264 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 



were made in the ordinary Eskimo custom, not being 

 underground, althougii the soil was by no means defi- 

 cient, but consisting of rough unhewn blocks of stone 

 heaped together in an oblong form, the inside measure- 

 ments being 2 feet by i^ feet. Many of them had been 

 disturbed by bears or wolves, but in most of them a skull 

 and bones were lying.* 



We now glean the following extracts from Hind's 

 excellent Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador 

 Peninsula, which show that the Eskimos spread south- 

 westward along the coast of Labrador as far as the Min- 

 gan Islands. 



Speaking of the Montagnais or coast Indians of Lab- 

 rador, he writes : " Of their wars with the Mohawks to 

 the west, and the Esquimaux to the east, between two 

 and three hundred years ago, there not only remain 

 traditions, but the names of many places in the Labra- 

 dor peninsula are derived from bloody battles with their 

 bold and cruel enemies, or the stolid and progressive 

 Esquimaux" (ii. p. 11). 



" The summit of the Great Boule, seven hundred feet 

 above the sea, and the brow of the bold peninsula on the 

 west side of the harbor [Seven Island Bay] were two 

 noted outlooks in the good old Montagnais times. They 

 are not unfrequently visited now, when the Indians of the 

 coast wish to show their country to the Nasquapees from 

 the interior, and to tell them of their ancient wars with 

 the Esquimaux. . . . They were able to hold their own 

 against the Esquimaux in consequence of the almost ex- 

 clusively maritime habits of the people, who rarely as- 



*Proc. Roy. Geographical Soc, April, i888, p. 193. 



