46 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 



On his ihird voyage, Cartier entered the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, passing in between Newfoundland and Cape 

 Breton, thus for the first time demonstrating that New- 

 foundland was an island and not a part of the continent. 



The next step in the geographical evolution of Lab- 

 rador is seen in Mercator's great map of 1569. Kohl 

 tells us that for the compilation of this map Mercator 

 had collected many printed and manuscript maps and 

 charts, and many reports of voyages of discovery. " But," 

 says Kohl, "the best portion of Mercator's work, and a 

 real and valuable improvement upon all former maps, is 

 his delineation of the large peninsula of Labrador, lying 

 southwest of Greenland. On all former maps, that re- 

 gion was ill-shapen and most incorrectly drawn. But 

 here, under the name of 'Terra Corterealis,' it receives 

 its proper shape, with a full and just development, which 

 had not been given to it on any map prior to 1569. He 

 makes its eastern coast run southeast and northwest, as it 

 really does from about 53° to 60° N. In the north he 

 plainly shows the narrow entrance of Hudson's Strait, 

 and at the west of it a large gulf, called by him ' Golfam 

 de Merosro.' This remarkable gulf may be an indica- 

 tion of either Hudson's Bay or only the Bay of Ungava. 

 I think that the latter was meant ; first, because the 

 ' Gulf of Merosro ' has the longitude of the mouth of 

 the river St. Lawrence, which is also the longitude of 

 the Bay of Ungava ; second, because the said gulf is 

 represented as closed in the west. The western coast of 

 the Bay of Ungava runs high up to the north, where 

 Hudson's Strait is often filled with ice. This may have 

 led the unknown discoverers, the informants of Mercator, 

 to suppose that it was closed in the west. If they had 



