56 HUNTING CAMPS. 



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 the 50th parallel is shut off from the rest of the 

 world by a barrier of ice, its only communication being 

 maintained by a komatik, or dog-sledge, post that arrives 

 about Christmas. During the summer its desolate 

 settlements receive a fortnightly or three-weekly visit 

 from the mail-boat Virginia Lake, the Hudson's Bay 

 steamer The Pelican on summer service to their posts, 

 The Strathcona of the Deep Sea Mission carrying the 

 gallant Grenfell on his errands of mercy, and The 

 Harmony, which brings supplies to the Moravian 

 Mission stations ; these, with the cod-fishery fleets, sum 

 up the usual traffic of the open season. 



As might be expected, Labrador is one of the most 

 thinly inhabited countries in the world. Its native 

 population consists of a few hundreds of Indians in the 

 far interior and a few groups of Eskimo on the 

 coasts. To these may be added the " livyeres," or 

 " live heres," as the white settlers are called, the factors 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts, and last, but not 

 least, the missionaries of the Moravian Church, a body 

 of men who yield to none in the singleness and nobility 

 of their aims, and often a very different thing, alas ! 

 in the adequate methods by which they pursue them. 

 So much for the residents all the year round. In early 

 summer these are increased by the cod fleet from New- 

 foundland, who at the earliest moment that the weather 

 permits battle north in their schooners and take possession 

 of their little wooden stations which dot the coast from 

 Square Island to Fanny's Harbour. Their season lasts 



