THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR 63 
These shoals are dangerous, especially as they are covered 
with black kelp; the average depth upon them is about 
two fathoms. To enter safely, one should keep the shore 
side aboard. Running out directly seawards for nearly 
twenty miles is a barrier reef of low black rocks surmounted 
by tiny islands; the whole simulating a coral reef in form, 
though, of course, not in origin. The fishermen call the 
whole the Hog’s Back, from the likeness of the islets and 
rocky points to a hog’s bristles. There is an interesting 
problem as to just how all these innumerable rocks were cut 
off so near the water-line. To approach the entrance of 
the double fiord from the south, the skipper should keep 
all the islands, including the Hog’s Back, to the north; 
standing in for the land about five miles north of Cape 
White Handkerchief; with the cliffs aboard, pass in south 
of a ridged island about three hundred feet high and a mile 
long. This island is of a red colour, and is called by the 
Eskimo “ Nenoraktualuk,” or “ Big White Bearskin”; it is 
the only really large island on the outside. Four miles west 
of the end of the island is the spring sealing station of many 
Eskimo, and is called “‘Inuksulik,’’ or Beacon Island. 
How far the double fiord extends into the land is not 
known, though it is certainly many miles. The Eskimo 
catch trout in Komaktorvik, and used to carry their catch 
to Nachvak, the Hudson’s Bay station until 1906. 
Since this region north of Nachvak Inlet is the least 
known part of the Atlantic coast, I have laid special em- 
phasis upon it, with the express purpose of pointing to the 
need of its further exploration. The more southerly fiords 
have been more visited by white men. One of the very 
finest of all is that at Nachvak; it is illustrated in Dr. 
