ON THE LABRADOR. 79 



comprehend the story of Esau the hunter and that of Sam- 

 son and the lion, which animal can be translated as Polar 

 bear, but of Abraham in the land of Mesopotamia they can 

 form no picture ; the nearest approach to these ideas is 

 drawn from the harvest of the sea, seals and fish taking 

 the place of flocks and herds. So is the Bible interpreted 

 to the harsh meanings of northern life. 



One picture of Hopedale is still very vivid. On the 

 day after our arrival an old Eskimo hunter had died, and 

 his fellows bore his body to a wild high bluff along the 

 sides of which generations of their race have been buried. 

 At the head of the procession walked the brother, who 

 was conducting the service, and up the steep path was 

 strung out the entire population of Hopedale. Among 

 the huts some of the dogs were howling, a flock of gulls 

 circled screaming on the shore, and from the cemetery 

 came the sound of singing. The detached syllables, strange 

 to a European ear, blended oddly with a tune that one has 

 heard in a hundred churches, floated back on the frosty air. 



At last one day, having set an Eskimo to watch for 

 the mail-boat's coming, I, accompanied by one or two 

 of the Moravians, set out, hoping to add some grouse to 

 our bill of fare. As we returned with three birds in the 

 evening we found our sentinel happily asleep in the icy 

 wind and the Virginia Lake steaming up the channel and 

 about to lie-to in the fiord-like bay. 



Within a week we disembarked at St. John's. 



Finally, a word or two about the caribou of Labrador 

 may perhaps not be out of placed The only certain infor- 

 mation that I was able to gather was as follows : In the 

 southern parts the woodland caribou has been practically 

 exterminated, though all over the country they may still 

 be met with in very small numbers. The Hubbard expedi- 

 tion, 1903, which spent over three months in the interior, 

 killed but one stag, and it is probable that these animals 



