'234 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xv. 



were able to see the character of the forest trees which 

 once thinly covered the burnt region before the confla- 

 gration occurred. After toiling for a couple of hours over 

 boulder-strewn rocks, we reached the summit of the hill, 

 and found it to be 450 feet above the lake, or 2,214 feet 

 above the ocean level, and 120 miles distant from the 

 mouth of the Moisie by the course we had taken, which did 

 not deviate materially from a straight line. 



The view far exceeded our expectations ; it was one 

 possessing a sublimity of character which could only be 

 found among such extraordinary elements as those which 

 composed it. The first striking feature was the number 

 of lakes, occupying distinct valleys, which seemed to lie 

 between low ranges of hills projecting from a table land. 

 A shallow depression in the horizon instantly struck us 

 as the Dividing Eidge, separating the waters of Ash- 

 wanipi from, those of the Moisie, the waters which flow 

 into the North Atlantic from those which flow into the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. The large lake below the Dividing 

 Eidge was the one which the Nasquapee said we should 

 see, where he had wintered with Domenique and his tribe, 

 and from which he had departed scarcely a month before. 

 Far to the north-east was a very high range of mountains, 

 on whose top the snow, glistening in the sun, could easily 

 be distinguished with a glass. We were on the edge of 

 the burnt country, which extended to the north-north- 

 west and south, while towards the east forests of stunted 

 trees bordered the lakes, and crept a little way up the 

 sides of the hills. The whole country appeared to consist 

 of a succession of low mountains, few of them exceeding 

 in height the one which formed our point of view. 



