182 THE LABEADOR PENINSULA. chap, xxxii. 



to the river Agwauiis, 135 miles. Thiixlly, the Labrador 

 coast, from the Agwamis Eiver to Blanc Sablon, 156 

 miles. 



The Hudson's Bay Company long enjoyed the exclusive 

 privilege of hunting over the interior, and fishing in the 

 waters of the King's Posts and the Seigneurie of Mingan, 

 and it is only of late years (since the passing of a law by 

 the Canadian Parliament permitting any British subject 

 to take possession of any portion of a beach which is un- 

 occupied) that attention has been dkected to the fisheries 

 on this extensive portion of the Canadian coast. Hence 

 it has occurred that while that part of the coast which 

 extends from the eastern limits of the Seigneurie of ]\iingan 

 to Blanc Sablon is comparatively well settled, the shores 

 of the King's Posts and the Seigneurie, a distance of 400 

 miles, have been rigidly kept as a hunting preserve by the 

 Company, and the few and scattered settlements which 

 they contained were all under their management and 

 control. Since the extinction of the exclusive rights of 

 the Company, the germs of many fishing villages have been 

 established, and that part of the north shore of the Gulf 

 which has been so long in possession of the fur-traders 



Quebec. Tliey established a seal fisbeiy, wbicli was earned on for a few 

 years ; it was then given up, and the best stations sold. The Seigiiem-ie was 

 afterwards leased to the Hudson's Bay Company. 



After the conquest of Canada by the British, the Bay of Bradore and 150 

 miles of the coast westward, as far as the limits of the Seigneurie of Miugan, 

 was monopolised by a company, called the Labrador Company, established 

 in Quebec, who for sixty years earned on the fishery, imtil the year 1820, 

 when, in consequence of the failure of the fisheries, they were obliged to 

 abandon their stations. Since that period, the part of the coast referred to 

 has been gradually filling up with settlers, and in 18-iO it contained 250 

 aouls. — Samuel Robertson, of Sparr Point. 



