686 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THi: F^W SHE^P HAVE TO BE SO CAREEULLY 

 THAT THEY GET QUITE TAME 



ries, and let them stand exactly as they 

 are in a barrel, and they will be good all 

 winter. Fill a barrel with the Uiscioiis 

 bake-apples, pour in water and head up 

 the barrel, and you have a delicious fruit 

 all winter. 



Nature, moreover, looks after you if 

 you are too lazy to do this, and your chil- 

 dren can run out in spring and pick cran- 

 berries and marsh-berries that have only 

 sweetened for being under the snow all 

 winter. The red of the cranberry is also 

 a natural dye. 



Of cultivated vegetables in Labrador 

 the success depends on the shelter, nat- 

 ural or artificial, they get from summer 

 frosts. In the bottoms of bays, carrots, 

 peas, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, beets, 

 etc., all grow in the open well. 



Lord Strathcona developed a potato 

 whose leaves crept on the ground instead 

 of standing upright, and thus escaped 

 these summer frosts. The Moravians 

 gain the same end by covering the beds 

 with rolls of brin or burlap, putting their 

 potatoes to bed when they go themselves. 



The leaves of our spruces make an ex- 

 cellent brew, when boiled with molasses 

 and fermented, though the result is too 

 intoxicating for an enemy of alcoholic 

 beverages like myself. 



There is no need whatever 

 for the scurvy that so generally 

 afflicts some of the families 

 every spring, except their own 

 carelessness and ignorance. 

 Now we seldom, if ever, see it. 

 Mushrooms, of the varieties 

 Russulse and Boleti, grow in 

 great abundance. Those who 

 know, eat them freely fresh in 

 summer, and, threading them 

 on cotton strings with a needle, 

 suspend them in the house and 

 let them dry for winter. They 

 swell out, and taste as good as 

 fresh. 



This is a commercial rather 

 than an aesthetic article, and 

 sooner than describe our in- 

 numerable flora of the small 

 TENDED but bright sub-arctic varieties, 

 whose abundance is well at- 

 tested to by the fact that we 

 have no less than 14 varieties of Po- 

 tcntiUa, I will say a word about other 

 possible industries for the country, 

 though while speaking of flowers I 

 should mention that the coveted Alpine 

 Edelweiss has been introduced near 

 Hopedale, and can now be found grow- 

 ing wild in the neighborhood. The im- 

 mense future that lies before pulping in 

 this country is, I think, very evident 

 from the success attending Lord North- 

 clifife's great venture in Newfoundland, 

 and by the fact that every acre of sea 

 and land from the Straits to Hudson 

 Bay has been applied for ahead, if not 

 granted, for this very purpose. 



The incalculable energy of the count- 

 less falls, including the Grand Falls of 

 the Hamilton River, probably the third 

 largest in the world, and second only to 

 the Victoria Falls in height, is an asset 

 which the future will be unable to over- 

 estimate. Now that chemistry stands on 

 the very verge of a synthesis of atoms, 

 and a new world seems to lie at our feet 

 if sufficient energy is procurable, these 

 hitherto unappreciated riches are begin- 

 ning to excite attention. I have had al- 

 ready inquiries as to the feasibility of 

 bridling these falls for the purpose of 

 collecting nitrogen from the air for fer- 



