x\^^' "^A %' .0- X .r .\ • . N , ^^^^ ' * <- ^ ^^^-^^ ^ , V . . , <-. >: o' aO 0* . ^-- ^ ^' # -<\ .;« nV- ^ .-^^ ^%.:C^:^^v-. 0' '-z^ ^ * S 1 1 " \ \^ >* '^■^^' <^^^ \^/r??P:2^ ^ ^0' 4O <. -^ <> ,v -* ,0^ * >o ,H -t;,^ t- ^c^^'*^ = . \^ ^^, 00^ N -7" ,^^' ^y^. \^' V> ^ 5s ^0 . -J «S, O' -i '^1 "^ -}>•' .\\ .-^^ ,^ ..... .. v^ Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2010 witin funding from Tine Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/labradorcoastOOpack C'^^ The B. S. Wright held in the Ice at Square Island Harbok. (From a photograph by Bradford.) Frontispiece^ The Labrador Coast. JOURNAL OF TWO SUMMER CRUISES TO THAT REGION. WITH NOTES ON ITS EARLY DISCOVERY, ON THE ESKIMO, ON ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY, BY ALPHEUS SPRING PACKARD, M.D,, Ph.D., CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK; AND OF THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB, BOSTON. •piitb /iRaps anJ) irUuBtrations. NEW YORK : N. D. C. HODGES, Publisher, 47 Lafayette Place. LONDON : KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. 1891. ^1 nu • F/3 I^C' TO THE MEMORY OF PAUL A. CHADBOURNE, LATE PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE, AND FOR SOME TIME PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL HISTORY IN BOVVDOIN COLLEGE, AND WHO CONDUCTED THE FIRST STUDENTS' EXPEDITION FROM WILLIAMS COLLECE TO LABRADOR, ' THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS FORMER PUPIL AND FRIEND, THE AUTHOR, WHO GLADLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE ENCOURAGEMENT AND MANY KINDNESSES RECEIVED FROM HIM IN HIS EARLY STUDENT DAYS. PREFACE. The Labrador Peninsula is less known than the interior of Africa or the wastes of Siberia. Its rivers are still stocked with salmon ; its inland waters are the breeding places of count- less birds. Its numerous and deep fiords, and the splendid mountain scenery of the northern coast, with its Arctic ice- fields and thousand bergs, and the Eskimos, christianized and heathen, will never cease to tempt to this threshold of the Arc- tic regions the hardy explorer or the adventurous yachtsman. Though this book is mainly based on observations and col- lections made by the author in his early student days, it was thought that some general and standard account of the Labra- dor coast, its geography, its people, its fisheries, its geology, as well as its animals and plants, might be useful, even if future explorations of the great fiords and of the interior plateaux and rivers might in time result in far more complete works. The scientific results, geological and zoological, are reprinted from the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History for 1867. Chapters I, II, III, and VI are reprinted by per- mission from the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society for 1888. Chapters IV and XIII first appeared in the American Naturalist, and Chapter V is reprinted from Apple- tons' Journal, Sportsmen and ornithologists will be interested in the list of Labrador birds by Mr. L. W. Turner, which has been kind- 5 5 Preface. ly revised and brought down to date by Dr. J. A. Allen. Dr. S. H. Scudder has contributed the list of butterflies, and Prof. John Macoun, of Ottawa, Canada, has kindly prepared the list of Labrador plants. The proof of this chapter has, in his absence, been read by Mr. Sereno Watson, Curator of the Harvard Herbarium, and who hds kindly made some addi- tional notes and corrections. Much pains has been taken to render the bibliography complete, and the author is indebted to Dr. Franz Boas and others for several titles and important suggestions ; and it is hoped that this feature of the book will recom.mend it to col- lectors of Americana. The author also acknowledges his great indebtedness to William Bradford, Esq., the Arctic traveller and artist, for con- stant aid and courtesies extended while a member of his party, and for the gift of a number of photographs of the coast scenery and of the Eskimos, some of which have been reproduced in this volume. The results of the three Canadian expeditions to Hudson s Bay under Lieut. A. R. Gordon, R. N., of which Dr. Robert Bell was the naturalist and geologist ; and of the journeys of Dr. K. R. Koch, and of Mr. Randle F. Holme, have been in- cluded, so that the work has been brought down to date and represents our present knowledge of the coast and interior. It is hoped that the volume will serve as a guide to the Labrador coast for the use of travellers, yachtsmen, sportsmen, artists, and naturalists, as well as those interested in geographi- cal and historical studies. Brown University, Providence, R. I. CONTENTS. Chapter I. The Physical Geography of Labrador. ... i " II. Who First Saw THE Labrador Coast ? ... 21 " III. The Geographical Evolution of Labrador. . . 33 " IV. Life and Nature in Southern Labrador. ... 60 " V. One of Fifty Days in Southern Labrador. . . 82 " VI. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. I. From Boston to Henley Harbor. .... 93 " VII. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. II. From Henley Harbor to Cape St. Michael. . . 120 " VIII. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. III. From Cape St. Michael to Hopedale. . . 140 " IX. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. IV. Hopedale and the Eskimos. .... 197 " X. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. V. The Return Voyage to Boston 209. " XL Recent Explorations. 226 " XII. The Civil History of Labrador, with a Brief Ac- count OF its Fisheries 234 " XIII. The Labrador Eskimos and their Former Range Southward. 245 " XIV. The Geology of the Labrador Coast. . . . 279 " XV. The Zoology OF the Labrador Coast. , . . 355 " XVI. The Botany of the Labrador Coast. . . . 448 •' XVII. Bibliography relating to the Early Explora- tions, the Geography, and the Civil and Nat- ural History of Labrador. , , , , , 4.75 CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. Our knowledge of the interior of the Labrador penin- sula is still so scanty, owing- to its inaccessibility, its un- navigable rivers, the shortness of the summer season, and the lack of game, as well as the enormous numbers of black flies and mosquitoes, that any description of this country must long remain imperfect. The only scientific explorer of the interior is Professor Hind, who ascended the river Moisie, which, however, is a confluent of the St. Lawrence, and is in fact situated only near the borders of Labrador, in the province of Quebec. None of the larger rivers of Labrador have been explored to near their sources; and no one except Indians and but a single employe of the Hudson Bay Company (Mr. Mc- Lean) has ever crossed any considerable portion of. the interior. And yet the peninsula is well watered with streams, rivers, and chains of lakes. I have been in- formed by residents that the Indians of the interior, pre- sumably the Mountaineers, can travel in their canoes from the mouth of the Esquimaux River, which empties into the Strait of Belle Isle, across the country to the Hudson Bay posts in Hamilton Inlet. So far as we have been able to gather from maps and the accounts of explorers, such as McLean and Davies, the latter of whom published an account of the Grand or Hamilton 2 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. River, and the Moravian missionaries Kohlmeister and Krioch, who in their " Journal of a Voyage from Ok- kak" described the Koksoak River and its probable source, as well as from our own scanty observations taken from elevations near the coast, the interior of Labrador is thickly studded with lakes, somewhat as in the Adirondack region of New York, though the in- terior country is far more broken and mountainous. It is certainly most desirable that explorers should" penetrate this vast and unknown wilderness, however forrpidable may seem the barriers to travel. These obstacles would be the rapids and water-falls, the long and difficult portages or carries, and the unceasing plague of mosquitoes and black flies. But the annoy- ance from insects might not be greater than that en- countered by explorers in Siberia, or by trout or salmon, fishermen in northern New England and Canada, while the difficulties and dangers of river navigation would not compare with those of a passage through the Colo- rado River. The route which would be most prolific in results would be to ascend the Meshikumau or Es- quimaux River from its mouth near Salmon Bay, in the Strait of Belle Isle, to its source, and thence to connect with the probably adjacent source of Grand or Hamil-^ ton River to the Hudson Bay post at Rigolet, in Hamilton or Invuktoke Inlet. Another journey whicli would be productive of good geographical results would be to cross the peninsula from Prince Rupert's Land by way of Rupert River and Lake Mistassini to Hamilton Inlet. The Koksoak River should be explored to its sources, and the low, fiat, wooded region of the East Main, lying between Hudson Bay and the Labrador MAPS OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 3 coast-region, should be adequately mapped. At present, less is known of the vast region between Hudson Bay and the Atlantic Ocean than of perhaps any region of similar extent in North America ; although the results of exploration might be of more value to geographical and geological science than to trade and commerce. Thanks to the labors of the Moravian missionaries, we now have a much better knovyledge of the intricacies of the extreme northern coast of Labrador than is af- forded by the charts of the British Admiralty or the United States Coast Survey ; and it is to the rare op- portunity we have been generously afforded by the officers of the Moravian Society in London and Herrn- hut, Saxony, that we are able herewith to present maps which are at least approximately correct, and which must for a long time to come be the only source of any exact knowledge of the multitudinous bays, inlets, promontories, and islands of this exceedingly diversi- fied coast. The first special map of Northern Labrador to be published was that by the Moravian Brethren Kohl- meister and Knoch. It comprised the northern ex- tremity of Labrador, north of latitude 57°, including Ungava Bay, and appeared in 18 14. Previous to this, Cartwright, in 1792, had published a map of Sandwich Bay and adjacent regions. Then succeeded the general chart of the coast published by Admiral Bayfield, in 1827, and the later charts of the British Admiralty. In the United States Coast Survey report for i860, besides an imperfect outline of the coast given in Mr. Lieber's geological map of the Labrador coast, there is 4 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. a special map of Eclipse Harbor surveyed by Lieut. - Commanding A. Murray, United States Navy, and drawn to a scale of -^^, with the soundings indicated. i\bout the year 1873 (^^e date is not given on thg copy of the map we have received) appeared a map of that portion of the coast embracing the sites of the principal Moravian stations and lying between N. lat. 55° and 59°. It was prepared by L. T. Reichel from the sketches made by himself, and published in the lack of any authentic maps of the coast. For a copy of this and the map of Aivektok or Eskimo Bay we are in- debted to the officers of the Society in Herrnhut, Sax- ony. On this map are given the route of the ship-chan- nel from the southward to Hopedale, and thence to the different Moravian stations up to Hebron ; also the overland sledge-routes between Port Man vers and Ok- kak, and the latter station and Hebron. There is also an attempt to give in a general way the elevation of the coast, and the elevation of Kaumajet Mt. and Mt. Kig- lapeit is given as 4,000 feet. Scales of German and of English miles are also given. The second special map was also prepared by Rev. L. T. Reichel, and published in 1873. It gives what is probably by far the most authentic map of Hamilton In- let and Aivekt6k, or Eskimo Bay, and the coast north- ward, the whole area mapped being comprised between latitudes 53° 20' and 56° 20' ; it iS of special value in giving a capital idea of the intricate fiord structure of the coast, and also a census of the white and Eskimo residents. We have also been favored by B. Latrobe, Esq., Sec- retary of the Moravian Missions in London, with the THE LABRADOR PLATEAU. loan of a MS. map, by the late Rev. Samuel Weiz, of the coast from Byron Bay in latitude 54° 40' around to the mouth of George River in Ungava Bay, and kindly allowed to copy it. With the aid of the new maps of Messrs. Reichel and Weiz we have been able to have compiled the new gen- eral map of the Labrador coast herewith presented ; the southern portion of the coast being reproduced from the British Admiralty and U. S. Coast Survey charts, as well as those of the Hydrographic Office, U. S. Navy Department, as follows : No. 9. — River and Gulf of St Lawrence, Newfound- land, Nova Scotia, and the banks adjacent; Sheet I. English and French Surveys. Published March, 1868. No. 731.