Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/188

 176 LABKADOK becomes very grand. Along the south shore of Melville lake are the volcanic peaks of the Mealy Mountains. 1500 feet in height. This range commences 100 miles to the south of Hamilton Inlet, running nearly parallel to the coast ; and after skirting Lake Melville it strikes westerly and is lost in the hilly regions of the interior. Northern Labrador, from Cape Webeck to Cape Chudleigh, is the proper home of the Eskimo of this region, who are now about 1400 in number. 1 By the labours of the Moravian Brethren, commenced in 1770, nearly the whole of them have been brought under Christian training. The Brethren have four stations Hopedale, (55 25 N. Int.), Nain (56 25 ), Okkak (57 33 ), and Hebron, (58 50 ). Each station has a church, store, dwelling-house for the missionaries, and workshops for the native tradesmen. The mis sionaries number about twenty. The white inhabitants of the St Lawrence coast of Labrador are chiefly of Acadian or Canadian origin, with a few settled fishermen from France. On the Atlantic coast of Labrador many of the white inhabitants are British sailors and their descendants. Salmon and cod fishing are their main occupations ; and the products of their industries are exchanged with traders on the spot for such commodities as they require. The winter is passed in trapping fur- bearing animals. There are nine places of worship four of the Church of England, three of the Church of Home, and two Wesleyan. During the fishing season a steamer carrying mails and passengers plies fortnightly on the coast, connecting with the Newfoundland coastal steamer at Battle Harbour. The Indians inhabiting the interior of Labrador are now greatly reducedin numbers. The returns of the Hudson s Bay Company show that about four thousand of these Indians frequent the company s posts throughout the whole of Labrador ; and this account probably includes nearly their whole strength. Ninetee;i-twe;itieths of them are nominally Roman Catholics. The early Jesuit missions in Canada extended to Labrador ; and of late years lloman Catholic missions have been resumed and are now systematically carried on. Game of all kinds is every year becoming scarcer, and in many parts has almost disappeared. Fires have destroyed the forests, berry-bearing shrubs, mosses, and lichens, and converted whole dis tricts into hopeless deserts. The savage tribes wander over a vast extent of country, and have established routes along certain rivers and lakes, by which periodically they make their way to the sea- coast, to exchange the products of the chase for firearms, clothing, and other necessaries. It is only in the interior valleys of the rivers, at some distance from the coast, that any extent of forest appears ; but there suffi cient timber for fuel and building purposes can almost always be found. The trees are chiefly larch, birch, aspen, silver fir, black, white, and red spruce, willow, cherry, and mountain ash. Among the wild animals may be enumerated reindeer, black and white bears, wolves, foxes, martens, lynxes, otters, minks, beavers, musk- rats, hares, rabbits, moles. The birds are represented by the hawk, falcon, eagle, owl, raven, ptarmigan, spruce partridge, curlew, grey plover, sandpipers and other waders, geese, ducks, gulls, divers, swallows, martins, snipe, pigeons. Berry-bearing plants abound in many regions whortleberries, raspberries, cranberries, partridge berries, bake appleberries, wild currants, and wild gooseberries. In summer, where there are sheltered spots, mosses of every hue, wild flowers of the most delicate colours, ferns, and tall grasses diversify the scene. Though Labrador is detached from Arctic lands, and though much of it lies between the same parallels of latitude as Great Britain, the climate is rigorous in the extreme, owing mainly to the ice-laden Arctic current which washes its shores. Snow lies from September or October till June. In winter the whole coast is blockaded by ice-fields drifting from Baffin s Bay and other outlets of the Arctic Ocean ; while in summer icebergs, stranded or floating, impart a stern grandeur to the frowning shores. At Nain the mean annual temperature is 22 52 Fahr., at Okkak, 2r86, and at Hopedale, 27-82. In summer the thermometer sometimes reaches 75 ; spirits freeze in the intense cold of winter, and 30 below zero is not uncommon ; but, owing to the dryness of the air and the absence of high winds, such a temperature is not felt as uncomfortable. The winter is one continued stretch of cold dry frosty weather, and is felt to be bracing by those accustomed to it 1 ravelling is performed by sledges drawn by dogs, sometimes at the rate of 100 miles a day, over the frozen snow. The total permanent population of Labrador is about 12,500, and is distributed as follows : On the St Lawrence coast from Port Ncuf to Blanc SaUon 4 411 On the Atlantic coast white population 2410 11 .1 Eskimo &quot; 1700 Indians of the interior. ... .. . . . &quot; 4*000 Total 12,527 1 The dialect of the Labrador Eskimo is treated of in Kleinschmidt Gram. d. gronland. Sprache, Berlin, 1851. Tourists in search of the picturesque, invalids, sportsmen, and anglers are finding their way, of late years, in increasing