222 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



" in length." " The coast of Labrador — a bleak and inhospitable country 

 " — the utter sterility of which appeared its most noticeable feature ; the 

 " summits of the hills and the valleys were still retaining their wintry 

 " garb of snow." The following is a description of the coast off Cape 

 Chidley on July 5th to 9th : " Our progress Avas sadly interfered with, 

 " and our movements hampered by ice and fog." " On deck the scene 

 " was wild and dismal. The wind was howling through the rigging, 

 " snow was falling heavily, and the ship was entirely surrounded by ice, 

 " whilst the noise of the ice as it was broken by the irresistible pressure 

 " of the pack, mingled with the howling of the gale that was raging, was 

 " so great that it was absolutely impossible to hear people speaking close 

 " alongside. On the 9th of July we passed Cape Chidley." 



This is the testimony of Captain Markham, one of the commanders 

 on the " Nares " expedition, and now an admiral in the Royal Navy. 

 The following is the testimony of an expedition of United States scientitic 

 men which left St. John's, Newfoundland, in the steamer " Miranda." 

 The extract will be found in a volume published by the Appletons, of New 

 York, in 1896. It is entitled, "Greenland Icefields," and is written by 

 G. Frederick Wright, D.D., LL.D., F.G.S.A., and Warren Upham, A.M., 

 F.G.S.A. Starting on July 15th from St. John's, the}^ intended to steam 

 up along the coast of Labrador. On July the lYth they ran into an 

 iceberg off Cape St. Charles, and had to go back to St. John's to refit. 

 The book is nicely illustrated, and the engravings will be an antidote to 

 any idea of silk and spices on that coast. They met masses of floe ice and 

 many bergs close to Belle-isle. The earlier chapters describe the condi- 

 tions of navigation as follows : 



Floe ice is crowded by the earth's revolution on Labrador so "as 

 " greatly to interfere with navigation. Oftentimes a whole summer 

 *' passes during which it is almost impossible to enter any of the northern 

 " ports on account of the ice, and sometimes it is difficult to get into any 

 " of the ports even as far south as Hamilton Inlet, until past the middle 

 " of summer." 



The following is a description of that part of the coast between Cape 

 Charles and Hamilton Inlet, 50° to 54° latitude : 



" Everywhere the aspect of the coast is bai-ren in the extreme. No 

 " timber is in sight as one sails along the shore, and in the interior, what 

 " little there is in the lower valleys has small commercial value. Snow 

 " lingers throughout the entire summer in protected places, even down 

 " to the water's edge, and a long, even line of vvatei-- washed rocks bear 

 " enduring testimony to the height and violence of the waves." 



An extract from Mr. Low's description of the coast is given in Appen- 

 dix A of my paper of 1896. The following extracts are from Dr. Robert 

 Bell's reports for the Geological Survey in 1885. He also was on the 

 " Alert " expedition : 



" Beyond the straits of Belle-isle numerous icebergs were passed 

 " every day, both in the open water and among the field ice. When in 

 " the latter position they were observed to be almost always, more or 

 " less, completely surrounded by a space of open water. On the 

 " voyage back from Newfoundland to the Straits, between the 27th of 

 " July and the 3rd of August, icebergs were again equally numerous, 

 " especially as we approached the Labrador coast, but on neither occasion 

 " did we meet with any of remarkable size or height, the great majority 

 " of them being comparatively small." (D. D., p. 6.) 



