CHAPTER I. 



THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 



Our knovvledge of the interior of the Labrador penin- 

 sula is still so scanty, owing to its inaccessibility, its un- 

 navigable rivers, the shortness of the summer season, and 

 the lack of game, as well as the enormous numbers of 

 black flies and mosquitoes, that any description of this 

 country must long remain imperfect. The only scientific 

 explorer of the interior is Professor Hind, who ascended 

 the river Moisie, which, however, is a confluent of the St. 

 Lawrence, and is in fact situated only near the borders 

 of Labrador, in the province of Quebec. None of the 

 larger rivers of Labrador have been explored to near 

 their sources; and no one except Indians and but a 

 single employ^ of the Hudson Bay Company (Mr. Mc- 

 Lean) has ever crossed any considerable portion of the 

 interior. And yet the peninsula is well watered with 

 streams, rivers, and chains of lakes. I have been in- 

 formed by residents that the Indians of the interior, pre- 

 sumably the Mountaineers, can travel in their canoes 

 from the mouth of the Esquimaux River, which empties 

 into the Strait of Belle Isle, across the country to the 

 Hudson Bay posts in Hamilton Inlet. So far as we 

 have been able to gather from maps and the accounts 

 of explorers, such as McLean and Davies, the latter of 

 whom published an account of the Grand or Hamilton 



