40 Our North Land. 



bleakest portions of the coast, merely because; by so doing, they will 

 be close to the fishing grounds. 



The climate is severe, but healthy ; and doctors, where such exist, 

 have little to do except to look after the poor half-starved fisher- 

 men and their families, many of whom suffer from exposure, poor 

 food, and a disregard of the simplest rules of health. The poor 

 creatures have no ideas beyond the cod-fish. They live and die, 

 ground under the relentless heel of debt, always from hand to 

 mouth, and without a shilling to call their own. 



The fishing stations are almost too numerous to mention. There 

 are Hudson's Bay posts at Cartwright Harbour, at Rigoulette, at 

 Hamilton's Inlet, at Davis Inlet, and at Nachvak ; and Moravian 

 Mission stations at Hopedale, Zoar, Nain, Okkak, Hebron and 

 Ramah. 



There are not more than a hundred Indian families altogether, 

 but as you go northward the Eskimos are met with in consider- 

 able numbers. All the natives seem to lead a happy life, and in 

 many respects are better off than the white people. They are expert 

 in hunting and trapping, and thoroughly acquainted with the 

 country. As a rule they are sober, honest, and industrious ; but the 

 Newfoundlanders give them a pretty bad character. The Indians, 

 and further to the north the Eskimos, frequent the interior, hunt- 

 ing and trapping furs. They bring the catch to the coast and 

 exchange it at the stations for pork, flour, tea, molasses, powder, 

 shot, tobacco, etc. They are plentifully supplied with food from 

 the flesh of the deer, seal and small game which abounds on the 

 coast and in the interior. 



There is nothing connected with the natural appearance of the 

 country or condition of the people to impress one favourably. The 

 few houses scattered here and there, occupied by the whites, are 

 mostly neat and clean, and wear the appearance of extreme isolation. 

 There is but little fortune-making, now-a-days, on the Labrador. 

 The fishing vocation is one attended with great hardships, and much 

 exposure to the cold, and not infrequently to considerable danger ; 

 and, withal, the returns reaped scarcely repay the pains and labour 

 expended. 



