332 ♦ TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITITE. [VoL, II. 



NOTES ON THE DISCOVERER OF THE GREAT FALLS OF 



LABRADOR.* 



By David Boyle, Ph.B. 



(Read ijth December, i8gi.) 



The peninsula of Labrador measured from the Straits of Belle Isle to 

 Cape Wolstenholme is i,iOO miles; its greatest breadth is 700 miles, and 

 its area is computed at 420,000 square miles, being equal to that of the 

 British Islands, of France and of Prussia combined. A table-land 2,240 

 feet above sea-level occupies the interior. Hind says "it is pre-eminently 

 sterile, and where the country is not burned, caribou moss covers the 

 rocks; with stunted spruce, birch and aspen in the hollows and deep 

 ravines. The whole of the table-land is strewed with an infinite number 

 of boulders, sometimes three and four deep; these singular erratics 

 are perched on the summit of every mountain and hill, often on the edge 

 of cliffs, and they vary in size from one foot to twenty feet in diameter. 

 Language fails to paint the awful desolation of the table-land of 

 Labrador." 



Even at the present day, so unattractive is this territory that there is in 

 the whole world no other area of even one-half the extent, regarding 

 which so little is known. Winter begins in September and lasts until 

 June, on the northern slope. 



Here the Hudson Bay Company, lured by prospective profits in the 

 fur-trade, established a post in 1831. The site chosen was about thirty 

 miles from the mouth of the Koksoak or Caniapuscaw River, also known 

 as the South River, which, flowing northwards enters the head of Ungava 

 Bay, an expansion of Hudson's Straits. Owing to the total absence of 

 beavers, the scarcity of other valuable fur-bearing animals, and the diffi- 

 culty connected wiih supplying the post with provisions, the project, of 

 which the prime mover vv^as Mr. (afterwards Sir George) Simpson, proved 

 a failure. But he "determined on making every effort to reduce the 

 expense, and if possible, to increase the returns," chiefly, it would appear^ 

 for the purpose of maintaining his reputation with the company, the 

 members of which were dissatisfied with the results. 



* Based on the manuscript journal of Mr. John McLean, now in the possession of his soa 

 Mr. Archibald McLean, Buffalo. 