numbers to Labrador during its brief but lovely summer ; and in the fishino- season from the end of June to the first or second week of October the migratory population from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia Canada, and the United States numbers between 20,000 and 25,000. But little is known of the geology of Labrador. It has been ascertained, however, that the Laurentian formation constitutes the great framework of the peninsula, and that Lower Silurian beds principally Potsdam, rest on the Laurentian at various points along the coast. On the north side of the Straits of Belle Isle there is a large development of Lower Silurian rocks, corresponding to those on the Newfoundland side opposite. The Potsdam rocks here are grey and reddish sandstones, 230 feet in thickness overlaid by 140 feet of limestone, with some shale These limestones and sandstones extend about 80 miles along the coast and about 10 miles back from the shore. All over the country gneiss ranges of mountains and hills and gneiss boulders in count less multitudes are everywhere met with. &quot;The rocks of this formation,&quot; says Sir William Logan, &quot;are the most ancient known on the American continent, and correspond probably to the oldest gneiss of Finland and Scandinavia, and to some similar rocks in the north of Scotland.&quot; The system is made up of crystallized rocks and may be considered as an alternation of crystalline schists quartzites, limestones, and serpentines. Copper ore has been dis covered at various points along the coast ; also silver, lead, and mica, as well as gold. The southern portion of the Labrador coast, as far north as Sandwich Bay, has been frequented as a fishing ground for more than a century. Since about 1850 large numbers of fishermen have extended their operations as far north as Cape Harrison or Webeck. From about 1870 Newfoundland cod-fishers have ventured as far north as Cape Mngford ; and the probability is that they will soon be attracted still farther, to Cape Chudleigh, at the entrance of Hudson s Straits, by the reports of the amazing quantity of fish From Cape Harrison to Cape Mugford the coast, like that of Nor way, is deeply serrated by a succession of narrow fiords stretching; from 30 to 50 miles into the interior. As far as Freestone Point, 120 miles north of Cape Harrison, the heads of many of these fiords contain timber fit for the construction of fishing craft and all ordinary building purposes. The climate and soil of these sheltered spots also permit the cultivation of potatoes and garden vegetables. According to Professor Hind, &quot;it is fringed with a vast multitude of islands forming a continuous archipelago from Cape Aillik to Cape Mugford, averaging 20 miles in depth seawards. Outside these islands, and about 15 miles seawards from them, are numerous banks and shoals which form the summer feeding ground of large cod, and a second range of banks, outside the shoals, which are probably their winter feeding grounds.&quot; This island-studded area, exclusive of the banks and shoals, from Cape Harrison to Cape Mugford, he estimates at 5200 square miles, furnishing a boat fishing ground for cod (which as yet has hardly been touched) nearly as large as the combined areas of the English and French boat fishing ground on the coasts of Newfoundland. The Arctic current which washes the coast of Labrador exerts a most im portant influence on the fish life of those regions, as well as on that of the seas around Newfoundland, Canada, and the United States, forming, in many places, &quot;a living mass, a vast ocean of living slime;&quot; and this slime &quot;accumulates on the banks of northern Labrador, and renders the existence possible of all those forms of marine life which contribute to the support of the great shoals of cod which also find their home there&quot; (Hind). The same current which brings the slime and multitudes of minute crustaceans also carries on its bosom innumerable cod ova, and distributes them far and wide. The principal fisheries are those of cod, herrings, salmon, and seals. The following table is compiled from the Newfoundland customs returns for the year ending July 31, 1880 : Exported by Newfoundland Houses from Labrador direct. 393,436 quintals dried codfish 1,180,308 144 do. green do. 144 1,09G seal skins 1,001! 50 tuns seal oil C, 400 76 do. cod oil 10,032 1 do. other oils 108 17 do. blubber 236 592 tierces pickled salmon 8,288 16,970 barrels pickled herrings 60,910 14 do. do. trout.... 98 459 do. do. mackerel 1,376 58 do. dried capelin.... 29 1,259,025 63,060 The estimated value of exports by traders being 19,950, this gives for the total exports $1,342,035, or 279,590 sterling. _ To these direct exportations must be added the fish of various kinds taken at Labrador and sent to Newfoundland for shipment, amounting to about a third of the whole ; also the quantities Exported by Houses not connected rcith Newfoundland. 14,000 quintals dried codfish ... 42,000 110 seal skins 110 14 tuns seal oil 1.792 55 do. cod oil 7,260 2 do. refuse 28 15 do. blubber 210 400 tierces pickled salmon... 5,COO 30.000 Ib salmon in tins 700 barrels pickled herrings 40 do. do. trout 200 do. do. mackerel 180 do. dried capelin 3,000 2,100 280 600 80