A LABRADOR SPRING 



the annual migration of the Montagnais Indians 

 is not the least so. 



According to the annual report of the De- 

 partment of Indian Affairs published in Ottawa 

 in 1908, the number of Montagnais Indians for 

 this strip of southern Labrador coast is 694; 

 of these 76 come to the shore at Natashquan, 

 241 at Mingan and 377 at Seven Islands. The 

 numbers given by Hind for 1857 were 100, 500 

 and 300 respectively. With the exception of 

 a very few who are too old or feeble to travel, 

 all of these Indians spend the greater part of 

 the year in the interior, making their annual 

 migration to the coast in May or early in June 

 when the ice goes out of the rivers, and re- 

 turning in August. Those whose brief summer 

 residence is at Seven Islands generally reach 

 the interior by the St. Marguerite or by the 

 Moisie River, while the Mingan contingent 

 ascend the St. John River, and, by a series of 

 smaller streams and lakes and many portages, 

 cross to the Romaine, up which they travel into 

 the interior. The Indians coming to the mouth 

 of the Natashquan use that great river as a 

 highway into the interior. 



The early return of the Indians to the wilds 



166 



