The Labrador Area. 211 



a level with the general surface, or rather fills all the depressions 

 along its course, and in consequence is made up of a succession 

 of lake expansions connected by short stretches of rapids, where 

 the river is often broken into several channels by large islands* 

 Below this distance the channel contracts and in five miles the 

 river descends more than 200 feet into a distinct valley well be- 

 low the level of the surrounding country ; and from there to its 

 mouth always follows a distinct ancient valley cut down into the 

 solid rock from 300 to l,ooo feet below the surrounding country. 

 Between the first and the second gorge, which is about eighty 

 miles lower down stream, the river is almost a continuous suc- 

 cession of heavy shallow rapids so bad that the stream is not 

 used by the Indians. At the second gorge, or Eaton Canon, the 

 river passes through a narrow cleft in the rocks and falls more 

 than 300 feet in less than a mile. Below Eaton Canon the river 

 continues with a very rapid current for 175 miles to where it joins 

 the Larch River, a very large branch from the westward, which 

 was subsequently explored in 1896. From the confluence to 

 these two large streams to its mouth ninety miles below the 

 Koksoak River varies from half a mile to two miles in width 

 and has everywhere a swilt current, so that the discharge is 

 probably greater than any other stream in Labrador. 



It had been intended that the party should winter at Fort 

 Chimo, a Hudson's Bay post situated about thirty miles above 

 the mouth of the river, but on our arrival there, we learned that 

 during the previous winter the Indians and Eskimo belonging 

 to this post had suffered grievously from famine, so that, of the 

 former, upwards of 150 persons had perished of starvation, 

 while among the latter several families had been nearly wiped 

 out. This calamity wa^^ due to the failure of the herds of barren- 

 ground caribou to make their usual mirgation from the barren 

 grounds southward to the wooded regions in the laie autumn 

 and winter. As the Indians of the region depend almost wholly 

 on the deer for both food and clothing, the failure of the supply 

 reduced them to abject poverty, and was the direct cause of the 



