74 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 



Stoves, and heating the whole house, the two living- 

 rooms opening into each other, the stove being placed 

 partly in each, the partition between the two rooms be- 

 ing cut away to admit the stove. 



The French residents at the Mecatina Islands, more 

 social and gayer than the phlegmatic English settlers 

 about the mouth of the Esquimaux and Salmon rivers, 

 sp^nd the winter evening in dancing and other gayeties 

 to which the Anglo-Saxon, in Labrador at least, is a 

 comparative stranger. 



The Esquimaux River at its eastern entrance is but a 

 few rods wide. Passing Esquimaux Island we sailed out 

 into a broad bay or expansion of the river, with ravines 

 leading down to it, and under the steep bank protected 

 from the northerly winds were the winter houses pre- 

 viously described. Up the river, just beyond Mrs. Chev- 

 alier's, the river contracted into narrows with rapids ; it 

 then opened into another bay or expansion two miles 

 wide, the river being a succession of lakes connected by 

 rapids, and this is typical of the rivers and streams of the 

 Labrador peninsula. A barge cannot sail up the Esqui- 

 maux River more than fifteen miles, although one can 

 push farther on in a flat boat. We were told that the 

 river is about two hundred miles in length, and although 

 perhaps the largest in Labrador it has never been ex- 

 plored. 



Here we met the black flies in full force, and al- 

 though we had been fearfully annoyed by them in ram- 

 bling over Caribou Island, here they were astounding, 

 both for numbers and voracity. The black fly lives dur- 

 ing its early stages in running water. The insect finds 

 nowhere in the world such favorable conditions for its 



