PHYSICAL FEATURES. 35 



The peninsula of Labrador, extending from lat. 50° N. to lat. 63° 

 N., and from long. 55° ^Y. to long. 80° W., embraces an area of 

 about 511,000 square miles. 



There were 3,947 permanent inhabitants (some 1,700 Eskimo, the 

 remainder of British descent) in the dependency in 1901, occupied 

 in fishing and in trapping, but the population is greatly increased in 

 summer by fishermen and sportsmen, and it may then be considered 

 to be in round numbers from 20,000 to 25,000. 



Physical features and geology. — The peninsula of Labrador, 

 though when seen from seaward presents a very barren and desolate 

 aspect, is really, a little way inland, a well-wooded country, and its 

 forests, fisheries, and minerals will be valuable. The peninsula is 

 a very ancient plateau, formed largely of crystalline schists and 

 gneisses, associated with granite and other igneous rocks, all of 

 archfean age. It has large areas of nonfossiliferous stratified lime- 

 stones, cherts, shales, and iron ores. It is a plateau which ascends 

 somewhat abruptly within a few miles of the coast to heights of 500- 

 2,000 feet. The interior is undulating, and traversed by ridges of 

 low rounded hills seldom rising more than 500 feet above the general 

 level. The depressions between these ridges are occupied by numer- 

 ous lakes, many of great size. 



The east coast of Labrador is composed of Laurentian gneiss, wdth 

 intrusive granite and many quartz veins, the formation generally 

 being Laurentian, having resting on it at various points lower Silu- 

 rian beds while over the country are gneiss ranges of mountains and 

 gneiss bowlders. 



It is indented by deep irregular bays and fringed w^ith rocky islets, 

 while long and narrow fiords penetrate inland. The coast is bleak, 

 but the shores of the bays and rivers are well wooded, and in some 

 cases densely so, the timber being high and sound. The northern 

 limit of trees near the coast is about latitude 58° north. Copper and 

 lead ores exist on the coast; also gold and mica. The hills fall 

 steeply to the sea, often in precipitous cliifs, and terminate in rugged 

 rocky points, the single remarkable exception being the strand on 

 each side of cape Porcupine, which is the only sandy beach of any 

 extent on the whole coast northward as far as Xain, 



Rivers. — The Atlantic coast range throws most of the drainage 

 northward into Ungava bay, and excepting the Hamilton, Nasquapee, 

 and Kenamou rivers, only small streams fall into the Atlantic. 



Ashwanipi or Hamilton river, supposed to be the largest in Labra- 

 dor, drains a vast interior plateau; it rises northward of Seven 

 islands bay, in the gulf of St. Lawrence, and falls into Hamilton 

 inlet, which also receives the waters of Kenamou river, and Nas- 

 quapee or Northwest river. Eagle, West, and East rivers, abounding 



