SOME LABRADOR RIVERS 



This was the most extensive bog of all, and 

 although we were occasionally encouraged by 

 dog signs which showed that we were going 

 in the direction taken by the dog-sledges in 

 winter, we had begun to be very sceptical 

 as to the existence of the river at all, for 

 we had trudged on for five hours, and we had 

 been told that the river was only five miles off. 

 These, however, were winter miles with a foot- 

 ing of ice and snow for fast-running dogs. 

 Suddenly right before us, sweeping across our 

 path was the river, and this view alone well 

 repaid us for all our efforts. There was a 

 sudden drop in the tundra, a big snowbank, a 

 fringe of birches just leafing out in delicate 

 green, and waving their yellow tassels of cat- 

 kins to the breeze, a few spires of spruces almost 

 black in comparison, and then, but a stone's 

 throw away, and forty or fifty feet below us, 

 the mighty river, dark blue but flecked with 

 whitecaps, flowing swiftly to the westward. 

 Its breadth was about a third of a mile, and 

 beyond stretched a great plain of dark green 

 spruce forest, the typical forest of the Hud- 

 sonian zone, dark, impenetrable, mysterious. 

 A small winding branch stream entered the 



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