12 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 



twelve miles from its mouth by ordinary fishing-boars. 

 There is no large river between this and Hamilton River, 

 which flows into the Atlantic in a direction a little north of 

 east. The latter river seems to flow in a fissure that runs 

 at right angles to the line of upheaval in the syenite and 

 traps of the Atlantic coast ; as upon the Gulf coast the 

 rivers flow from the northwest along natural fissures in 

 the earth's crust that run at right angles to the axis of 

 elevation of the Laurentian chain on the north side of 

 the St. Lawrence. In this connection it should be no- 

 ticed that the fiords on the Atlantic coast of Labrador 

 assume the same direction, and though they agree much 

 in this respect with the direction of those farther south, 

 there is a yet greater west and east course as we go north- 

 ward toward Cape Chidley, until beyond latitude 58" 

 the fiords run in a N. W. and S. E. direction, especially 

 on the Hudson Bay slope. According to Davies, the 

 Grand or Hamilton River is supposed to rise from a 

 chain of lakes in the " rear of the Seven Islands, and 

 flows for a considerable distance on the top of the ridge, 

 if I may so express it, between the head-waters of the 

 rivers falling into the St. Lawrence and those falling 

 into the Hudson Bay and Strait, for they are said by the 

 Indians to be quite close to the waters of the Grand 

 River on either side." Our author also states that, "two 

 hundred miles from its mouth it forces itself througfh a 

 range of mountains that seems to border the table-land 

 of the interior, in a succession of tremendous falls and 

 rapids for nearly twenty miles. Above these falls the 

 river flows with a very smooth and even current. '^ 

 McLean in 1830 descended the river from the now aban- 

 doned Fort Nasquapee, situated on Lake Petchikapou. 



