CANADIAN ENVIRONMENT OF THE OUANANICHE 129 



of the Koksoak or Ungava River that empties into 

 Ungava Bay. He says in a private letter : 



" The river flowing out of the lake is nearly a quarter of a mile 

 wide, and leaves it in a succession of heavy rapids for three or four 

 miles. At the third rapid we met with what might have been a 

 serious accident. Eaton's canoe, in running down, struck a rock, 

 knocked a hole in it and upset, throwing men and outfit into the 

 water. Luckily the bags holding our instruments were caught by 

 the men as they fell out, and so were saved. Eaton lost his satchel 

 containing his toilet outfit, etc., along with our thermometers and 

 weather observations to date, my revolver, and other sundries ; we 

 also lost a rifle and our supply of pork about two hundred pounds. 

 The flour and lighter bags floated, and were picked up below the 

 next rapid by the other canoe. We now only had a small quantity 

 of bacon left in the other canoe, and luckily it was very bad, so 

 that we were not inclined to eat too much of it. Our supply of 

 salt was melted, and from here to Ungava we ate food prepared 

 without that condiment. It is nothing after you get used to it, 

 but that takes some time, and I was not long enough without it 

 not to think that the bread was only solidified paste. After the 

 accident we immediately camped, in order to sum up the losses, 

 dry the blankets and outfit, and mend the canoe. . . . For nearly 

 one hundred miles below tjhe lake, the river, like all others in cen- 

 tral Labrador, flows in a shallow valley, nearly on a level with the 

 general surface, and is a succession of lake expansions, connected 

 by flat, shallow rapids filled with boulders. The surrounding 

 country is rolling, with low ranges of hills at intervals. Below, 

 the river turns sharply eastward, and, rushing along the foot of a 

 range of rocky hills, falls, in a half-dozen miles, over three hundred 

 feet into a narrow valley, surrounded by high hills that rise from 

 six hundred to eight hundred feet above the water. From here to 

 its mouth the stream has always a distinct valley, and in several 

 places the mountains upon both sides rise almost perpendicularly 

 to the height of one thousand feet, and often higher. Their sum- 

 mits are bare of trees, and are covered with white moss and Arctic 

 shrubs. The lower parts are wooded with small, straggling, black 

 spruce. From the point where the river first enters the valley, for 

 over one hundred miles, it descends at an alarming rate, and could 



