Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/498



coast of Labrador is a part of the British territories so little known, and possessing so few inducements to attract the visits of strangers, that every fragment of information concerning it may be esteemed in some degree valuable. This is the only excuse for offering the following observations in their present very imperfect state.

The only English accounts of this country, as yet published, are the memoir of Lieut. (afterwards Sir Roger) Curtis, and Mr. Cartwright's journal. The first-mentioned gentleman reconnoitred the coast from the Straits of Belle-Isle to lat. 58°, 10′, (according to Arrowsmith's chart, 57° 25′,) in the year 1773, by command of Governor Schuldham. His account is inserted in the Philosophical Transactions. The latter person does not appear to have gone farther north than lat. 54°, and his observations refer to little farther than the fishery and peltry trade. At the request of the British government, and particularly of Sir Hugh Palliser, then governor of Newfoundland, the United Brethren made several voyages of discovery to this coast; and in 1772, formed a settlement in lat. 56° 38′, (56° 24′ Arrowsm.) called Nain; and subsequently two