156 LABRADOR 



channel leads through Lobstick Lake, where a long bay 

 passes northward and connects the spring at high water 

 with Lake Michikamau on the head waters of the Northwest 

 River. The south channel is the ordinary canoe route 

 between Flour and Sandgirt lakes. 



Sandgirt Lake is an irregular, shallow body of water, with 

 many islands of drift. It is twelve miles long from the 

 southern outlet to the mouth of the Ashuanipi branch. 

 Owing to the number of canoe routes which centre here, the 

 lake is an important gathering place for the Indians of the 

 interior. The Hamilton River divides into two branches, 

 the larger, or Ashuanipi, flowing from the northwest and 

 the Attikonak from the south. The principal route from 

 Hamilton River to Michikamau Lake and northward also 

 ends here. The Indians who pass the winter hunting in 

 this region congregate at Sandgirt Lake shortly after the 

 ice leaves the river, and thence proceed in company south- 

 ward to the Hudson's Bay Company posts situated on the 

 north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



The Attikonak branch of the Hamilton flows into the 

 southern part of Sandgirt Lake, where it has about half 

 the volume of the other branch. It takes its rise in 

 Attikonak Lake, close to the southern watershed; thence 

 a portage leads to the upper waters of the Romaine River 

 flowing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From Sandgirt 

 Lake to the south end of Attikonak, the distance by river 

 is about one hundred and fifty miles, and the stream is 

 practically a succession of long, narrow lakes connected by 

 stretches of rapids. The country through which it flows 

 is broken by low hills of rock and ridges of drift, with much 

 low, swampy land between. The lowlands are covered 



