402 



NA TURE 



[February 4, 1909 



the prospL-ct of a year of monotony and cold, did not 

 deter this courageous lady, nurtured in the lap of 

 cities. 



The record of the journey as far as Lake Wichi- 

 kamats is somewhat tedious and not of much interest 

 to experienced travellers. Too much is made of trivial 

 incidents, and the humour of the writer is not of a 

 high order. Only once is she allowed to wander a 

 little way from camp, and the result is one of the 

 poorest jokes on record. Chapter viii. is entitled 

 " Scaring the Guides," and twelve pages are devoted 

 to the /un of throwing her four excellent helpers into 



The Nascaupee Chief and Me: 



' Through Unknown Labradi 



a State of fear, to say nothing of the loss of many 

 cartridges, of which, by her own account, they had 

 only a^'small stock, just to see how great a commo- 

 tion would be made by her supposed loss. This might 

 be amusing in the Thames Valley or on the _ St. 

 Lawrence River, but it does not seem quite the right 

 thing in Central Labrador. 



Mrs. Hubbard's account of her first meeting with 

 the trekking herds of Barrenland caribou is ful) of 

 interest, and she was indeed fortunate to have wit- 

 nessed a sight that some white hunters would give 

 much to see. The author expresses the view that 

 the deer are being decimated, and that in a few yeais 



NO. 2049, VOL. 79] 



only a remnant of the vast numbers will be left. 



With this view we do not agree. They may be killed 



off locally, and even desert some area for a number 



of years, a circumstance which gives rise to such 



statements ; but the main body, in spite of ruthless 



slaughter at certain points and seasons, will live on. 



Every year at least 8000 to 10,000 caribou are killed 



in Newfoundland out of a rough total of 200,000, and 



yet those deer are on the increase, and every year 



numbers of tales are published that the deer are bei.-.g 



exterminated. These come from districts which the 



erratic caribou have left temporarily, and to which 



they may return. 



-• There is a delightfully feminine 



touch in Mrs. Hubbard's description 



of her first meeting with the deer and 



their alarming appearance : — 



" \\'hen they saw us, the stags lined 

 themselves up in the front rank and 

 ^tood facing us with heads high in a 

 (h'finnt air. It was a magnificent 

 -.ight. They were in summer garb of 

 pretty brown, shading to light grey and 

 white on the under-parts. The horns 

 were in velvet, and those of the stags 

 -eemed as if they must surely weigh 

 down the heads on which they 

 rested. ... 



" I started towards the herd, kodak in 

 liand, accompanied by George, while the 

 olhiTs remained at the shore. The 

 ^(ilendid creatures seemed to grow taller 

 a^ we approached, and when we were 

 within 250 yards of them their defiance 

 took definite form and, with determined 

 >teps, they came towards us. 



" The sight of that advancing army 

 under such leadership was decidedly 

 impressive, recalling vivid mental pic- 

 tures made by tales of the stampeding 

 wild cattle in' the West. It made mr 

 feel like getting back to the canoe, and 

 I hat is what we did. We and the 

 I .iriboii stood watching each other for 

 some time. Then the caribou began to 

 run from either extremes of the herd, 

 -i.nic round the south end of the hill, 

 ..fhf-rs awav to the north, the battle line 

 i)f stags still maintaining their position. 

 " After watching them for some time, 

 wf again entered the canoes. A short 

 .iddle carried us around the point 

 . vond which the lake bent to the north- 

 /st. There we saw them swimming 

 . ross the lake. Three-quarters of a 

 lile out was an island, a barren ridge 

 landing out of the water, and as they 

 warn "thev formed a broad, unbroken 

 ridge, from mainland to island, from 

 lie farther end of which they poured in 

 -teadv stream over the hill top. . . . 

 The country was literally alive with the 

 beautiful creatures." 

 The account, brief as it is, of the meeting with the 

 Montaignais and Nascaupees is full of interest, and 

 Mrs. Hubbard used her eyes and ears to some pur- 

 pose in her short study of these wild people. It is 

 a pity that there are not more ethnological notes of 

 this kind in the book, for what we want to know of 

 Labrador is not the common incidents of_ travel, ex- 

 periences such as everv schoolboy puts in his first 

 book, but first-hand observations of its botany, 

 mineralogy, zoologv, and wavs of the wild races. 

 But if ISirs. Hubbard does not give us a very satis- 

 factorv or scientific studv of Labrador, she leaves us 

 with the impression of .t charming and plucky little 



