256 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xvi. 



Bersamits Eiver, and the Indians dare not venture on 

 them in their canoes. 



He also relates that the earthquake had such a powerful 

 effect upon an Indian conjuror named Ouiskoupi, that he 

 renounced his craft and gave up his medicines to the 

 missionary, who burnt them.* 



Lieutenant Ingall, who explored the country between 

 the St. Maurice and the Saugenay in 1828, states that the 

 opinion very generally prevails, borne out by tradition, 

 that an active volcano is somewhere in existence among the 

 mountains south-east of the Saugenay, but, he adds, it 

 wants the confirmation of ocular proof, for not one of the 

 Indians who traverse those regions in search of game 

 have ever seen the slightest appearance of fire issuing 

 from the earth, nor did Lieutenant Ingall hear of any 

 scorias or vitrified rock having been discovered in the 

 country, f Without doubt the coast between Cape Tour- 

 mente and Malbay is frequently troubled with shocks 

 of earthquakes, but whether these shocks are occasioned 

 by the working of some neighbouring volcano is a 

 matter of mere speculation. Nor does the appearance 

 of the land bear evidence of there having ever existed 

 a volcano to the south of the Eiver Saugenay, as from 

 the well-known fertility of decomposed lava we should 

 find a very different soil from that hitherto discovered. 

 If a volcano is at the present period in a state of active 

 operation, I should be much more inclined to suppose it 



* Relation des Jesuits. 



f Remarks on the country lying between the Rivers St. Maurice and 

 Saugenay, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence. By Lieutenant Ingall, 

 15th Regiment. Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 

 Quebec, 1830. Vol. ii. 



