206 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xm. 



considerable portion of the Labrador Peninsula has from 

 this cause been rendered an uninhabitable wilderness. 



Mr. Davies, in his ' Notes on Esquimaux Bay and the 

 surrounding Country,' gives a graphic description of a 

 ereat fire of which he was the innocent originator. 



o o 



In 1840, he ascended the Grand Eiver (Hamilton Inlet) 

 for the purpose of exploring it ; after having been out ten 

 days, he felt anxious to ascertain if any Indians were in 

 the neighbourhood, in order to acquire information from 

 them respecting the country in the vicinity. Accordingly 

 he gave orders to a couple of Indians to make a signal 

 by smoke, so that if any Indians were in the neighbour- 

 hood, they might be warned of his approach, and come 

 and meet him. He encamped for that purpose, and 

 while the men were engaged in pitching the tent, the 

 Indians went to the summit of a neighbouring hill, about 

 a mile off, and there collecting a quantity of moss, 

 set fire to it. About half an hour afterwards, while sit- 

 ting at the door of his tent enjoying a cool breeze that 

 had just sprung up, he was startled by 'a noise like 

 thunder,' and ere he could spring to his feet, he was 

 warned by the frantic shouts of his men of the danger 

 that was approaching. It was with the utmost difficulty 

 that they could launch the canoe, and, hastily throwing 

 the baggage into it, contrive to decamp before the fire 

 reached their encampment. All the haste would have been 

 of no avail, had they not fortunately been encamped in a 

 spot of green wood. Such Avas the rapidity with which 

 the flames advanced, that one of Mr. Davies's men, who 

 had wandered a little way from the encampment, had 

 the utmost difficulty in saving himself, even at the top of 