— Anchorages N. E. coast of Labrador, from Br. Surveys. Published Sept., 1876. No. 809.— Coast of Labrador, Cape St. Charles to Sandwich Bay. Br. Surveys to 1882. There are in Lt. Gordon's Report of the Hudson Bay Expedition of 1885, charts of the Ottawa Islands in Hudson Bay, and of one of the islands at Cape Chidley. In its general features the peninsula of Labrador is an oblong mass of Laurentian rocks situated between the 50th and 62d parallels of north latitude. On the east- ern or Atlantic coast it rises abruptly from the ocean as an elevated plateau, forming the termination of the Laurentian chain, which here spreads out into a vast waste of hills and low mountains.* * The mountains in the Quebec Province which appear in the accompanying: map are hypothetical, and were wrongly inserted by the artist. 6 THr. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. This plateau of hills and mountains, with barren table- lands, rises abruptly from the sea-level, presenting a lofty but stern and forbidding front to the ocean, throughout the whole extent of i,ioo miles of coast from the Strait of Belle Isle to Cape Wolstenholme. Mountains. — On the northern shores of the Strait of Belle Isle the general elevation of the coast is from 500 to 800 feet, and the highest mountains are the three Bradore Hills, which are respectively 1,135, i>220, and 1,264 f^ct in height. From Chateau Bay and Cape Charles the coast rises in height northwards, until at Square Island the higher elevations form mountains about 1,000 feet high. Going farther on, the Mealy Mountains, said to rise to an elevation of 1,482 feet, are seen forming a range extending along the peninsula situ- ated between Sandwich Bav and Eskimo Bav, with Hamilton Inlet. Still higher is Mt. Misery, which we suppose to be the same elevation as Mt. Allagaigai, a noble mountain mass rising to an altitude of 2,170 feet, forming the summit of an elevated plateau region lying half-way between Cape Harrison and Hopedale. It is a con- spicuous peak seen when crossing the mouth of Ham- ilton Inlet, and we well remember the grandeur of its appearance when partly wreathed in clouds, which left its summit so exposed as to make it look much higher than in reality. The highest elevations in Labrador rise from the irregular coast range between latitude 57° and 60°; and judging from the views published by Dr. Lieber in the U. S. Coast Survey report for i860, and by Professor Bell in the Report of the Canadian Geological Survey THE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF LABRADOR. 7 for 1884, the scenery of this part of the country is wonderfully wild and grand, rivalling that of the coast of Norway, and of the coast of Greenland, the mountains being about as high as in those regions. According to Prof. Bell: "After passing the Strait of Belle Isle, the Labrador coast continues high and rugged, and although there are some interruptions to the general rule, the ■elevation of the land near the coast may be said to in- crease gradually in going northward, until within seventy statute miles of Cape Chudleigh, where it has attained a height of about 6,000 feet above the sea. Beyond this it again diminishes to this cape, where it is 1,500 feet. From what I have seen" quoted of Labrador, and from what I have been able to learn through published ac- counts from the Hudson Bay Company's officers and the natives, and also judging from the indications af- forded by the courses of the rivers and streams, the ihighest land of the peninsula lies near the coast all along, constituting, in fact, a regular range of mountains parallel to the Atlantic seaboard. In a general way, this range becomes progressively narrower from Hamilton Inlet to Cape Chudleigh." * The highest mountains in Labra- dor were previously said by Messrs. Kohlmeister and Knoch to rise from a chain of high mountains terminat- ing in the lofty peaks near Aulezavik Island and Cape Chidley. One of the smallest of these mountains, Mount Bache, was measured in i860 by the Eclipse Expedition of the U. S. Coast Survey, and found to be .2,150 feet above the sea-level. This mountain is a gneiss elevation, and a sketch on the geological chart by * Observations on the Geology, etc., of the Labrador Coast, etc., Rep. of ^Geological Survey of Canada, 1884, p. 10 DD. 8 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. Mr. Lieber, the geologist of the expedition, shows it to» be rounded by glacial action, while lofty, " wild volcanic- looking mountains form a water-shed in the interior,, whose craggy peaks have evidently never been ground; down by land-ice into domes and rounded tops." While the highest elevations have never been meas- ured, the height of three of the lesser mountains along this part of the coast appears to have been roughly as- certained. Professor Bell states that the mountains om either side of Nachvak Inlet, about 140 miles south of Cape Chidley, "rise to heights of from 1,500 to 3,400' feet, but a few miles inland, especially on the south side,, they appear to attain an altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 feet,- which would correspond with the height of The Four Peaks, near the outer coast line, about midway hetweem Nachvak and Cape Chudleigh." The mountains around: Nachvak, he adds, "are steep, rough-sided, peaked, and: serrated, and have no appearance of having been glaci- ated, excepting close to the sea-level." These mountains are formed of Laurentian gneiss, " notwithstanding tlieir extraordinary appearance, so different from the smooth, solid, and more or less rounded outlines of the hills composed of these rocks in most other parts of the Dominion." The height of these mountains was^evi- dently roughly estimated from that of an escarpment on the south side of the inlet at the Hudson Bay Company's port, which "rises to a height of 3,400 feet, as ascer- tained by Commander J. G. Bolton" (p. 14 DD). According to the British Admiralty chart and the Newfoundland Pilot, Cape Chidley rises to a height of 1,500 feet above the sea, and the highest point of the Button Islands has an equal elevation (Bell, p. 17 DD). THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN LABRADOR. 9 Port Burwell is situated on the island of which Cape Chidley is the northeastern point. This island is sepa- rated from the mainland by McLelan's Strait. '* Nu- naingok is situated on an alluvial flat, extending between the two branches of the strait. The hill which rises steeply on the south side of it is about 700 feet high ; but farther in, between the branches and on either side of them, the mountains are from 1,500 to 2,500 feet high, and have ragged tops and sides" (Bell, p. 19 DD). In his report for 1885 Professor Bell gives no additional measurements of mountains, but observes : " The moun- tains everywhere in this vicinity [Nachvak Inlet] give evidence of long-continued atmospheric decay. The an- nual precipitation at the present time is not great, other- wise small glaciers would probably form among these mountains, which lie between latitudes 58° and 60°, and which overlook a sea bearing field-ice for half the year, and from which bergs are never absent. Patches of snow, however, remain throughout the summer in shaded parts of the slopes and on the highest summits, which range from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the ocean." "^ Raised beaches were observed on both sides of Nachvak Inlet. South of the region visited by Professor Bell are the two mountains of Kaumajet and Kiglapeit, both of which are put at an elevation of 4,000 feet on Rev. L. T. Reichel's map. Of these the former constitutes a penin- sula, off which lies the island of which Cape Mugford is the eastern promontory ; while Kiglapeit forms the great headland lying between Nain and Okkak in latitude about 57°, and of which Port Manvers is one of the in- dentations. *AT)n. Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, New Ser,, vol. i., 1885, p. 8 DD, 1886. lO THE PHYSICAL GKOGRAI'IIY OF LABRADOR. From these facts it will be seen that along this part of the northern coast, mountains as high as the Ad iron clacks, and even the White Mountains of New Hampshire, plunge directly into the sea, and are as wild and sublime as the coast mountains of Norway and Greenland. Drainage and Rivers. — Of the water-sheds and water- systems of Labrador our knowledge is mostly conjecture, on account of the lack of information regarding the in- terior. In none of the charts and maps are the rivers and internal lakes accurately represented, and there is the widest discrepanc}^ between the different maps. The Labrador plateau has an area of about 420,000 square miles. It has a coast-line of about 1,100 miles, stretching from the Strait of Belle Isle to Cape Wolsten- holme, and its greatest breadth is said to be 600 miles. It lies between the 49th and 63d parallels of latitude, and the 55th and 79th meridians. Bounded on the east Iby the Atlantic Ocean, and on the north and west by Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, its southw^estern limits are defined by the Bersiamits, Mistassini, and Rupert rivers. The broadest and in general highest portion of the plateau appears to be in the southern portion of the peninsula, and it is here that the larger rivers appear to take their rise. From the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Law- rence and Strait of Belle Isle the Labrador plateau rises until it reaches a vast table-land or water-shed in the in- terior, the edge of which has been reached by Professor Hind in his explorations of the Moisie River. This elevated region is thought by Professor Hind to attain a height of 2,240 feet above the sea-level. Pro- fessor Hind says of the table-land from which the river THE LABRADOR TABLE-LAND. II Moisie, and also, probably, the Esquimaux as well as Hamilton rivers take their rise: "It is pre-eminently sterile, and where the country is not burned, caribou moss covers the rocks, with stunted spruce, birch, and aspen in the hollows and deep ravines. The whole of the table-land is strewed with an infinite number of boul- ders, sometimes three and four deep; these singular erratics are perched on the summit of every mountain and hill, often on the edges of cliffs ; and they vary in size from one foot to twenty in diameter. Language fails to depict the awful desolation of the table-land of the Labrador peninsula." This table-land or water-shed is probably more or less parallel to the Strait of Belle Jsle, and situated between loo and 150 miles inland. It probably terminates to the northeast in the Mealy Mountains. Numerous rivers descend the steep south- ern slope into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Of these the Moisie and Esquimaux rivers are the largest. They are supposed to arise from a chain of lakes on the summit of the water-shed, which also gives rise to the Kenamou -River, The Moisie River forms part of the St. Lawrence River system. It is 250 miles long, and flows south, empty- ing mto that river near the Bay of Seven Islands, at a pomt west of Anticosti and opposite the northern shore of the Gaspe Peninsula. From this point the streams Tunnmg into the Gulf assume, the further we go east, a N. W. and S. E. direction. Such is that of the Meshi- kumau or Esquimaux River, which empties into the western mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle, at the lower Caribou Island. This stream is about 250 miles long, as I learned from residents, and is only navigable for about 12 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. twelve miles from its mouth by ordinary fishing-boats. There is no large river between this and Hamilton River, which flows into the Atlantic in a direction a little north of east. The latter river seems to flow in a fissure that runs at right angles to the line of upheaval in the syenite and traps of the Atlantic coast ; as upon the Gulf coast the rivers flow from the northwest along natural fissures in the earth's crust that run at right angles to th^e axis of elevation of the Laurentian chain on the north side of the St. Lawrence. In this connection it should be no- ticed that the fiords on the Atlantic coast of Labrador assume the same direction, and though they agree much in this respect with the direction of those farther south, there is a yet greater west and east course as we go north- ward toward Cape Chidley, until beyond latitude 58' the fiords run in a N. W. and S. E. direction, especially on the Hudson Bay slope. According to Davies, the Grand or Flamilton River is supposed to rise from a chain of lakes in the "rear of the Seven Islands, and flovvs for a considerable distance on the top of the ridge, if I may so express it, between the head-waters of the rivers falling into the !St. Lawrence and those falling into the Hudson Bay and Strait, for they are said by the Indians to be quite close to the waters of the Grand River on either side." Our author also states that, " two hundred miles from its mouth it forces itself through a range of mountains that seems to border the table-land of the interior, in a succession of tremendous falls and rapids for nearly twenty miles. Above these falls the river flows with a very smooth and even current." McLean in 1830 descended the river from the now aban- doned Fort Nasquapee, situated on Lake Petchikapou, THE RIVERS OF LABRADOR. 