THE LABRADOR FISHING-BANKS. 3I9 



bay north of Ailik, he remarks : " But the glaciers of 

 Labrador have probably left even more valuable records, 

 in the form of moraines, of their early existence here 

 than deep fiords or innumerable islands. These are the 

 shoals and banks which lie some fifteen miles outside of 

 the islands, and on which icebergs strand in long lines 

 and in groups. I have styled them the Inner Range of 

 Banks, to distinguish them from a supposed Outer 

 Range in deeper water, where large icebergs sometimes 

 take the ground. The inner banks, as far as they are 

 known, are stated by fishermen to have from twenty to 

 forty fathoms of water on them. Commander Max- 

 well's soundings between Cape Harrison and Gull Is- 

 land, near Hopedale, and just outside of the island zone, 

 rarely show depths greater than forty fathoms. In one 

 instance only, in a distance of about one hundred and 

 ten nautical miles, is a depth of fifty-nine fathoms re- 

 corded. 



''Absence of Islands on the Southern Labrador. — The 

 Admiralty chart portrays a very important confirmation 

 of the Labrador coast-line, from Saint Lewis Sound 

 to Spotted Island. The trend of the coast-line between 

 the Battle Islands, south of Saint Lewis Sound, and 

 Spotted Island, Domino Run, a distance of sixty-five 

 miles, is due north, and, with very few exceptions, there 

 are no islands off the coast throughout this distance, ex- 

 cluding the group close inshore between Spotted Island 

 and Stony Island. As soon as the coast-line begins to 

 turn northwesterly islands become numerous and con- 

 tinually increase in number as far as Cape Mugford, and 

 even towards Cape Chudleigh. _ Between Cape Harrison 

 and Cape Mugford, the island zone may be estimated 



