214 LABRADOR 



after leaving the barrens, but scatter into the timbered 

 country of the Hamilton Inlet basin, and from there to the 

 Atlantic. Sometimes the greater herd stays south two or 

 three years, to the great privation, or worse, of the Indians. 

 The families east of the George can generally reach the coast 

 in time to save themselves. At Chimo, in the nineties, nearly 

 half the people starved or died about the post from illnesses 

 due to their enfeebled condition. Actual starvation may 

 happen almost anywhere excepting in the short summer, 

 for subsistence is not altogether secure in any district with- 

 out the aid of coast provisions. The late Charles Robertson, 

 whose last years were passed at Pointe Bleue, used to speak 

 with feeling of the bad conditions on the "Nichicun side/' 

 as an indefinite area north of Rupert River is called. 

 During the long administration at Chimo of Mr. Matheson, 

 lately retired, it was the usual yearly happening that five 

 or six hunters "did not come back." They had fallen 

 somewhere, hunting to the last, for the less the strength 

 of the hunter, the more urgent the need of finding some- 

 thing before it is too late. 



The semi-barrens of the northeast, the home of the 

 Nascaupees, and of the caribou they live on, is in summer 

 an attractive country. Unmapped lakes of large size lie 

 along the height of land east of the George, and smaller 

 ones here and there to the very coast. When the deer are 

 passing north, the best crossing is often at Mistinisi, a fine 

 lake fifteen or twenty miles long discharging into the Barren- 

 ground Lake. The crossing-place is six or eight miles from 

 the east end, and is at least a third of a mile wide. If the 

 leaders of the migration are turned, the whole route is 

 shifted, perhaps a long distance. It is certain that very 



