134 THE LABEADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxix. 



table-land on wliicli the Ashwanipi takes its rise, and 

 after a course probably exceeding 250 miles, with a fall 

 of more than 2,200 feet, reaches the sea 18 miles east 

 of Seven Islands. 



The direction of the Ashwanipi Eiver, forming part of 

 the canoe route from Seven Islands to Hamilton Inlet, 

 limits the area of the Gulf watershed east of the Moisie, 

 so that, although the body of water carried by some pf 

 the rivers — such as the St. John, the Mingan, the Ouna- 

 neme, or Eomain Eiver — is as large as the Moisie, yet 

 their length is not so great. Tlie Indians say that the 

 Ounaneme Eiver, debouching into the Gulf nine miles 

 west of Mingan, carries the largest body of water, and, 

 judging from its appearance in August last, I should be 

 inclined to think that the statement is correct. The 

 character of the country drained by the Moisie has been 

 already fully described. The following outhne, furnished 

 by Mr. Chisholm, applies to the region drained by the St. 

 John, the Mingan, the Ounaneme, and the Natashquan : — 



The character of the country is very mountainous, even 1 00 

 miles back from the coast, forming ridges running and winding 

 in all directions ; between these ridges are glens or ravines, in 

 many parts thickly wooded with the fir-tree, spruce, and birch ; 

 in other jDarts are swamps where the larch-tree grows tall, but 

 to no great size in trunk, and invariably decays, and dries up, 

 before fully grown. Lakes, some of a very considerable size, 

 are innumerable. Passing this most rugged part in ascending 

 to the interior, the country becomes more level, thinly inter- 

 spersed with the black spruce-tree, resembhng plantations. The 

 lakes are of far greater magnitude ; many well stocked with 

 fish of every description, from the monstrous trout of GO lbs. 

 weight, to the small red sucker, and a variety of other species. 

 "WTiite fish are not abundant, and it is only in autumn and 



