NEW BRITAIN, 245 



jn ore. White spar is very common ; and that beautiful kind, 

 -ailed from the country Labrador spar, is collected on the shores of 

 die sea and lakes by the Esquimaux, or natives, for the rocks have 

 not been discovered. Several small springs have been found which 

 ;,ave a weak chalybeate taste. 



Climate, soil, produce. ...The climate of these regions is intense- 

 ly cold, and the country, in consequence, extremely barren. To the 

 northward of Hudson's Bay, even the hardy pine-tree is seen no longer, 

 and the cold womb of the earth has been supposed incapable of any 

 better production than some miserable shrubs. Every kind of Euro- 

 pean seed committed to the earth in this inhospitable climate has 

 hitherto perished ; but perhaps the seed of corn from the northern 

 parts of Sweden and Norway would be more suitable to the soil. All 

 k his severity, and long continuance of winter, and the barrenness of 

 the earth which comes from thence, is experienced in the latitude of 

 Suy-two ; in the temperate latitude of Cambridge. 



Animals. ...These are the moose-deer, stags, rein-deer, bears, ti- 

 gers, buffaloes, wolves, foxes, beavers, otters, lynxes, martins, squir- 

 rels, ermines, wild cats, and hares. Of the feathered kind, they have 

 geese, bustards, ducks, partridges, and all manner of wild fowls. Of 

 fish, there are whales, morses, seals, cod-fish, and a white fish pre- 

 ferable to herrings : and in their rivers and fresh waters, pike, perch, 

 carp, and trout. There have been taken at fort Nelson, in one sea- 

 son, ninety thousand partridges, which are here as large as hens, and 

 nventy-five thousand hares 



All the animals of these countries are clothed with a close, soft, 

 warm fur. In summer there is here, as in other places, a variety in 

 the colours of the several animals. When that season is over, which 

 continues only for three months, they all assume the livery of winter, 

 and every sort of beasts, and most of their fowls, are of the colour of 

 the snow : every thing animate and inanimate is white. This is a 

 surprising phenomenon ; but it is yet more surprising, that the dogs 

 and cats from England, that have been carried to Hudson's Bay, on 

 '.he approach ot winter have entirely changed their appearance, and 

 acquired a much longer, softer, and thicker coat of hair than they 

 had originally. 



Inhabitants. ...The native inhabitants of this country are compo- 

 . ed of different tribes ; those on the coast of Labrador are called Es- 

 quimaux, or Iskimos. These appear to be of a different race from 

 other native Americans, from whom they are particularly distin- 

 guished by a thick and bushy beard. They have small eyes, large dirty 

 teeth, and black and rugged hair. They go well clothed, in skins, 

 principally of bears, and are said to be very mild tempered and docile, 

 They seem to be the same people with the Greenlanders, and have a 

 resemblance to the Laplanders and Samoids of the north of Europe 

 and Asia. 



Discovery and commerce. ...The knowledge of these northern 

 seas and countries was owing to a project started in England for the 

 discovery of a north-west passage to China and the East Indies, as 

 early as the year 1576. Since then it has been frequently dropped, 

 and as often revived, but never yet completed ; and from the late 

 voyages of discovery it seems manifest, that no practicable passage 

 ever can be found. Frobisher only discovered the main of New Bri- 

 i, or Terra de Labrador, and those straits to which he has given 