1 3 to its mouth. He had reached the fort from Ungava Bay. Two other important rivers empty into Invuk- toke Bay : the Kenamou, which flows in from the south, and the Nasquapee or Northwest River, which is a larger stream with a very circuitous southeasterly course. Professor Hind gives us the fullest information as to the rivers of this region, and I should regard his map as, in this respect, the most authentic one yet published. The situations of the rivers and lakes as given in our map are copied from his, with the exception of those on the Atlantic coast mapped by Messrs. Reichel and Weiz. Hind, however, strangely ignores the Esqui- maux River, which empties into the Strait of Belle Isle.* According to Hind, whose work appeared in 1863, and who obtained his information from employes of the Hudson Bay Company: "The couriers of the Hudson Bay Company traverse the country between Musquano (or Natashquan) and Hamilton Inlet two or three times, every year. The journey can be made in fifteen days in canoes, and this route has long been a means of com- munication between Hamilton Inlet and the Gulf. The St. Augustine forms the great canoe route of the Mon- tagnais through this part of the country. . . . The * "The Kenamou River, which enters Hamilton Inlet from the south, cuts through the Mealy Mountains thirty miles from the coast ; it is a succession of rapids, and scarcely admits of navigation, even by canoes. The Nasquapee or Northwest River falls into the inlet on the north side, nearly opposite the mouth of the Kenamou. The inlet is here twelve miles across. About itwo miles from its outlet the Nasquapee River passes through a long narrow lake bordered by high mountains. It takes its source in Lake Meshikumau (Great Lake), and the river itself, according to Indian custom, is called by the Nas- quapees Meshikumau Shipu. There is a canoe communication between this river and the Ashwanipi, which is shown on two maps, constructed by Montag- nais Indians, in my possession." — Hind's " Labrador,' ii., 138. 14 TllK PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. St. Augustine, falling into a fine bay of the same nanie^ has its source in the lakes and marshes on the table- land, which also give rise to the Kenamou, which falls into Hamilton Inlet. By this route the Montagnais can journey in their canoes from the Gulf of St. Law- rence to Hamilton Inlet in seven days." The country north of Hamilton Inlet is thus described by one of the Hudson Bay Company's officers (presum- ably Mr. McLean) who was sent to explore it : " From Northwest River House the Nasquapee River is as- cended for about sixty-five miles, when it is left at Mont a Reine Portage. The country from Mont a Reine Portage to Little Seal Lake is as barren and as miser- able as can be seen anywhere ; the trees are all burnt, and nothing but stones and dry stumps to be seen. On the ist of July, 1839, ^^e ice was still firm on Meshiku- mau or Great Lake. There is no wood to build on the shores of that extensive sheet of water ; it is only at Gull Nest Lake that wood remains in that direction. The borders of Nasquapee River, when the expedition ascended it in June, were still lined with ice, some of it ten feet thick." (Hind.) South of Hamilton Inlet, after passing the first range of mountains on leaving the bay, an elevated plateau is gained, says Hind, which continues until the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are apprdached, when the country becomes more mountainous and slopes rapidly to the seaside. The breadth of the plateau is 100 miles, and it abounds in lakes. The Atlantic system of streams to the north is one of small rivers flowing into the ocean in an easterly course. THE RIVERS OF NORTHERN LABRADOR. 1$ Ungava Bay receives two important rivers which im- perfectly drain the northwestern slope of Western Labrador. The smaller of the two is the Kangutlua- luksoak or George River, which empties into the bay in lat. 38° 57', and is 140 miles long. Its water-shed is said by Kohlmeister and Knoch to be a chain of high mountains which terminates in the lofty peaks of syenite at Aulezavik Island and Cape Chidley. The two Moravian missionaries mentioned above state in addition that " this chain of mountains may be seen from the Kangutlualuksoak River, in Ungava Bay, which is collateral proof that the neck of land termin- ated to the north by Cape Chidley is of no great width. Both the Nain and Okak Esquimaux frequently penetrate far enough inland to find the rivers taking a westerly course, consequently towards the Ungava coun- try. They even now and then have reached the woods skirting the estuaries of George and South rivers." These missionaries describe the Koksoak or' South River as flowing smoothly through a low, rocky (prob- ably Silurian) district, and emptying into Ungava Bay in lat. 58° 36'. It is said to resemble at its mouth the Thames, and affords anchorage for vessels twenty-four miles from its mouth. This stream probably arises near the source of the Grand or Hamilton River, and flows in a N. N. W. direction, probably along a natural fissure formed by the juncture of the Silurian rocks and Lau- rentian system.* * This river is said to have its source in Lake Caniapuscaw, which is 70 miles long and 20 broad, situated in the centre of the peninsula, equidistant from the St. Lawrence, from Ungava and Hamilton Inlet, being 350 miles from each of those points. " It is rapid and turbulent, flowing through a partially wooded country. At l6 THE PHVSICAI- GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. At the western political boundary-line between Labra- dor and Prince Rupert's Land, according to recent maps, we find apparently another water-shed, which on the eastern slope sends a few streams into the Koksoak River, while on its western slope descend several streams which flow in a westerly course into Hudson and James's bays. Thus it will be seen that th^se four river systems take their rise from a great water-shed which curves in a southwesterly direction from Labrador along the north- ern shores of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Lakes. — The following remarks are taken from our memoir on the " Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine."* Labrador is essentially a lake district. Its numerous rivers afford a very imperfect system of drainage to a country densely covered with lakes, ponds, and pools, and morasses innumerable. It resembles in this respect the probable aspect of the Lake or Terrace period in New England and Canada after the Glacial period, when South River House (now abandoned) it receives the Washquah River, which forms the route of communication between Ungava Bay and Hamilton Inlet. From this point to the sea (150 miles) the current, though strong, is less broken by rapids • it also widens very much, and ninety miles from its mouth it is a mile in breadth, flowing between high rocky banks, thinly clothed with trees ; it is nearly a league in width. Fort Chimo is situated twenty-eight miles from the sea." George's River was ascended by officers of the Hudson Bay Com- pany to establish relations with the Nascope Indians, near its source. For 220 miles it was, though full of rapids, deep enough for barges. " The general course of the river is north, running parallel to the coast of Labrador, where it is at no time more than 100 miles distant, and often much nearer." (Hind.) We may expect a full description of the region about Fort Chimo when Mr. L. M. Turner's report is issued, as he spent two years at this station. * Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, i., 210-303, 1866. LABRADOR LAKES. \J the present broad rivers' were only chains of lakes, and may thus be said to be in an embryonic stage, as its river-beds have never been remodelled and scooped out into gentle declivities and broad valleys, nor immense depths of sand and clay deposited to smooth over the inequalities of the rocky surface of the country, such as in the temperate zone render a continent inhabitable throughout its breadth ; while in Labrador man can only inhabit the coast, and gain a liv^elihood from the sea. We must distinguish two classes in the lakes of Labra- dor, viz.: the deep mountain /rtr;/jr, lying in the interior, directly upon the summits of the water-sheds ; and the far more numerous broad, shallow lakes and pools spread profusely over the surface below the height of land. These last occupy shallow depressions and hollows, most probably excavated by glaciers in valleys which have been simply remodelled by glacial action. The deep tarns, on the contrary, evidently fill original depressions, sinking between lofty ranges of hills. Da vies says that in the region about the source of the Hamilton River the lakes are very deep, and lie directly on the height of land, while the ponds on the lowlands are shallow ; and, on the other hand, those which directly communicate with the ocean or with the fiords are in general distin- guished for their depth. " This almost universal shal- lowness of the lakes is a singular feature, when the nature of their borders is taken into consideration, as they are generally surrounded by hills, which would lead one to look for a corresponding depth in the lake ; but instead of this some, are so shallow that for miles there is hardly water enough to float a half-loaded canoe. I am in- formed by my friend, John McLean, Esq., that this is l8 THE PHVSICAT, GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. likewise the case with the lakes lying on the water-shed of Ungava Bay. The lakes lying on the table-land are said to be deep." He also states that the large lakes in the interior are well stocked with fish, while the shallow lakes, and, in fact, the deep Ones communicating with the ocean, are in general very destitute of them. We must believe that the same causes that produce the deep fiords likewise account for these deep fissures and depressions in the summit of the water-sheds. It is evident that any amount of glacial action, however long sustained and vast in its operation, can never account for these rude, irregular, often " geoclinal," troughs which follow lines of fracture and faults, lying along the axis ot elevation of mountain chains, or at nearly right angles to them. Fiords. — The fiords on the Labrador coast are of great extent and depth. They are either original lines of frac- ture and faults, or what Professor Dana terms geoclinal troughs, occurring at the line of juncture of two rock formations. Thus, Chateau Bay is a fissure at least 1,200 feet in depth. The western shore rises 600 feet above the sea-level, and the waters of the bay at their deepest are 600 feet in depth. This fault must have been produced at the time of the upheaval of the syenites of the coast. All the broad, deep bays and fiords on the Atlantic Ocean occur at the juncture of the syenites and gneiss. There are deep bays between Cape St. Lewis and Cape St. Michael's, where syenites rise through the gneiss, producing faults and lines of dislocation. The large bay just north of Cape St. Michael's occurs at the junc- tion of gneiss and " hyperite " rocks. Sandwich Bay GLAGIAT. LAKES, I9 and Hamilton Inlet were formed by the denudation of the Domino gneiss. Despair Harl)or is a deep fiord oc- curring- at the juncture of the " Aulezavik gneiss" of Lieber, with syenitic rocks forming the coast-line between this point and Hopedale. The irregular overflows of +'^ap and syenitic rocks which enclose the gneiss rocks, produce an immense number of cross fiords and channels, from the presence of innumerable islands which line the coast, and are composed of these eruptive rocks. These original fissures and depressions have been modified by glaciers, by frost and shore-ice and icebergs, and by the waves of the sea. The shallow lakes, formed most probablv bv s^laciers, lie in shallow troughs, upon a thin bed of gravel and boulders. We only learn in somiC regions, especially in Southern Labrador, that the country has been covered with boulders by their presence on the banks and in the centre of these pools. Clear examples of lakes partially surrounded by walls of rock, with the banks at one end completed by a barrier of sand and gravel, are frequent. Such barriers of drift have lost entirely their resemblance to glacial moraines, to which they undoubtedly owe their origin, since the drift deposits have been remodelled into sea beaches composed of very coarse gravel and boulders, while the finer materials have been swept away by the powerful " Labrador current," with its burden of icebergs and floe-ice that has so effectually removed traces of the former presence of what we must believe to have been extensive glaciers. From all that has been published, it would seem that the entire interior of the Labrador peninsula is strewn with boulders, having once been covered with land-ice, 20 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. which flowed into the Atlantic on the east and south, and Hudson Bay on the west and north. The forest growths sometimes clothe the lower hills, but in general are confined to the protected river-valleys and lake basins. It is to be hoped that at no distant day some skilled explorer, with a sufficient knowledge of geology, may thread the interior of the peninsula from Ungava to Hamilton Inlet, passing thence by the Esquimaux River to the Strait of Belle Isle. The region from the head- waters of the Hamilton River to Hudson Bay should also be traversed, and when this is done we shall be pro- vided with a knowledge of this vast, shadowy, gloomy, forbidding region, of which we now apparently know less than of the interior of Alaska, the tundras of Siberia, or the plateaus of Central Africa. CHAPTER II. WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST? Those rovers of the northern seas, the Norsemen, pushing out from the fiords of Greenland in their one- masted craft, no larger than our coasters or mackerel boats, without doubt sighted and coasted along "the Labrador," nearly five centuries before John Cabot made his first landfall of the American Continent. The Labrador coast was not, however, the first Ameri- can land visited by the Norsemen.