181 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 



GENERAL DESCEIPTION OF THE NOETII SHORE OF THE 

 GULF OF ST, LAWRENCE AND OF THE COAST OF 

 LABRADOR. 



Divisions of tlie Coast — The King's Posts — The Seigneurie of 

 Minpan — The Coast of Labrador — Hudson's Bay Company — Gra- 

 dual Settlement of the Coast — Prepared Timber for Building Piu'- 

 poses procured from Quebec — Climate of Part of the North Shore — 

 Aspect of the Coast — The Atlantic Coast — The Atlantic Swell — 

 Esquimaux Bay — Scenery of the Bay — Rigolette — Ungava Bay — 

 The Fisheries of the Coast — Migratory Population — Permanent 

 Population of the Canadian Coast of the Gidf — Produce of the 

 Canadian Coast in 1852 and 1861 — Timber of the North-east 

 Coast — Cartwright's Description of the Forests. 



THE whole of the vast extent of country which extends 

 from the Saiigenay Eiver to the Harbour of Blanc 

 Sal)lon, a distance of 607 miles by the shore, and thence 

 back to the dividing ridge which separates the waters flow- 

 ing into the Gulf from those tributary to Hudson's Bay and 

 the Atlantic, belongs to Canada, and is divided into three 

 parts. First, the King's Posts, extending on the river 

 and Gulf from Port Neuf to Cape Cormorant, 270 miles. 

 Secondly, the Seigneurie of Mingan,* from Cape Cormorant 



* The Seigneurie of Mingan was gi-anted, in 1661, to Francois Bissot. 

 The Mingan Islands were granted in 1670 to Louis de Lalande and Louis 

 Jolliet. In 1772, the proprietors leased them for fifteen years, on consideration 

 of the lessees paying 3 per cent, on the gTOSs produce of their fishery. 



In 1807 a company purchased this immense Seigneurie at Sherifi"'s sale at 



