18 EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Further down the coast the Moravian Brethren have had settlements 

 for 120 real's. Thei-e are now live, at intervals along the coast, where 

 they carry on missions to the Eskimo. These are some o^heir experi- 

 ences, extracted irom their published reports : 



In 1770 their vessel arrived on July 24th ; in 1771 the <iate of arrival 

 was August 9th. •■ During the latter part of the voyage they were often 

 '■ obliged to run into bays, between numberless islands and sunken rocks, 

 " and being surrounded at times by vast mountains of ice and ice-rields, 

 " threatening momentary destruction to the vessel." In 1816, "on reach- 

 " ing the drift ice. on the 16th of July, Captain Fraser found it to extend 

 '■ to a distance of full 200 miles from the coast, and after attempting in 

 " vain to find a passage through it, lii-st to Hopedale. then to Xain, and 

 " lastly to Okak. he found himself by degrees completely enclosed by the 

 " ice.'" On August 30th of the same year • the whole coast was entirely 

 " choked up by the ice." The following year the vessel got into the ice 

 on July 7th. and on July l-lth they saw land sixty miles south of Hope- 

 dale, but could not penetrate the pack, and had to make fast to an ice- 

 tield imtil the 18th, but soon after had to make fast to another tield. 

 Then a fearful storm came on, and they drifted helpless in the pack. 

 They arrived on August 9th. 



In the year 1819 the •• Harmony "" could not reach Okak until August 

 20th. "the coast was everywhere choked up with ice." In 1826 the ice 

 extended 400 miles from the land. In 1832 the vessel reached the ice 

 on July 6th and got through to Hopedale on July 24th after some 

 thrilling experiences. In 1836 the •• Harmony "' encountered the ice 

 on June 24th. and it was August 4th when she reached Hopedale, 

 where the captain learned that the ice had moved away^nly two days 

 before. 



These are a few of many experiences reported, and it should be 

 remembered that the vessels of the mission are built to encounter ice and 

 manned by crews familiar with ice navigation. It is stated by experi- 

 enced pilots who, for thirty years have navigated that coast, that if a 

 vessel can get through the ice-pack and reach •' the inside track.'" as they 

 call it, that is the open belt of water between the land and ice, it is 

 possible on that part of the coast south of Cape Hari-ison to get along 

 the shore about the 20th June. Beyond Cape Hanison on northern 

 Labrador navigation is not possible until July 2uth. It is in crossing 

 the drifting ice that the Moravian .ships were delayed, and the same 

 cause would have prevented the little '■ Matthew '" from making a land- 

 fall at Labrador. 



Prejfessor Packard in his Journal of Tioo Summer Cruises to the 

 Labrador Coast, relates that on July 4th they were blocked for days, ice- 

 bound in Square Harbour, not far from the Strait of Belle Isle. He 

 says, '• we could easily walk ashore over the floe-ice : some of the floes were 

 •• higher than our vessel's rail, it being next to impossible to force our boat 

 '• through the too narrow leads between the cakes." They got out of 

 " their ice pri.son on July 15th. Sailing further up the coast in the inner 

 track he says that the ice belt was a few miles away • thick enough to 

 walk upon. ' The ice had been running down the coast from 22nd June to 

 August 22nd to their personal knowledge, and it began earlier and con- 

 tinued later, and from the hills behind Hopedale they could see the ice- 

 belt ten miles out to sea but bergs were visible all along the coast. The 

 ice-field was eighty-five miles wide. Dr. Grenfell of the Labrador Mis.sion 



