138 LABRADOR 



heaviest. The crust underlying northwestern Europe has 

 behaved in a similarly suggestive way since the melting 

 away of the thick Scandinavian ice-cap. The theory of 

 crustal sensitiveness is strengthened by this repeated oc- 

 currence of the phenomenon, but as yet other explanations 

 cannot be excluded. The final unravelling of the mystery 

 will be of prime importance in geological investigations as 

 to the raising of mountain-chains and the increase of the 

 continents. 



We cross the Strait of Belle Isle once more, homeward 

 bound. Large questions are left to us. From Archean 

 time as from the latest grand event in Labrador's history, 

 they rise to claim the attention of future generations of 

 Nature's students. That attention they will surely have, 

 for the coast shares with other wild lands one greater value 

 "than the best arable we have." Old Jacques Cartier, 

 searching for an Eldorado, found Labrador, and in disgust 

 called it "the land of Cain." A century and a half after- 

 ward Lieutenant Roger Curtis wrote of it as "a country 

 formed of frightful mountains, andunfruitfulvallies, a prodi- 

 gious heap of barren rock" ; and George Cartwright, in his 

 gossipy journal, summed up his impressions after five and 

 twenty years on the coast. He said: "God created that 

 country last of all, and threw together there the refuse of 

 his materials as of no use to mankind." 



In our own day the artist and scientific explorer give us 

 wiser counsels. We have at last learned the vital fact that 

 Nature has set apart her own picture-galleries where men 

 may resort if for a time they would forget human contri- 

 vances. It is good for man to be alone, good for him to 



