CHAP. XXIX. IXTERIOE LITTLE KNOWN. 133 



GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 



Very few explorations have been made in tlie interior 

 of the immense country which bears the name of the 

 Labrador Peninsula. The only descriptions, which I suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining, of attempts to penetrate it from the 

 different parts of the Atlantic coast, are those of the 

 officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, McLean, Davies, 

 and Erlandson. Much of the information respecting the 

 courses of the rivers flowing into East Maine is derived from 

 the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, obtained during 

 their efforts to communicate with the Nasquapees of the 

 interior, or to find a convenient route to Fort Nasquapee 

 on Ashwanipi or Hamilton Eiver at Lake Petichikupau. 

 A large portion of the southern slope is also unknown to 

 the whites, the fur-traders never penetrating more than 

 from thirty to sixty miles, with very few exceptions, in 

 the rear of Seven Islands, Mingan, Natashquan, or Mus- 

 quarro. If such explorations have been made, no ac- 

 count of them appears to have been published, and the 

 officers of the Company with whom I conversed are not 

 aware of the existence of any other information respecting 

 the ' back country ' than that supphed by Indians or 

 settlers on the coast, who hunt there in the whiter and 

 visit the posts in the spring of the 5'ear. Mr. Chisliolm, who 

 was formerly in the Company's service, and has perhaps 

 a better knowledge of the interior than any other resident 

 on the coast, supplied me with a short description of 

 its general character east of the Moisie, which will be 

 found further on. The longest river tributary to the 

 Gulf is the Moisie, which sweeps round the spur of the 