* Kohl states that New England was first discovered l)y Biarne, in 990. It appears that Heriulf, one of the ■earliest colonists of Greenland, had a son, Biarne, " who, at the time his father went over from Iceland to Green- land, had been absent on a trading voyage in Norway. Returning to Iceland in 990, and finding that his father, with Eric the Red, had gone to the west, he resolved to follow him and to spend the next winter with him in Greenland. "They boldly set sail to the southwest, but having * We should acknowledge that, not having access to the primitive sources in which the voyages of the Norsemen to the American shores are. described, we have placed our dependence on the account given by a learned German geogra- pher, J. G. Kohl, in his History of the Discovery of Maine, as the most authori- tative exposition of early voyages and discoveries in northwestern America. Kohl's views are based on Rafn's Antiquitates Americanse, (Documentary History of the State of Maine. Collections of the Maine Historical Society. -Second Series, Vol. r. 1869). 22 WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST? encountered northerly storms, after many days' sail the)^ lost their course, and when the weather cleared, they de- scried land, not, however, like that described to them as ' Greenland.' They saw that it was a much more south- ern land, and covered with forests. It not being the intention of Biarne to explore new countries, but only to find the residence of his father in Greenland, he im- proved a southwest wind, and turned to the northeast,, and put himself on the track for Greenland, After sev- eral days' sailing, during which he discovered and sailed by other well-wooded lands lying on his left, some high and mountainous and bordered by icebergs, he reached Heriulfsnas, the residence of his father, in Greenland. His return passage occupied nine days, and he speaks of three distinct tracts of land, along which he coasted, one of which he supposed to have been a large island." So much for the facts taken from the Norse records and sagas. Dr. Kohl then goes on to say : " That Biarne, on this voyage, must have seen some part of the Ameri- can east coast is clear from his having been driven that way from Iceland by northerly gales. We cannot de- termine with any certainty what part of our coast he sighted, and what was the southern extent of his cruise. But taking into consideration all circumstances and state- ments of the report, it appears probable that it was part of the coast of New England, and perhaps Cape Cod,, which stands far out to the east. One day and night's^ sailing with a favorable wind, was, in Iceland and Nor- way, reckoned to be about the distance of thirty German miles. Two days and ' nights,' therefore, would be sixty German miles, and this is about the distance from Cape Cod in New England to Cape Sable in Nova Scotia." BIARNE S LANDFALL. 2$ That the land first seen by Biarne was necessarily so far south as Cape Cod does not, we would venture to submit, follow from the facts we have quoted. Is it not more probable that the country was some portion of Nova Scotia, a land as much " covered with forests " as New England.? But Dr. Kohl maintains that the second land which was "well-wooded" was Nova Scotia. In his own words : "The second country seen by Biarne must, then, probably have been Nova Scotia. The distance from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland is about three days' sail ; and from Newfoundland to the southern part of Green- land, a Northman navigator, with fresh breezes, might easily sail in four days, and thus Newfoundland was probably the third country discovered by Biarne." We should not have the hardihood to criticise Dr. Kohl's statements and conclusions, if we had not made two voyages to Labrador, in which we sailed from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, skirted that coast, approached within a mile of Cape Ray, Newfoundland, and spent a summer on the northern shores of Belle Isle, opposite Newfoundland ; and a second summer in coastino- Lab- rador as far north as Hopedale. Hence the general appearances of the Nova Scotian, Newfoundland, and Labrador coasts are, though in a slight degree, to be sure, known to us. The records state that the southernmost land seen by Biarne was " covered by forests ;" this would apply to Nova Scotia as well as to the coast of Massachusetts. It i'S then said that without landing, improving a southwest wind and steering northeast, "he put himself on the 24 WHO FIRST SAW THE LAI5KADOR COAST? track for Greenland." This would be the course from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, it is true, but such a course would also take him from the eastern end of Nova Scotia to Cape Race, Newfoundland, while from the present position of St. John's the course to the site of the Green- land Norse settlements is a northerly one. As Kohl states, the distance from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland is about three days' sail ; but the wind would have to be strong and fair all the time, for the distance from Halifax to St. John's, Newfoundland, is about 530 miles. A Viking's ship was by no means a modern cutter either in her lines or rig. I have seen in the Sogne fiord a vessel of forty or fifty tons, her hull clumsy and broad, with her single mast placed mid- ships and carrying a square sail ; her stern rather high, and her prow rising five or six feet above the bows. A Norwegian friend observed to me at the time, " There," said he, " hang the gunwale of that vessel with shields and fill her with armed men, and vou would have a Vik- ing's ship !" We doubt whether Biarne's craft could have made in " one day and night's sailing with a favor- able wind," more than 138 statute miles, or thirty Ger- man miles. At such a rate it would take from five to six days to go from Halifax to St. John's, Newfound- land. The passage by a swift ocean steamer of the Allan Line requires from forty-two to forty-eight hours. Passing by Newfoundland, which is well-wooded, ex- cept on the more exposed northeastern coast, Biarne, sailing by a land " said to be high and mountainous, and bordered by icebergs, reached Heriulfsnas." This land could have been none other than the Labrador coast from the mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle northward. biarne's return voyage. 25 If Biarne's return passage occupied only nine days, he could not possibly have sailed from Cape Cod to Greenland in that time. A nine days' trip from Boston to the Labrador coast at the mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle is a remarkably short one for an ordinary fishing- schooner. The distance from Boston to the Greenland coast a little north of Cape Farewell, where the southernmost Norse settlements were made, is about 2,300 miles. The southern coast of Labrador is about half-way. The •exact sailing distance from Thomaston, Maine, to Caribou Island, 'Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador, is 910 miles. The ''Nautilus," the vessel in which I first sailed to Labrador, was a staunch schooner of 140 tons. She sailed from Thomaston, Maine, June 27, and passing around Cape Breton, reached Caribou Island in ten •days* (July 7th) : after leaving our party on the Labra- dor coast, she set sail for Greenland July 9th, over nearly the same route as the Norsemen must have taken. From Captain Ranlett of the " Nautilus," I learn that he first sighted land on the coast of Greenland on the 17th, in lat. 62° 58', and long. 52° 05'. The land next ■seen was about lat. 63° 10', long. 50° 45'. This is about fifty miles south of Fiskernaes, and 25 miles north of Frederickshaab. The voyage to Greenland was thus made in about nine days, as the vessel did not reach land before the i8th. The return voyage from God- (thaab to Bonne Esperance, Labrador (three miles west from Caribou Island), was made in twelve days. The * Rev. C. C. Carpenter writes me that he sailed in a fishing-smack from Cari- ?bou Island Oct. 3d, and made the shores of Maine on the 13th. 26 WHO FIRST SAW IllK J.ABRADOR COAST? " Nautilus" left Godthaab Aug. 13th, and entered the Strait of Belle Isle Aug. 24tli, anchoring at Bonne Esperance Aug. 25th. Then sailing from Bonne Espe- rance Aug. 26th, owing to calms and a storm she did not reach Thomaston until September 1 ith, a period of about fifteen days. It thus appears that the voyage from the mouth of the PenObscot River, Maine, to southern Greenland, through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a shorter mate than that of the Northmen east of Newfoundland,, took nineteen days, not including the detention on the Labrador coast, while the return voyage from southern Greenland to Maine required 27 days. In 1864 my second trip to the Labrador coast was made in a Wellfieet oysterman, a schooner of about 140 foils, built for speed, with long spars and large sails.. She was probably the fastest vessel which ever visited the Labrador coast. The voyage from Boston to Mecatina Island on the Labrador coast, through the Gut of Canso, was made in seven days ; it was proiiably the quickest voyage from Massachusetts to Labrador ever made. We ran from Provincetown to Port Mul- g^rave in the Gut of Canso in just forty-eight hours. The return trip from Caribou Island to Boston, a dis- tance of about nine hundred miles, was made in nine days. The average was therefore just a hundred miles a day. How could a Norseman's clumsy craft of forty or fifty tons, with but a mainsail and a jib, outdo such saiHng as that ? The Norse record says that Biarne's " return passage occupied nine days," and Kohl adds that '* from New- foundland to the southern part of Greenland a North- man navigator, with fresh breezes, might easily sail in HELLULAND THE MODERN l^ABRADOR, 2J four days. But we have seen that with fresh breezes a rnodern schooner, at least three times as large as a Viking's ship, required eight or nine days to run from a point but a few miles from northern Newfoundland, i.e.. Belle Isle, to southern Greenland. The distance ffom St. John's, Newfoundland, to the Norsemen's colonies in southern Greenland is not less than 1,500 miles. To perform a voyage of this length in four days would be an impossibility for a modern yacht. It is not impossible, however, that Biarne sailed from southern Newfound- land to Greenland in a period of about nine days. But a voyage from Cape Cod to Greenland by an ordinary schooner requires at least three weeks, or from twenty to thirty days at the most. Instead then of accepting Kohl's summary of Biarne's voyage stated on p. 63 of his work, we should be in- clined to believe, as the results of the expedition, that Biarne was the first European to sight the coast of Newfoundland, possibly the eastern extremity of Nova Scotia, while he also sawthe mountainous, desolate, tree- less, rocky coast of Labrador. The next Norse adventurer, Leif, the son of Erik, not only sighted the Labrador coast but landed on it. To this country he gave the name of stony land, or " Helluland," a name perpetuated in an Iceland map of 1570 by Sigurd Stephanius. The records tell us that Leif, the son of Erik the Red, the first settler in Greenland, having bought Biarne's ship in the year 1000, manned her with a crew of thirty-five men, among whom was Biarne himself, and followed Biarne's track towards the southwest. Kohl then says: "They came first to that land which Biarne 28 WHO FIRST SAW TKK LABRADOR COAST? had last seen, which, as I have said, was probably our Newfoundland. Here they cast anchor and went on shore, for their voyage was not the search of a son after his father, but a decided exploring expedition. They found the country as Biarne had described it, full of ice mountains, desolate, and its shores covered wnth large flat stones. Leif. therefore, called it * ITelluland ' (the stony land)." Here again wc should differ from Kohl as to Leif's first landfall. A southw^est course would naturally carry him to the Labrador coast, while the description — "full of ice mountains, desolate, and its shores covered with large flat stones" — well describes the barren, rock-bound, treeless coast of Labrador, in distinction from the much lower, wooded coast of Newfoundland. Moreover, St. John's, Newfoundland, lies nearly due south of the southern extremity of Greenland. While it is to be doubted whether Biarne ever went south of Newfoundland, we see no reason for dis- believing the conclusions of Rafn and Kohl, that the followers of Biarne, Thorwald and Thorfinn Karlsefne, became familiar with Cape Cod and wintered at Vin- land. There is no reasonable doubt but that they landed on Nova Scotia ; there is no reason to disbelieve the records which state that they wintered farther west where no snow fell, so that the cattle found their food in the open fields, and wild grapes w^ere abundant, as they certainly are in Rhode Island and southern Massa- chusetts, as compared with Maine or Nova Scotia. Without reasonable doubt, then, Helluland of the Norse and Icelandic records is Labrador, though it is not impossible that the bare and rocky coast of north- HELLUr.AND THE MODERN LABRADOR. 