The Labrador Peninsula 



mer travels to canoes only. The Indians and 

 Hudson Bay Company use bark canoes, but 

 my experience is that a cedar canoe is much 

 better, as it carries more in proportion to size, 

 paddles and poles easier and faster, is much 

 more easily mended, and does not constantly 

 leak, and is but little heavier than a bark canoe. 

 Of course, much depends on the model of the 

 canoe, the ordinary straight, shallow, paddling 

 canoes of civilization being simply an abomina- 

 tion on long trips. 



In winter, dogs are used on the coast, But 

 owing to the lack of convenient stores of food, 

 they cannot be employed in the interior for any 

 extended time, as a dog can only haul sufficient 

 food to last him two weeks, and in the depth 

 of winter, when the going is heavy, his effective 

 load would be much less. The barren-ground 

 caribou has not been used for hauling, and so 

 winter transport in the interior must be done 

 by men. In the winter, when the snow is 

 deep, a long, narrow toboggan is used, and the 

 load is about 200 pounds; in the cold, short 

 days ten miles may be taken to be a good 

 day's travel and I know of no harder work 

 than hauling such a load over the gritty snow, 



in which the sleighs stick and must be hauled 



29 



