54 LABRADOR 



"Since 1885 the writer has made a number of trips 

 through the interior and along the northern and western 

 coasts, reports of which are published by the Canadian 

 Geological Survey. 



"This in a few words is the available knowledge con- 

 cerning the history of the vast interior of Labrador; our 

 information has been wholly derived from a few portage 

 routes travelled by the voyageurs of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company to and from the coast and from a few surveyed 

 tracks along the principal watercourses by government 

 explorers and others." 



One quarter of the whole surface of Labrador is estimated 

 to be covered with fresh water. Vast lakes are so joined 

 by an intersecting network of rivers that it is possible to 

 canoe over most of the country with astonishingly few 

 portages of length. For example, a voyager can enter 

 the Manikuagan River at the Gulf of St. Lawrence in lat. 

 49 15' north, travel about three hundred miles to Summit 

 Lake in lat. 53 north, cross the lake and on the opposite 

 side enter the Koksoak River, and, proceeding another 

 four hundred miles, come out in Ungava Bay in lat. 58 5' 

 north. These distances, it may be noted, are in the air- 

 line; following the turns of the rivers the distances are 

 nearly twice as great as those given. Or, again, one can 

 enter Hamilton Inlet, proceed about one hundred and fifty 

 miles to the mouth of Hamilton River in long. 60 west, 

 follow it to its source some six hundred miles to the west- 

 ward, cross by a short portage to the head of Big River, 

 and follow that stream about seven hundred miles farther 

 westward, to its mouth in Hudson Bay in long. 79 west. 

 Probably in no country of equal area can exploration by 

 canoe be carried on with so few portages. 



