, a 32-calibre revolver, a small axe, fish-line, and
a few matches were all they had to rely upon for a safe
voyage back, nor did the resources of the country war-
rant them in expecting much from that quarter. For
eight days the two men built rafts, tramped and floated
down the river, travelling a distance of 150 miles with no
other food than the above-mentioned provisions, an oc-
casional squirrel, and berries. Black-flies harried them
terribly, and made their condition almost unbearable.
At last the cache between the Mininipi and Mouni
Rapids was reached. From this they obtained five
pounds of buckwheat and a can of tongue to last them
for the next seventy-five miles to the cache below the
first falls. By continual rafting and tramping they
reached the cabin of an old trapper, near the mouth of
the river, August 29th, ragged and shoeless and much
worn with hardships and privations. Thence they were
conveyed to Northwest River, where they received kind
treatment at the hands of Mr. McLaren, and from
there went across Lake Melville to Rigolet in a yawl,
arriving on the afternoon of September ist.. The main
expedition had been waiting for them in that vicinity for
six days, and was beginning to get anxious, for they were
due August 25th, and according to the report brought
back by Young and Smith were likely to be on time. -
When at last they did arrive they were welcomed on
board with every demonstration of joy.