29 eastern Newfoundland was by some regarded as Hellu- land. It would be easy for a vessel in those days to pass by without seeing the opening into the Strait of Belle Isle, and, owing to the somewhat similar scenic features of the two lands, to confound the northeastern extremity of Newfoundland with Labrador. That, as some have claimed, the Norsemen ever sailed through the Strait of Belle Isle, coasted along' Southern Labrador and wintered at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, is certainly not supported by the early Norse records as interpreted by Kohl. Their vessels sailed to the seaward of Newfoundland. That they did not feel drawn to sojourn in Helluland is no wonder. Its coast presented no more attractions than Greenland, while the grapes, food, and furs, with the verdure and mild winter climate of " Vinland the Good," led to one expedition after another, as late per- haps as 1347, when, according to the Icelandic annals, " a vessel, having a crew of seventeen men, sailed from Iceland to Markland." Then came the decadence of Norse energy and sea- manship, succeeded by the failure of the Greenland col- onies, which were overpowered and extinguished by the Eskimo. A dense curtain of oblivion thicker and more impenetrable than the fogs which still wrap the regions of the north, fell upon these hyperborean lands, until, in 1497, the veil was again withdrawn by an English hand.* Since the foregoing remarks were sent to the printer, *The voyage of Szkolney, the Pole, to the coasts of Greenland and Labrador^ is stated to have been performed in 1476. See Humboldt, Examen Critique,, ii, p. 152. (N, A. Review, July, 1838, 179.) 30 WHO FIRST SAW THE T.AP.RADOR COAST? Prof. E. N. Horsford's address at the unveiling of the statue of Leif Eriksen has appeared. He also adopts the general opinion that Helluland was Newfoundland, but the language of these extracts convinces us still more that Helluland was Labrador. In the first translation printed by Prof. Horsford of the Saga of Erik the Red, it is stated in the account of the expedition of Biarne, that after leaving Iceland bound for Greenland, he missed that country and was "borne before the wind for maliy days, they knew not whither," hnally approaching land which "was not mountainous, but covered with wood," with rising ground in many parts. Then sailing two daj^s, and putting the ship about, leaving the land on the left side, he saw land again, "low and level, and overgrown with wood." This land was probably Newfoundland, perhaps^ the southern or eastern part. We would, however, contend that the next or third land which Biarne saw was Lab- rador, for the Saga reads : "At length they hoisted sail, and turning their prow from land, they stood out again to sea ; and having sailed three days with a south- west wind, they saw land the third time." This land was high and mountainous, and covered with ice. They asked Biarne whether he wished to land here. He said, "No; for this land appears to me little niviting." Without relaxing sail, therefore, they coasted along the shore till they perceived that , this was an island. They then put the ship about, with the stern towards land, and stood out again to sea with the same wind, which blowing up very strong, Biarne desired his men to shorten sail, forbidding them to carry more sail than with such a heavy wind would be safe. "When they had thus HELI,Ur,AND THE MODERN LABRADOR. 3.I sailed four days, they saw land the fourth time." To- wards evening they reached the very promontory not far north of Cape Farewell where Heriulf, the father of Biarne, dwelt. The high, mountainous land, covered with ice, was probably Labrador near Cape Harrison, or along the coast to the northward, and a Norseman's vessel, with a strong, fair wind, could probably sail from that part of the Labrador coast to near Cape Farewell, a distance of a little over 600 miles, in four days, allowing that a Vik- ing's ship of about 60 tons could sail from eight to ten miles an hour under a spanking breeze. Certainly they could not have made the distance from any part of New- foundland, which is about 900 miles, in four days. From the account of the expedition of Leif Eriksen : "All being now ready, they set sail, and the first land to which they came was that last seen by Biarne, "They made direct for land, cast anchor, and put out in a boat. Having landed, they found no herbage. All above were frozen heights ; and the whole space between these and the sea was occupied by bare fiat rocks ; whence they judged this to be a barren land. Then said Leif, " We will not do as Biarne did, who never set foot on ^hore : I will give a name to this land, and will call it "Helluland" [that is, land of broad stones].*" Here again we have a much better description of Labrador than of northeastern Newfoundland. From there Leif tailed to what he called Markland, or " Land of Woods," which mav have been southern Newfoundland, or east- ern Nov'^a Scotia, or Cape Breton, as it is but two days' sail from the Gut of Canso to Cape Cod ; and the Vin- land of Leif was undoubtedly the shore lying east and •^outh of Cape Cod. 32 WHO FIRST SAW JlII': LABRADOR COAST? From Mr. J. Elliot Cabot's translation of the Saga re- lating to Biarne's voyage (Mass. Quart. Rev. 1849, quoted by Horsforcl), we take the following reference to Helluland. As before, on returning from the souths after turning the bow of his vessel from the land and sailing out to sea for three days with a W.S.W. wind,. Biarne saw a third land ; "but that land was high, moun- tainous, and covered with glaciers :" then the wind rose,. and they sailed four days to Heriulfsness. A.D, 999, Leif set sail. "First they found the land which Biarne had found last. . Then sailed they to the land and cast anchor, and put off a boat and went ashore,, and saw there no grass. Mickle glaciers were over alt the higher parts ; but it was like a plain of rock from the glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land was good for nothing. Then said Leif : ' We have not done about this land like Biarne, not to go upon it ; now I will give a name to the land and call it " Hellu- land " [flat-stone land].' " The northeastern coast of Newfoundland is rather low, not mountainous, is somewhat wooded, with cer- tainly more or less herbage on the outer islands and points. The rock formations are of later age than the Laurentian. We are familiar with the appearance of the Newfoundland side of the Strait of Belle Isle, which decidedly contrasts with that of Labrador opposite. CHAPTER III. THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. June 24th, 1497, a year before Columbus discovered the American continent, the crew of a little vessel, the " Matthew," bound from Bristol on a voyage of discov- ery to ascertain the shortest line from England to Cathay, sighted land. The vessel was under the com- mand of John Cabot, who was accompanied by his son Sebastian, a lad still under age, perhaps but nineteen or twenty years old. Sebastian kept the ship's log ; but the narratives of this, as well as his other voyages, have been lost. The land was called "Prima vista," and it was believed by Biddle and Humboldt, as well as Kohl and others, that this region which the Cabots first saw was the coast of Labrador in 56° or 58° north latitude. While the narrative of this momentous voyage has been lost, a map of the world ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, and engraved in 1549, contained an inscription, of which we will copy an extract' translated in Hakluyt's Voyages (iii. 2']'). " In the yeere of our Lord 1497. lohn Cabot, a Vene- tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll) discouered that kmd which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of lune about fiue of the clocke early in the morning. This land he called Prima vista, that is to say. First scene, because c^< 33 34 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LAP.KAHOK. I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land, he called the Island of S. lohn vpon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of lohn the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to weare beast skinnes, and haue them in as great estima- tion as we haue our finest garments. In their warres they vse bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, and slings. The soile is barren in some places, and yeildeth little fruit, but it is full of white beares, and stagges farre greater than ours." (Page 27.) Kohl seems fully persuaded that the landfall of John Cabot was Labrador, because of the presence of white bears.* But if the inscription and map are genuine, the description of the inhabitants of the island, both men and beasts, would better apply to those of the eastern or southern coast of Newfoundland. The human beings were more probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the Labrador coast the soil is " barren" in all places, while the "stagges far greater than ours" may have been the moose, which then abounded and still exists in New- foundland, and must have been rare, if it ever lived, on the coast of Labrador. Moreover the " white bears" spoken of as being so abundant may have been a white variety of the black bear, or perhaps the " barren ground" pale bear of Sir John Richardson may have been fre- quent in Newfoundland. It appears to have been of smaller size than the brown bear of Europe, because in Parmenius' account of Newfoundland, published in 1583, * "This agrees much better with the coast of Labrador than with that of Newfoundland, to which the white bears very seldom, if ever, come down," (Page 133.); CABOT THE DISCOVERER OF LABRADOR. 35 it is said: " Beares also appear about the fishers' stage of the countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they seeme to be white, as I conjectured by their skinnes, and somewhat lesse than ours." (Hakluyt.) On the other hand, the true white or polar bear may have frequently visited the eastern coast of Newfound- land, as it formerly abounded on the Labrador coast. Moreover, nothing is said in the inscription of any ice, which at that date, the 24th of June, so abounds from the Strait of Belle Isle northward to the polar re- gions. Besides, if we contrast the account of this voy- age of the two Cabots in 1497 with that of the younger Cabot the following year, it seems plain that John Cabot's " Prima vista" was Newfoundland rather than Labrador.''' ' In May, 1498, Sebastian Cabot, under license of Henry VII., in command of two ships, manned with three hundred mariners and volunteers, again sailed to the northwest in search of Cathay. Kohl says: ''We have no certain information regarding his route. But he appears to have directed his course again to the coun- try which he had seen the year before on the voyage with his father, our present Labrador." Farther on he remarks : " The Portuguese Galvano, also one of the original and contemporary authorities on Cabot's voyage of 1498, says that, having reached 60° north latitude, he and his men found the air very cold, and great islands of ice, and from thence putting about and finding the land to turn eastward, they trended along by it, to see * According to Charles Dean, LL.D., in the Critical History of America, vol. ill., John Cabot's landfall was the northern part of Cape Breton Island. 