CHAPTER VII 
THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS 
“Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness.” 
— Cowper. 
HE Labrador peninsula is a region well 
adapted for fur-bearing animals. Along 
the edges on the eastern and southern coasts the 
white settler has long since well-nigh exter- 
minated or driven off these animals with the 
notable exception of the crafty fox, but the 
interior still serves as a habitation and fairly 
safe refuge for many beasts, although their 
numbers are considerably diminished owing to 
extensive fires: that have swept the country, 
and to constant persecution. Most of the 
interior is unexplored by the white man, yet 
his influence through powder and ball supplied 
1 According to Hind immense forest fires occurred in 
Labrador in 1785, 1814, 1857 and 1859, and a very extensive 
one I was told by Mr. J. A. Wilson, the factor at Mingan, 
occurred about 40 years ago. 
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