INDIANS OF THIS REGION. 259 



veins of magnetic iron, and also of lead, while a few sheets of 

 mica several inches in either direction were also picked up, but the 

 nature of the formation precludes the probabihty of finding much 

 of value in the mineral line either here or anywhere else upon the 

 coast. 



The Mingan river, like many if not most of the other rivers along 

 the coast, extends inland about twenty miles when it reaches a 

 pond; it is then connected by a series of ponds to some lake 

 whose altitude usually exceeds that of the surrounding country, and 

 whose waters, descending in a contrary direction, form gradually a 

 second river which flows to the sea by a similarly circuitous route to 

 that of its congener. 



We descended the river much more rapidly than we had ascended 

 it, the current being very swift in places, and the wind also being in 

 our favor. From the shore we could see the summit of Mt. St. 

 John's, lying some fifteen miles inland in a northwesterly direction, 

 which mountain is said to be a little over fourteen hundred feet in 

 height. Directly inland the country is said to rise in successsive 

 steppes — if one might use the word in this connection, — to what 

 is termed the " height of land, " some five hundred miles inland, 

 where a chain of mountains, 'peculiar to the whole lower St. Law- 

 rence region, and northern Quebec, with peaks varying from one 

 to three thousand feet in height, continues in an eastern trend to- 

 wards the sea, which it reaches at the extremity of the Labrador 

 peninsula, near Ivucktoke, or Hamilton Inlet. 



I had intended saying something further here upon the subject 

 of the Indians themselves, of this locaHty, but they do not differ 

 greatly from those of the whole coast, and all agree in the same 

 general characteristics. Mingan is the camping ground, so to speak, 

 for all of this class of people for several hundred miles of coast and 

 as many inland. Their chapel or church is also situated here, and 

 weekly worship is conducted by their chief, except at such times 

 as their priest makes them a special visit. 



The reHgion of the Indians seems to be of a sort of Roman 

 Catholic order. I am told that it is quite similar to that of the 



