CHAPTER IV 



THE GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF THE NORTHEAST COAST 

 BY REGINALD ALDWORTH DALY 



"THE Labrador Peninsula is less known than the interior 

 of Africa or the wastes of Siberia." In these words the 

 noted naturalist, Mr. A. S. Packard, in 1891, summed up 

 existing information on that anciently discovered but long- 

 neglected land. Low's fruitful journeys across Labrador 

 have added much to the store of knowledge, but there is 

 even now but little exaggeration in Packard's statement. 

 It was therefore with great and prolonged interest that the 

 members of the Brave expedition of 1900 studied the 700 

 miles of coast from the Strait of Belle Isle to the Hudson's 

 Bay post in Nachvak Bay. The Brave was a tight little 

 schooner of but forty tons, specially fitted up to be the home 

 of the exploring party for the summer. The party con- 

 sisted of five Harvard men and one man from Brown Uni- 

 versity. Three seamen and a pilot captain with a miracu- 

 lous knowledge of the ten thousand islands, shoals, rocks, 

 channels, and landmarks of "the Labrador," sailed the little 

 vessel. 



Leaving St. John's, Newfoundland, on June 25, the 

 schooner coasted all the way to Nachvak, which was 

 reached on August 22. This slow passage gave the explor- 

 ing party numerous opportunities to sample the natural 

 history and geology of the coast. One member of the expe- 



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