36 THK GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. if it passed on the other side. Then they sailed back again to the south." From this and other statements by Humboldt and D'Avezac, Kohl concludes that "Cabot in 1498, without doubt, sailed along the coast of Labrador and the west- ern shores of Davis's Strait. Finally, after a struggle- with the ice off the Cumberland peninsula in 67^° north latitude, where he probably lost a number of his men^ he abandoned any further advance. He then retraced his course southward along the coast of Labrador, and probably came to anchor in some bay on the eastern coast of Newfoundland, where he rested his men and repaired the damage done to his vessels by the Arctic ice. His vessel was probably the forerunner of the fleet of English, Portuguese, Basque, French, and Spanish fishermen which in the next two centuries visited those shores, opening to the Old World a source of revenue more available than the fabled wealth of Cathay. Still, dreams of the Indies led Cabot on southward, past Newfoundland, past Nova Scotia, along the New England shores, and probably southward near Cape Hatteras, with the hope of finding a direct passage to the East. Although on their return from their first voyage of 1497 the Cabots believed that the land they had dis- covered was some part of Asia, to them must be given the credit of beholding the American continent before Columbus; while, with Httle or 110 doubt, Sebastian Cabot beheld in July, 1498, the mainland of Labrador, for, says Hakluyt, " Columbus first saw the tirme lande, August I, 1498." * * Kohl, p. 131. foot-note. THE PORTUGUESE ON THE LABRADOR COAST. 37 English seamen, then, were the first to reveal to a world which had forgotten the deeds of the Norsemen the northeastern shores of our continent, and to carry to Europe the news of the wealth of life in the seas of Newfoundland and the Bay of St. Lawrence. The Cabots were of Italian origin, though Sebastian was born in Bristol. The English did not immediately follow up their discoveries, for the next explorer who ventured near if not within sight of the Labrador coast was a Portuguese, Cortereal, who was commissioned by Emanuel the Great of Portugal, the same enterprising monarch who had previously sent out Vasco de Gama on his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. Cortereal sailed from Lisbon in the year 1500. His landfall was Newfoundland near Cape Race, or north- ward at Conception Bay. From this point he sailed northward, and probably discovered Greenland. He then came to the mouth of a river called by him " Rio nevado," which is supposed to have been near the lati- tude of Hudson's Strait. Here he is said to have been stopped by ice. He then sailed southward, resting on the east coast of Newfoundland before returning to Lisbon. The next year Cortereal returned to Newfoundland. He was unable to reach the northern regions on account of the ice, which was more abundant than the year before. On his return his vessel and all aboard foun- dered, the companion ship reaching Lisbon. The land^ Cortereal visited was mapped on a Portuguese chart in 1504, and was called "Terra de Cortte Reall." Kohl claims that " the configuration of the coasts and the names written upon them prove that parts of New- 38 THK CEOGKAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. foundland and of our present Labrador are the regions intended." As yet the knowledge of Labrador was in embryo, '^s '^i" H »- "« S ♦ ii N i i s t s g ^ s ^ ?? :; R Wo Win o '1/ >- ^.b^ ^'^ ^ D o .-> ^ p I o EARLY VlSnORS TO THE LABRADOR COAST. 39 Labrador and Newfoundland being a nebulous mass. In a Portuguese map of 1520, nevertheless, we have the name of " Lavrador," which, however, was applied to Greenland, while the Labrador coast and Newfoundland were confounded and given the name " Bacalhaos." But yet it is to the Portuguese that we owe the name of Labrador. Kohl tells us that "King Emanuel, hav- ing heard of the high trees growing in the northern countries, and having seen the aborigines, who appeared so well qualified for labor, thought he had found a new slave-coast like that which he owned in Africa; and dreamed of the tall masts which he would cut, and the men-of-war which he would build, from the forests of the countrv of the Cortereals." The word Labrador is a Portuguese and Spanish word for laborer. On a photograph of a Mexican field-hand, or peon, ploughing in a field, which we lately purchased in Mexico, is written " Labrador." In a recent book on Cuba the author thus speaks of a wealthy Cuban planter : " He is. bv his own account, a Hijo de Labrador (labor- er's son ) from Alava, in the Basque Provinces.""" Cor- tereal's land was thus the -Maborer's land,'.' whence it was hoped slave laborers might be exported to the Portuguese colonies. The Portuguese also, as is well known, applied to Newfoundland the name Bacalhaos, which means dried codfish or stockfish. As the result of Cortereal's voyage the Portuguese fishermen through the rest of the 16th century habitually visited the shores and banks of New^foundland, and undoubtedly were more or less familiar with the Labra- •" A. Gallenga. The Pearl of the Antilles, p. lOO. 1874. 40 THE CKOGRAl'HICAL EVOLUTION OE LABRADOR. dor coast, for Scandinavian authors report their presence on the Greenland coast. (Kohl, p. 190.) In a foot-note to p. 197 of his " Pioneers of France in the New World," Mr. Parkman remarks : " Labrador— Labratoj'is l^erra — is so called from the circumstance that Cortereal in the year 1500 stole thence a cargo of Indians for slaves." , That the " Indians" were captured on the Labrador coast, however, appears to be an in- exact statement. There were probably then no red Indians or timber on the Labrador coast, but Cor- tereal must have entrapped them in Newfoundland or some place southward. Kohl [p. 169] tells us that '' these aborigines, captured according to the custom of the explorers of that day, are described, l)y an eye-wit- ness who saw them in Lisbon, as tall, well built, and admirably fit for labor. We infer from this statement that they were not Esquimaux from the coast of Labra- dor, but Indians of the Micmac tribe, inhabitants of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia." The editor of Kohl's work adds a quotation from the Venetian Pasqualigo, who says : " His serene majesty contemplates deriving great aclvantage from the country not only on account of the timber, of which he has occasion, but of the in- habitants, who are admirably calculated for labor, and are the best slaves 1 have ever seen." The path opened by Sebastian Cabot was nut only trod bv Portuguese, but the Spanish,"^" Basques, French (Bretons and Normans), and English frequented the rich fishing-banks of Newfoundland, and with little * "The voyage of Estevan Gomez produced in Spain the same effect which those of the Cabots, of Cortereal, and of the men from Normandy and Brittany had produced in England, Portugal, and France — it conducted the Spaniards to she northwestern fisheries." (Henry Hudson, by Ashler. Hakluyt S.-.j. p. xcix.) THE VOYAGES OF CAR'I lER. 41 doubt visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the southern coast of Labrador. Their discoveries were perhaps recorded in Gastaldi's map. Labrador first became clearly differentiated from Newfoundland by Jacques Cartier, To him we owe ^ .^ THAMONTAN^^ TERRA DE LABOHADOR tlic discovery of the Strait of Belle Isle ; of Belle Isle, the Isola -De' Demoni of earlier voyages; of .Chateau Bay and other points on the Gulf coast of Labrador. Sailing- from St. Malo the 20th of April, 1534, he arrived Ma\- loth on the eastern coast of Newfoundland, *near Cape Buonavista. From tliis cape Cartier pushed. northward until he came to what is now called Fogo Island, which was one of the resorts of the a;reat auk, or 42 THE GEOGRArmCAL EVOLU IION OF LABRADOR. " penguin" of the early explorers. But we will let Cartier describe the scene which met his eyes in his own words translated by Hakluyt from " The first Relation of laques Carthier of S. Malo, of the new land called New France, newlv discovered in the yere of our Lord >534-" " Vpon the 21 of May the winde being in the West, we hoised saile, and sailed toward North and by East frbm the Cape of Buona Vista vmtil we came to the Island of Birds, which wasenuironed about with a banke of ice but broken and crackt : notwithstanding the sayd banke, our two boats went thither to take in some birds, whereof there is such plenty, that vnlesse a man did see^ them, he would thinke it an incredible thing : for albeit the Island (which containeth about a league in circuit) be so full of them, that they seeme to have bene brought thither, and sowed for the nonce, yet are there an hun- dred folde as many hovering about it as within ; some- of the which are as big as lays, blacke and white, with beaks like vnto crowes : they lie alwayes vpon the sea : they cannot Hie verv high, because their wings are so little, and no l)igger than halfe ones hand, yet do they flie as swiftly as any birds of the aire leuell to the water ; they are also exceeding fat ; we named them Aporath. In lesse then halfe an houre we filled two boats full of them, as if they had bene with stones : so that besides them which we did eat fresh, eury ship did powder and salt five or sixe barrels full of them. " Besides these, there is another kinde of birds which houer in the aire, and ouer the sea, lesser then the others ; and these doe all gather themselves together in the Isl- and, and put themselves vnder the wings of other birds THE VOYAGES OF CARTIER. 43 that are greater : these are named Godetz. There are also of. another sort but bigger, and white which bite even as dogs : those we named Margaulx. *' And albeit the sayd Island be 14 leagues from the maine land, notwithstanding beares come swimming thither to eat of the sayd birds ; and our men found one there as great as anv cow, and as white as any swan, who in their presence leapt into the sea ; and vpon Whitsun mvnday (following our voyage toward the land) we met her by the way, swimming toward land as swiftly as we could saile. So soone as we saw her, we pursued her with our boats, and by maine strength tooke her, whose flesh was as good to be eaten as the flesh of a calfe of two yeres olde," Cartier then sailed north, entered the Strait of Belle Isle, anchoring at Blanc Sablon, still a settlement east of Bradore Ba}^, " White Sand [Blanc Sablon] is a road in the which there is no place guarded from the south, or southeast. But towards south-southwest from the saide road there are two Hands, one of the which is called Brest Island, and the other the Hand of Birds, in which there is great store of Godetz, and crows with red beaks and red feete: they make their nests in holes vnder the ground euen as conies." The great French navigator harbored in the ancient port of Brest, near these Islands; the *Tland of Birds," being the present Parroqueet Island, fifteen miles east- ward of the mouth of Esquimaux River. Our voyager then coasted along these forbidding- shores to St. James River, where he first saw the natives ; " they weare their haire tied on the top like a wreath of 44 I'H^' <-;eo(;kai'I[icai, evolution of Labrador. hay ; . . . they paint themselves with certain Roan colors ; their boates are made of the barke of birch trees, with the which they fish and take great store of scales, and as farre as we could vnderstand since our comming thither, that is not their habitation, but they come from the maine land out of hotter countries, to catch the saide seals and other necessaries for their lining." These red men must have been the Mountaineer Indians, which still come down to the coast from the warmer interior each summer to fish for seal. Cartier makes no men- tion of the Eskimo, who would undoubtedly have been encountered if their roving bands had been livmg on the coast from Chateau Bay to the Seven Isles, which he so carefully explored. This coast appeared to Cartier so disagreeable, , un- productive, and barren, that he exclaimed, " It ought to be the country which God had given to Cain." So he crossed the Strait of Belle Isle, sailed over to Newfound- land, coasted that Island to. Cape Anguille, which he reached on the 24th of June. From there he sailed over to the Magdalen Islands, to the Bird rocks (Isles aux Margaulx), thence to Prince Edward's Island, thence to Miramichi, afterward to Gaspe Bay, and coasted Anti- costi, crossing over again to near and within sight of the Mingan Islands. Not on this voyage discovering the river St. Lawrence, he finally turned homewards, coast- ing along the Labrador shore, touching at Cape Tien- not, now called Cape Montjoli. Thence he returned to France through the Strait of Belle Isle. The next year Cartier returned, sailing again through the Strait of Belle Isle ; and, coasting along the southern shores of Labrador, discovered the river St. Lawrence. 