448 LABRADOR 



steamer has been detailed to visit along the northern two 

 hundred miles as far as Cape Chidley. This northern part 

 is much the most picturesque section of Labrador. But 

 the vessel is still sadly inadequate for tourist traffic. The 

 British Government has at last detailed a vessel for im- 

 proving the surveys of the Labrador coast, and Dr. Louis 

 King of Ottawa has done some excellent work on detecting 

 the presence of icebergs in thick weather. The Hudson 

 Bay Route is also approaching a working basis. It has 

 been suggested also that steamers making the round trip 

 from the Bay to the Gulf of St. Lawrence call at Labrador 

 ports on the way. 



Personally I feel convinced that a winter port at Cape 

 Charles in the Straits of Belle Isle could be made accessible 

 all the year round. 



Many prospectors and timber cruisers have been ranging 

 Labrador, and the universal decision has been that valuable 

 pulp areas exist. A rush on land followed, and every acre, 

 including barrens and lakes, was applied for and granted. 

 Companies were formed and attempts made to sell stock 

 on the London and New York markets. Each year we 

 have been informed that some area would certainly be 

 worked. Plans with the minutest details have been sent 

 in, and we had a request from one company to find them a 

 doctor. But nothing has yet begun, though it cannot be 

 doubted that the logs are there in abundance. The diffi- 

 culties of shipping, the long winter, and the lack of either 

 roads, railways, or telegraphs has militated sorely against 

 such plans materializing. Now, however, it does seem that 

 a large syndicate, with a three-million-dollar capital, is to 

 start in the spring, and if it does, it may be one more plea 



