ON THE LABRADOR. 59 



make some first-hand knowledge would be exceedingly 

 useful. 



At that time, 1903, there was no recent work written 

 upon the Labrador peninsula, except the admirable reports 

 of Dr. A. P. Low, of the Canadian Survey, and these were 

 concerned chiefly, indeed almost entirely, with the districts 

 west of the George River, but next to no information re- 

 garding the region lying between that river and the east 

 coast seemed obtainable. All things considered, I was 

 convinced that, even in the face of various set-backs, the 

 trip was well worth while. I spent a good deal of time 

 making inquiries among the whalers and about the south 

 side of St. John's Harbour, but the cod-fishers, who had 

 experience of the Labrador, although well acquainted with 

 the sea of those latitudes, and all that therein is, knew sin- 

 gularly little of the vast interior upon the foreshore of which 

 they had passed many a summer. Some told me that they 

 had frequently heard of large numbers of caribou being 

 killed near Davis Inlet in the autumn ; I was also assured 

 that it would be useless to take a canoe with me, as the 

 Indians who came out to the east coast to sell their furs 

 were obliged to pack in and out to the George River, owing 

 to the lack of navigable waters. This latter piece of in- 

 formation proved to be incorrect. A map gave no more 

 help, as practically all the country behind the coast-line lay 

 blank or filled in here and there at haphazard with a river 

 or a lake. I received much assistance from my friend 

 Mr. R. G. Rendell, the agent of the Moravian Mission to 

 Labrador ; the Reid Newfoundland Company also kindly 

 provided me passage in the Virginia Lake, adding their 

 good wishes for the success of one of the first hunters to 

 leave behind the well-stocked barrens of Newfoundland 

 with a view to going further afield and, probably, faring 

 worse. 



For nearly seven months of every year Labrador above 