45 46 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. On his ihird voyage, Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, passing in between Newfoundland 'and Cape Breton, thus for the first time demonstrating that New- foundland was an island and not a part of the continent. The next step in the geographical evolution of Lab- rador is seen in Mercator's great map of 1569. Kohl tells us that for the compilation of this map Mercator had collected many printed and manuscript maps and charts, and many reports of voyages of discovery, " But," says Kohl, "the best portion of Mercator's work, and a real and valuable improvement upon all former maps, is his delineation of the large peninsula of Labrador, lying southwest of Greenland. On all former maps, that re- gion was ill-shapen and most incorrectly drawn. But here, under the name of 'Terra Corterealis,' it receives its proper shape, with a full and just development, which had not been given to it on any map prior to 1569. He makes its eastern coast run southeast and northw^est, as it really does from about 53° to 60° N. In the north he plainly shows the narrow entrance of Hudson's Strait, and at the west of it a large gulf, called by him ' Golf am de Merosro.' This remarkable gulf may be an indica- tion of either Hudson's Bay or only the Bay of Ungava. I think that the latter was meant ; first, because the 'Gulf of Merosro' has the longitude of the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, which is also the longitude of th(^ Bay of Ungava ; second, because the said gulf is represented as closed in the west. The western coast of the Bay of Ungava runs high up to the. north, where Hudson's Strait is often filled with ice. This may have led the unknown discoverers, the informants of Mercator, to suppose that it was closed in the west. If they had * THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES. 47 iooked round Cape Wolstenholm into Hudson's Bay, they would have perceived a broad bav and open water before them. " Mercator does not indicate, so far as I know, the sources from which he derived these remarkable improve- ments for his chart, which were not known by Homem in 1558, and of which there are only shght indications on the Cabot map of 1544. He adopts the Portuguese names for his ' Terra Cortereahs,' namely, ' Golfam de Merosro,' ' Y. dus Demonios,' 'Cabo Marco,' ' llha •da Fortuna,' ' Baia dus Medaus,' ' Rio de Tornienta,' ' Ylhas de Caravillo,' ' Baia de Malvas.' etc. Some of the names are not new, but had been long known, though not always put in the same position. We know of no official Portuguese exploring expedition made to these regions between the time of Homem (1558) and Merca- tor (1569) ; and. therefore the suggestions of Dr. Asher, for the solution of this problem, have a high degree of probability. He says :"' ' The Portuguese fishermen continued their surveys of the northern coasts,' com- menced by Gaspar Cortereal in 1500, 'most likely for no other purpose than to discover advantageous fisheries. They seem to have advanced slowly, step by step, first along the shores of Newfoundland, then up to the mouth of Hudson's Strait, then through that strait, and at last into Hudson's Bay,' or, as I think, into Ungava Bay. ' With a certain number of ancient maps, ranging from 1529 to 1570, before us, we can trace this progress step by step. In 1544,' the time of Cabot's map, 'the Por- tuguese seem not yet to have reached the mouth of the strait ; and in 1570,' or, as I think, f569, the date of *See G. M. Asher's " Henry Hudson," Introduction, p. xcvi., London, i860. 48 IHE CKOGHAPHICAL KVOLUTION OF LABRADOR, our Mercator's map,* 'they have reached the bay,' Hudson's, or at least Ungava Bay. ' We c^an, there- fore, state with the greatest certainty that Hudson's Bay,' Hudson's Strait as far as Ungava Bay, . . . ' had been discovered before the publication of Ortelius's at- las, which took place in 1570,' or, better, before the pub- lication of Mercatoj's chart, which took })lace in 1569. ' But we are not equally certain that the discovery falls within the years 1558 to 1570,' or. better, 1569, 'because we have only the negative evidence of Diego Homem's chart to support the latter assertion. The fact itself is, however, probable enough.' " To the English navigators of the i6th and i/tli cen- turies succeeding Cartier we owe the next step in our knowledge of the geography of the Labrador peninsula. In 1577 Master Martin Frobisher sighted the coast of Northern Lab-rador, which he called " Frisland," using a word which frequently appears in the early charts. The point he first sighted was probably north of 58°, for after coasting four days along the coast for perhaps a distance of nearly two hundred miles, a voy- age of eight days, between the 8th and i6th of July, would carry him to Frobisher's Strait, Moreover his description of the coast applies well to the northern ex- tremity of Labrador beyond Hopedale and Okkak. The narrative reads thus : " The 4. of July we came within the making of Fris- land. From this shoare 10. or 12. leagues, we met great Islands of yce, of halfe a mile, some more, some * Dr. Asher does not mention Mercator's map of 1569. He had before him the map of Ortelius of 1570, who was only a follower and copyist of Mercator, but adopted his views.' THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES. 49 lesse in compasse, shewing above the sea, 30. or 40. fathoms, and as we supposed fast on ground, where with our lead we could scarce sound the bottom for depth. " Here in place of odoriferous and fragrant smels of sweete gums, and pleasant notes of musicall birdes, which other Countreys in more temperate Zones do yeeld, wee tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts mixt with snow and haile, in the moneths of June and luly, nothing inferior to our vntemperate winter ; a sudden alteration, and especially in a place of Parallele, where the Pole is not eleuate aboue 6t. degrees ; at which height other Countreys more to the North, yea vnto 70. degrees, shew themselues more temperate than this doth. All along this coast yce lieth, as a continuall bulwarke, and so defendeth the Country, that those that would land there, incur great danger. Our Generall 3. days together attempted with the ship boate to haue gone on shoare, which for that without great danger he could not accomplish, he deferred it vntil a more convenient time. All along the coast lie very high mountains cou- ered with snow, except in such places, where through the steepenes of the mountains of force it must needs fall. Foure days coasting along this land, we found no signe of habitation. Little birds, which we judged to have lost the shoare, by reason of thicke fogges which that Country is much subiect vnto. came flying into our ships, which causeth us. to suppose, that the Country is both more tollerable, and also habitable within, than the out- ward shoare maketh shew or signification. " From hence we departed the eight of luly ; on the 16. of the same, we came with the making of land, which land our Generall the yeere before had named the EAST L'S2JA 50 FROBISHERS VOYAGE. 5 1 Queenes foreland, being an Island as we iudge, lying neere the supposed continent with America ; and on the other side, opposite to the same, one other Island called Halles Isle, after the name of the Master of the ship, neere adiacent to the firm land, supposed Continent with Asia." (Page. 57.)* In Rundall f we find it stated that " Frobisher, now left to himself, altered his course, and stood to the S.W. ; and, seventeen days afterwards, other land, judged to be Labrador, was sighted in latitude 62° 1' N." (p. 1 1). In this latitude, however, lies Meta Incognita. "The great cape seen [by John Davis] on the 31st was designated, it is stated, Warwick's Foreland ; and the southern promontory, across the gulf. Cape Chid- LEY.J On this Fox observes: 'Davis and he [Wey- mouth, a later navigator] did, I conceive, light Hudson into his Streights.' The modern authority before cited expresses a similar opinion ; and there is no reason to doubt the fact. " From Cape Chidley a southerly course was taken to seek the two vessels that were expected to be at the fishing-ground ; and on the lOth, in latitude 56° 40', they \\'didi di frisking gale at west-northwest. On the 12th, in about latitude 54° 32', an island w^as fallen in with which was named Darcie's Island. Here five deer were * " The second voyage of Master Martin Frobisher, 1577, written by Master Dionise Settle. Hakluyt, vol. iii., New Edition, London, 1810." f Narratives of Voyages towards the Northwest in search of a passage to Cathay and India. 1496-1631. By Thomas Rundall, Esq., London, Hakluyt Society, 1849, S°> PP- 259. X " ' TAe worshippfull M. John Chidley, of Chidley, in the county of Deuon, esquire,' was apparently chief promoter of an expedition which sailed Anno 1589, for ' the province of Arauco on the coast of Chili, by thestreight of Magellan. Of this expedition M. Chidley was also the General. Hakluyt, iv. 357." 52 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. seen, and it was hoped some of them might be killed, but on a party landing, the whole herd, after being twice coursed about the island, ' took the sea and swamme towards ilands distant from that three leagues.* They swam faster than the boat could be pulled, and so escaped. It was represented that one of them ' was as bigge as a good prety cowe, and very fat, their feet as big as oxe feet.' "The 13th, in seeking a harbour, the vessel struck on a rock and received a leak ; which, however, was mended the following day, in latitude 54°, ' in a storm not very outragious at noone.' On the 15th, in latitude 52° 40', being disappointed in their expectations of finding the Elizabeth and Sunshine, or of finding any token of those vessels having been in the vicinity, and there being but little wood, with only half a hogshead of fresh water on board, it was determined to shape the course homeward for England. This was accordingly done, and they arrived on the 15th of September in Dart- mouth, ' giving thanks to God ' for their safe arrival." (Page 49.) But it is to Davis, after whom Davis Strait was named, that we owe the most exact knowledge of the Labrador coast, until modern times. The following extracts contain all that we can find regarding his ex- ploration of the Labrador coast. Davis, in the Moonshine, left Greenland in latitude 66° 2,2,' Aug. I St, 1586. " She crossed the strait in nearly a due westerly direction. The 14th of August she was near Cape Walsingham, in latitude 66° 19' on the American side. It w^as too late for anything more than a summarv search along the coast. The rest of WEYMOUTH'S VOYAGE. 53 the month, and the first days of September, were spent in that search. Besides the already known openings, namely, Cumberland Strait, Frobisher's Strait, and Hud- son's Strait, two more openings were found, Davis s Inlet in 56°, and Ivuctoke Inlet in 54° 30'. Davis's men had to cross the Atlantic in his miserable craft, and he per- formed the voyage through the equinoctial gales in little more than three weeks. He reached England again in the beginning of October, 1586." (Henry Hudson, cxv.) Davis was followed by Weymouth in 1602. Accord- ing to Rundall : " From the 5th to the 14th of July, the navigator appears to have been ranging along the coast of Labra- dor, where, on the loth, variation 22° 10' W., he saw many islands. On the 15th he was in latitude 55° 31', variation 17° 15' W.; and the day following saw ' a very pleasant low land, all islands,' in latitude N. 55°, varia- tion 18° 12' W. On the 17th he entered and sailed up an inlet for thirty leagues, in sanguine hope of having found the desired passage ; but he was doomed to dis- appointment. In this inlet, which has been identified with Sleeper's Bay on Davis's Inlet, Weymouth en- countered his last peril, and escaped in safety. The fly- boats were assailed by a furious storm, which terminated in a whirlwind of extreme violence, that rendered them, for a while, completely unmanageable ; and though very strongly built, they took in so much water, for want of spar decks, that they narrowly escaped being swamped. As soon as the weather cleared up, the course was shaped for England." (Page 68.) The Labrador coast was next seen by Master John 54 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOK. Y. I*'- 32 iZ-r tyu:}2akJiiyt x-<\->cu-fy £dwf-VWln-,I'J^a£- VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN KNIGHT. 