THROUGH THE PETITE RIGOLET 



the St. Augustine River. After three weeks' 

 travel he struck into the Grand River, crossed 

 Goose Bay, and duly reported himself to Chief 

 Trader William Nourse at North-West River, 

 at that time the chief of the Labrador posts of 

 the Company." 



Twice a year, as at Seven Islands, Mingan, 

 Natashquan, and Romaine, the Indians and 

 their families traverse the route to and from 

 the coast. They go in in the fall and come 

 out in the spring with their furs. They have 

 done it since babyhood and their ancestors for 

 unnumbered generations before them. What 

 wonder is it that they know the way and the 

 best and easiest way? The white man who 

 attempts the route without the Indians' guid- 

 ance is severely handicapped and makes a 

 failure of it. I learned this in 1 912 on the 

 Natashquan River.^ In 1890 a Canadian, Mr, 

 J. G. Alwyn Creighton, ascended the St. Au- 

 gustine River, hoping to cross the height of 

 land to the Hamilton River. Insubordination 

 of his Indian guides and a great forest fire 



' A Short Trip into the Labrador Peninsula by Way of the 

 Natashquan River, Bulletin of the Geographical Society of 

 Philadelphia, vol. xi (1913), pp. 38-50. 



179 



