428 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April 5, 1913 
Labrador for the Sportsman 
By DILLON WALLACE 
L abrador embraces an area of 511,000 
square miles, and of this immense area it 
is safe to estimate that 170,000 square 
miles are covered by water. It is a land of great 
forests, wide barrens, innumerable lakes, large 
rivers and myriads of sparkling brooks. 
Three varieties of caribou inhabit the 
forests and barrens, black bears are compara¬ 
tively numerous, and the white or polar bear 
visits the eastern, northern and western coasts. 
The lakes of the plateau are well stocked with 
namaycush or lake trout—which often attain an 
immense size—and with pike; the rivers with 
salmon, ouananiche and brook trout. Nearly 
all the streams and lakes, indeed, teem with 
trout. 
Labrador, so far as the sportsman is con¬ 
cerned. is virgin land. Leaving out of con¬ 
sideration a narrow region contiguous to Lake 
St. John, the Saguenay River and the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, you may count upon the fingers 
of your two hands the sportsmen who have 
visited the country with rod and gun during 
the last ten years. The only explanation that 
occurs to me of this neglect of so fertile and 
so attainable a field for enjoyment and novel 
experience is the undeserved bad name that 
Labrador bears, together with lack of informa¬ 
tion concerning sections of the country at¬ 
tractive to the sportsman and which at the same 
time might he reached without too great an ex¬ 
penditure of time and effort. 
Salmon run in nearly all of the Labrador 
rivers, but the further north erne goes, the less 
likely are they to take the fly, I refer here 
to the eastern peninsula, northward from 
Battle Harbor, which is situated on the extreme 
southeast coast. This section of the coast may 
be reached from Tunc until November by the 
fortnightly mail lioat from St. Johns, New¬ 
foundland, a \-ery comfortable little steamer of 
the Reid-Ncwfonndland Company. 
Battle Harbor is the first Labrador jiort of 
the northward-bound steamer. Here natives with 
small boats may be employed for excursions 
to the St. Charles River, and to a river flow¬ 
ing into the head of St. Lewis Inlet. So far 
as 1 am aware, no fly has ever been cast into 
either of these streams. From St. Francis 
Harbor, two ports beyond Battle Harbor, the 
Ale.xis River is reched. Natives have informed 
me that this was an excellent salmon stream— 
the best, in fact, of the southeast. So far as 
T am aware no angler has ever visited it, 
though it is certain that natives take many sal¬ 
mon here every year with nets. 
My advice to the angler, however, would 
be to proceed to Sandwich Bay, disembarking 
from the steamer at Cartwright Post of the 
FTudson’s Bay Company. Here he has several 
rivers in which to try his luck, and if fortune 
does not favor him in one he may easily shift 
to another. The best salmon rivers in Sand- 
w'ich Bay are the Paradise, the Eagle, the 
North, the South and the White Bear. The 
Hudson’s Bay Company nets them here rather 
extensively, and I am personally aware of some 
three or four anglers wdio have visited these 
waters with success. The Cartwright agent of 
the company will be glad to assist the sports¬ 
man in securing native guides with boats. 
Thus far I have said nothing of trout. Let 
it be understood that all of the streams men¬ 
tioned are splendid trout streams, though to 
find the largest trout one must ascend the 
streams a considerable distance. North River 
is a particularly good trout stream, and natives 
have assured me that one may row a boat pretty 
nearlj' to the pools of the four- and five- 
pounders. 
The country back of Sandwdeh Bay is a 
pretty good bear country, though during the 
fishing season caribou are scarce. In this, as 
in all the deep inlets and bays, seals are plenti¬ 
ful. Seals arc not easy to shoot in open water. 
and in Labrador it is a greater feat of marks¬ 
manship and sportsmanship to shoot a seal 
than to shoot a caribou. 
The country contiguous to Hamilton Inlet, 
to the northward of Sandwdeh Bay, offers ex¬ 
cellent all-round sport, both wdth rod and gun. 
Rigolet Post of the Hudson’s Bay Company is 
the point of debarkation for Hamilton Inlet. A 
tug belonging to a lumber company operating 
at the head of the inlet, or a little mission 
steamer, usually connects here wdth the mail 
boat, and passage on either may be secured to 
Northwest River, ninety miles inland. Or. 
should both of these boats fail, a native may be 
engaged wdth a sailing craft for this most in¬ 
teresting and delightful journey. 
At Northwest River there are two trading 
posts—one maintained by the Hudson’s Bay 
Company, the other by Revellion Freres, where 
supplies and such outfitting as may be wanting, 
can be purchased. 
Twelve miles across the inlet from North¬ 
west River is the Kenamou River, said to be 
a good salmon and trout stream, though I never 
have tried it. I am doubtful, indeed, whether a 
fly has ever been cast in the Kenamou. There 
are many other streams emptying into Ham¬ 
ilton Inlet, and much beautiful country sur¬ 
rounding the inlet attractive to sportsmen. 
Ascending Northwest River, and three miles 
above the trading posts. Grand Lake is en¬ 
tered. This is a magnificent sheet of water 
some thirty-five miles in length, and presum¬ 
ably very deep. There are five rivers and many 
brooks emptying into Grand Lake. Cape 
Corbeau River, which is unexplored, enters 
from the south, and Waddy's brook from the 
north, each about halfw^ay up the lake. 
Five miles from the head of the lake the 
Nascaupee and the Crooked rivers enter a deep 
bay on the north, and the Beaver and Susan 
rivers flow into the lake at its upper extremity. 
The Susan is a swift and unpractical stream 
upon wdiich to travel. The Lower Beaver is 
unexplored, and only an investigation would re¬ 
veal its character. In the upper Beaver, how'^- 
ever, fifty miles from Grand Lake, and thence 
on to a series of large lakes wdiere it has its 
rise, I have caught no end of fine trout. In 
August, 1903, Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., and my¬ 
self landed in one hour from a single pool 
eighty-nine trout averaging fourteen inches in 
length. Neither of us stepped outside a circle 
ten feet in diameter. 
The lakes at the head of the Beaver River 
contain pike, and no doubt lake trout. Wild 
geese are always here during summer, ptarmi¬ 
gan are found upon the surrounding hills, and 
caribou are very certain to be seen along the 
river and in the neighborhood of the lakes. I 
should say that fifteen days would take a party 
from Northwest River to the lakes, with no 
halts for bad weather. 
The country around the head of Grand 
Lake, and particularly alon.g the low’er Nascau- 
LABRADOR CARIBOU. 
