CHAP- xin. THE BURNT COUNTRY. >207 



his speed. Before they readied halfway across the river, 

 which was there about a mile in breadth, the whole 

 mountain, from top to bottom, was one sheet of fire. The 

 lire lasted for upwards of three weeks, and spread over 

 and completely destroyed an area covering some hundreds 

 of square miles. 



It may be asked, why fires are more common at the 

 present period than formerly ; for, from the age of many 

 forests, it is apparent that fires have not devastated them 

 for centuries, and if a large portion of the Labrador 

 Peninsula were once covered with stunted trees, when 

 did the conflagration take place which consumed them? 

 It must have been in recent times, for the charred stumps 

 are standing over immense areas, many thousand square 

 miles being now a burnt country. No doubt fires have 

 become much more frequent since the Indians became 

 acquainted with Europeans, and learned how to make 

 tinder with powder and to use the flint and steel, and, 

 still more recently, the common friction match. In early 

 times they were dependent altogether on two pieces of 

 flint and 'punk,' a fungus growing on the birch tree, or on 

 the bow and drill, when they wished to make a fire an 

 operation in itself laborious in damp weather, and very 

 difficult after a prolonged rain. The extent of fires is 

 generally very much exaggerated in a thickly wooded 

 country, but in a region of moss like Labrador it is not im- 

 probable that they may sweep over vast areas. But still 

 we find that fires are generally confined to the country 

 through which the main line of communication runs, such 

 as the Moisie, the Ashwanipi, and Eupert Eivers. During 

 dry seasons, fire will run for an immense distance- 