55 Knight, who sailed April i8, 1606, from Gravesend in the Hopewell. " After a most tedious and uninteresting passage, the vessel arrived off some broken land, in latitude 56° 25' N.: much ice driving to the southward. The wind was fresh and the commander made fast to a piece of ice ; but falling calm, he endeavored to row in between the masses. This was an unfortunate attempt. The weather became thick and foggy, and a furious storm arose on June 14: they were driven about in the ice. Lost sight of land till the 19th, when it is described as being seen again, rising like eight islands in latitude 56° 48' N., variation 25° W. The vessel was then taken into a cove, and made fast by hawsers laid out on shore. On June 26th, Capt. Knight, his mate, and three hands set out, well armed, to explore a large island. They disappeared, having probably been killed by the natives. " On the night of the 29th, ' they were attacked by savages, who set on them furiously with bows and arrows ; and at one time succeeded in obtaining posses- sion of the shallop. However, the eight mariners, with a fierce dog, showed a resolute front, and the assailants, upward of fifty in number, were finally driven off. The savages are represented to have been ' very little people, tawnie colored, thin or no beards, and fiat-nosed.' They are also described as being ' man-eaters ; ' but for this imputation there appears to be no warrant, except in the imagination of the parties on whom the attack was made." On the 4th of July, the vessel was in great danger of foundering, the craft leaking badly. " Shaping their course towards Newfoundland, with 56 THE GEOGKAPHICAI. EVOLU HON OF LABRADOR. a strong current in their favour, they made Fogo on the 23d of July. At that place they were most hospitably entertained. Having refitted, they left on the 226. of August, full of grateful feelings towards their generous friends ; and arrived at Dartmouth on the 24th of December." (Pages 75, 76.) In 1 6 10 Henry Hudson discovered the strait which bears his name, his discoveries being recorded in the accompanying map, copied from the volume on Henry Hudson published by the Hakluyt Society. In the narrative of the Voyage of Szr Thomas But- ton (1612-13) we find the following reference to Cape Chidley: " On this part of the voyage, the following remarks are reported, by Fox, to have been made by Abacuk Prickett. ' He saith, they came not through the maine channell of Fretum Htidson, nor thorow Lumleys Inlet; but through into the Mare Hyperborum betwixt those Hands first discovered and named Chidley's Cape by Captain Davis, and the North part of America, called by the Spaniards, who never saw the same, Cape Labrador, but it is meet by the N. E. point oi America, where was contention among them, some maintaining (against others) that them Hands were the Resolution,''' etc. (Page 89.) Captain Gibbons, in 16 14, appears to have been de- tained for some months on the Labrador coast. "Of the result of the voyage, all that is known," says Asher, "is thus laconically communicated by Master Fox : ' Little,' he says, ' is to be writ to any purpose,, for that hee was put by the mouth of Fretum Hudson, and with the ice driven into a bay called by his company GIBBON S VOYAGE. 57 Gibbons his Hole, in latitude about 57° upon the N. E. part of Stinenia, where he laid twenty weeks fast amongst the ice, in danger to have been spoyled, or never to have got away, so as the time being lost, hee was inforced to returne.' The bay in which Gibbons was caught is supposed to have been that now called Nain, on the coast of Labrador." (Page 95. Arctic Voyages, p. 205.) vi. il '-I- 1- ( (THE I iGOO ^1 r-^ -LjuxI ^ Inlet ■wm .C0/ S^iHsifST. LUCIA 3AC^^^^ '-■-- TABULA NAUTICA. 'lua reprceseiitaiitur orae mari- tinuemeatiis acfreta noviter a II. HudsOHu Auylo ad caurum ■■iitpni \oLxiin Fixtiiciam inda- ijata Anno iiu-4. MAP OF HENRY HUDSON'S DISCOVERIES— HAKLUYT SOCIETY. A summary mention of the early voyages we also find in the records of the Hakluyt Society : " Hudson s Strait had been discovered by Sebastian Cabot in 1498. The Portuguese had sailed through it 58 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. and had become acquainted with part of Hudson's Bay between 1558 and 1569. In 1577 Frobisher had by chance entered the strait. In 1602 Weymouth had sailed nearly a hundred leagues into it, from Hatton's Headland to the neighborhood of Hope's Advance Bay. " The whole east coast of North America, from "^^^ north to the mouth of Hudson's Strait, had been sur- veyed by Sebastian Cabot in 1498, and part of it before, in 1497, by his father and him. Others had rediscov- ered various parts. Thus the east of Newfoundland had been explored by Cortereal in 1501 ; the south coast, by some fishers from Normandy and Brittany in 1504 and 1508. The mouth of the St. Lawrence had also been visited by Cortereal and by these French mariners. The river, nearly up to the lakes, and all the surround- ing country, had been thoroughly explored by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and 1535, and afterwards by Roberval and Cartier. " The Sandbanks near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and the fishing-stations along the Newfoundland coast, were frequented by the English, Portuguese, French, and Spaniards." (H. Hudson, Hakluyt Soc. cxliv.) After Henry Hudson's voyage, no further explora- tions were made of the Labrador coast, so far as we can ascertain, until the time of rear-Admiral Bayfield, of the British Navy, who, during the years 181 5 to 1827, sur- veyed and mapped this coast as well as the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland. His researches are em- bodied in the English Admiralty charts, from which the maps of the Labrador peninsula in use up to about 1880 are copied. Of the advances lately made by British and Moravian surveys mention has previously been made. LABRADOR A LAND OF MYSTERY. 59 To most readers the Labrador coast is still a Meta Incognita, an Ultima Thule, a land of mystery, shrouded by fog and gloom. The ordinary knowledge of it is as vague and indefinite as in the times of Cabot. The period when accurate charts of this intricate coast with its tens of thousands of islands, skiers, and ledges will be made, seems far distant. Local pilots and fishermen from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and at times from the United States, with an occasional Newfoundland or Canadian steamer, ply over regularly beaten routes, but owing to the lack of commercial interest in these barren, almost deserted shores, the coast will for years still re- main well-nigh beyond the pale of modern interests and thoughts. In time the Indian and Eskimos will be a peopledead and forgotten. The Moravian settlements will be aban- doned. Already, owing to the decrease in the cod fish- ery, famine and want are slowly but surely reducing by removal and death the numbers of the lingering white population, and the coast will be still more desolate and lonely than now. And yet this 'coast stands like a protecting, guardian wall between the frozen north and the more temperate, inhabitable regions south and west. Its unexplored bays and rivers will always remain full of interest to our ad- venturous yachtsmen, as well as to the naturalist, the sportsman, and traveller. CHAPTER IV. LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. The following recollections of our student days are offered with the suggestion that the more adventuresome of our college boys of the present day might spend to advantage the long summer vacation in cruising on our northern coasts, and combine in agreeable proportions science and travel. In the summer of i860, while a student in Bowdoin College, I joined the WiUiams College expedition to Labrador and Greenland under the charge of Professor P. A. Chadbourne. June 27th found us on board the Nautihts, a staunch schooner of about 140 tons, com- manded by Capt. Randlett. Soon after five o'clock of a bright, fresh morning our vessel cast off from the wharf at Thomaston, Me. The Thomaston" band played a lively air, a clergyman made a parting address, calling down the blessings of Heaven upon the argonauts ; our Nestor replied, the students cheering for the citizens of Thomaston and the band, and with a favoring northwest wind the Natctzhis, gliding down the current of the St. George's River, a deep fiord, in a couple of hours reached the open sea. Our course lay inside of Monhegan, with its high, bold sea-wall. Passing on, the Camden Hills recede, and we endeavor with the glass to make out the White Moun 60 THE NEWFOUNDLAND COAST. 6l tains, said by some to have been seen by Weymouth from inside of Monhegan. The ocean swell not being con- ducive to historical controversy, we turn to watch the Mother Carey's chickens and the grampus as well as the fin-back whales sporting in the waves. By the next morning we had sailed 190 miles from Thomaston, past Cape Sable, and our northwest wind still attending, we bowl along, through schools of por- poise, while two or three whales pass within a few fathoms of our vessel, showing their huge whitish backs. The next day our seven-knot breeze does not fail us, and takes us by the 30th into a region of light winds and calms off the Gut of Canso. July I St We sail along Cape Breton Island, its red shores glistening in the noonday sun and then mantled with purple as the sun goes down over Louisbourg. As darkness sets in the lights of Sidney appear. The next morning's sun rose on Cape Ray, around which we beat, passing within a mile of Channels, a fishing-village of Newfoundland, behind which rise steep hills clothed with " tucking-bush," or dwarf spruce and larch. Cape Ray pushes boldly into the sea, its precipitous sides of decomposed sandstone furrowed by the rains which pour down its scarred cheeks, on which still linger banks of the last winter's snows. By the next evening we pass Cape St. Georges. The 4th was celebrated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence amid fog and rain. It was succeeded by a twenty-four hours' gale, rather severe for the season, which tested the excel- lent qualities of the Nautilus as a sea boat. This being our first storm at sea was enjoyed more keenly than sim- ilar gales in after-years. The sea swept our deck, but 62 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. only a few drops entered the cabin. The experience was novel and interesting ; fortunately we were not sea- sick ; the long waves sloped up like far-reaching hills ; sea-birds rode on their crests, and the wind, like a swarm of furies, tore through our rigging. There were but oc- casional glimpses from the companion-way of our dark, close cabin, redolent with the stench of the bilge-water. The storm abated after sunset, and the morning of the 6th found us only fifty miles from Caribou Island. Towards noon the first iceberg was seen ; others came into view, some stranded, others floating on the sea. The evening was a glorious one ; after a gorgeous sunset, the twilight lasting until after ten o'clock, the moon rose upon berg and sea. We were in an arctic ocean ; creatures born in the Greenland seas floated past our vessel, and while becalmed at night we fished up from a depth of sixty or seventy fathoms a basket star- fish {Astrophyton agassizii) large enough to cover the bottom of a pail. The impressions made on our minds the next day as we approached the coast and passed in shore, winding through the labyrinth of islands fringing the main land, are ineffaceable. That and other days in Southern Labrador are stamped indelibly on our mind. It was passing from the temperate zone into the life and nature of the arctic regions. There is a strange commingling of life-forms in the Strait of Belle Isle : the flora and fauna of the boreal regions struggling, as it were, to dis- place the arctic forms established on these shores since the ice period, when Labrador was mantled in perennial snow and ice, when the great auk, the walrus, and the narwhal abounded in the waters of the Gulf of St. Law- THE LABRADOR FLORA. 63 rence, and the Greenland flora, represented by the Arenaria grcenlandua, the dwarf cranberry, and the curlew-berry or black Empetrum, nestled among the snow and ice of the glacier-ridden hills. We landed on the morning of July 7th, and I was astonished at the richness of the arctic flora which car- peted the more level portions of the island. Groves of dwarfed alders, over which one could look while sitting down, crowded the sides of the valleys, watered by rills of pure ice-cold water. The groves of spruce and hack- matack were of the same lilliputian height. In the glades of these dwarfed forests and scattered over the moss-covered rocks and bogs were Cornus canadensis, two varieties in flower ; Kalmia glauca was in profusion, as attractive a flower as any ; the curlew-berry (^Em- petrum nigi'ti7fi), the dwarf cranberry, with other flow- ers and grasses characteristic of the arctic and Alpine regions. Particularly noticeable were the clumps of dwarf willow from six inches to a foot in height, now in flower and visited by the arctic humble-bee and other wild bees. Other insects of subarctic and arctic types were numerous, among them a geometrid moth {^Rheu- mapte7'a hastatd), which extends from the Alps and snow-fields of Lapland around through Greenland and Labrador to the mountain regions of Maine, New Hampshire,- northern New York, Colorado, and Alaska. The flies, beetles, and other forms had an arctic aspect, showing that on the shores of the Strait of Belle Isle the insect fauna is largely tinged with circumpolar forms. On the 7th of July our party of seven men landed, lodged in a Sibley tent, and the Nautilus left us for the 64 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. Greenland seas with the majority of our party. