CHAP. i. THE MOISIE OR MIS-TE-SHIPU RIVER. 9 



belongs to Canada, whose eastern boundary is at Blanc 

 Sablon, near the mouth of the North- West Eiver. The 

 country, supposed to be drained by rivers which flow into 

 the Atlantic, is called Labrador, and is under the jurisdic- 

 tion of Newfoundland. The remaining part of the penin- 

 sula, which is drained by rivers flowing into Hudson's 

 Bay, has received the designation of the East Main. The 

 names and position of the mouths only of the many 

 rivers which flow into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from the 

 Bay of Seven Islands to the Straits of Belle Isle, are cor- 

 rectly given in published maps of the country ; and 

 nearly the whole of our present knowledge of the east 

 side of the Labrador Peninsula is derived from Captain 

 Bayfield's surveys, which are limited to the coast. No 

 map to which I have been able to obtain access exhibits 

 a correct geographical picture of the interior of the 

 country. 



The mouth of the Moisie or Mis-te-shipu Eiver - - the 

 ' Great Eiver' of the Montagnais Indians enters the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence in longitude 66 10', about eighteen miles 

 east of the Bay of Seven Islands, and has its source in 

 some of the lakes and swamps of the high table land of 

 Eastern Canada. For centuries it has been one of the 

 leading hues of communication from the interior to the 

 coast, travelled by the Montagnais during the time when 

 they were a numerous and powerful people, capable of 

 assembling upwards of ' a thousand warriors ' to repel 

 the invasion of the Esquimaux, who were accustomed to 

 hunt for a few weeks during the summer months, a short 

 distance up the rivers east of the Moisie, as they do now 

 on the Coppermine, Anderson's, and Mackenzie's Eivers, 



