CHAP. XXXII. TIDES IN UXGAVA BAY. 189 



Dorth, the strong current which is known to set out of Davis' 

 Straits, along the coast of Labrador, sweeping round Resolution 

 Island, rushes directly into Ungava Bay, from whence it has no 

 outlet ; causing this prodigious rise of the tides, and the nume- 

 rous eddies and currents that are met with in every part of the 

 bay. The vast quantities of ice, also, that encumber the bay 

 until a late period of the summer, may likewise be traced to 

 this cause ; the constant current setting in to the bay preventing 

 the egress of the ice, until a gale of wind of sufficient force and 

 duration springs up from the southward, and enables the masses 

 of ice to stem the current, and they are driven into the straits, 

 where, meeting with the current that pours through them, they 

 are carried into the Atlantic. It is, therefore, late in August 

 before the bay can be said to be navigable with any safety by 

 vessels from sea ; and by the end of September the navigation 

 is again very dangerous ; not, however, so much from the ice, 

 as from the length and darkness of the nights, and the fury of 

 the wind, blowing almost constantly from the northward at this 

 season of the year. 



Dreary and desolate as a large part of tlie coast of 

 Labrador appears to be iii all its aspects, its fisheries are 

 capable of giving lucrative employment to many thousand 

 people. 



In the evidence given to the Committee of the Cana- 

 dian Legislative Assembly in 1852 by J\Ir. Mathew H. 

 Warren, who had been engaged in the trade and fisheries 

 of the Labrador for sixteen years, it was stated that 

 Labrador, with a sea-coast of 1,000 miles, has a population 

 in the fishing season of over 30,000 souls, who import all 

 the provisions they consume, and export to the amount of 

 800,000/. to 1,000,000/. annuaUy. The trade is chiefly 

 in the hands of the United States, Nova Scotia, and Kew- 

 foundland.* 



* 1,000 vessels yearly are employed on tlie Labrador coast. — Governor 

 Hamilton. 



