ANIMAL SANCTUARIES IN LABRADOR 475 



Then there are the Indians, the whole trade in animal products, 

 the necessity of not interfering with any legitimate development 

 and the question of immediate expense, however small, for a 

 deferred benefit, however great and near at hand. Finally, we 

 must remember that scientific knowledge is not by any means 

 adequate to deal with all the factors of the problem at once. 



Labrador 



But in spite of all these and many other difficulties, I firmly 

 believe that Labrador is by far the best country in the world 

 for the best kinds of sanctuary. The first time you are on a lee 

 shore there, in a full gale, you may well be excused for shrinking 

 back from the wild white line of devouring breakers. But when 

 you actually make for them, you find the coast opening into 

 archipelagoes of islands to let you safely through into the snug 

 little " tickles," between island and mainland, where you can ride 

 out the storm as well as you could in a landlocked harbour. 

 This is typical of many another pleasant surprise. Labrador 

 decidedly improves on acquaintance. The fogs have been 

 grossly exaggerated. The Atlantic seaboard is clearer than 

 the British Isles, which, by the way, lie in exactly the same 

 latitudes. And the Gulf is far clearer than New Brunswick, 

 Nova Scotia and the Banks. The climate is exceptionally 

 healthy, the air a most invigorating tonic and the cold no greater 

 than in many a civilised northern land. Besides, there is a con- 

 siderable range of temperatures in a country whose extreme 

 north and south lie 1,000 miles apart, one in the latitude of 

 Greenland, the other in that of Paris. Taking the Labrador 

 peninsula geographically, as including the whole area east of a 

 line run up the Saguenay and on from Lake St. John to James 

 Bay, it comprises 560,000 square miles — eleven Englands ! The 

 actual residents hardly number 20,000. About twice as many 

 outsiders appear off the coasts at certain seasons. So it would 

 take a tenfold increase, afloat and ashore, to make one human 

 being to each square mile of land. All the same, wild life needs 

 conservation there and needs it badly, as we shall presently see. 



Most of Labrador is a rocky tableland, still rising from the 

 depths, with some old beaches as much as 1,500 ft. above the 

 present level of the sea. The St. Lawrence seaboard is famous 

 for its rivers and forests. The Atlantic seaboard has the same 



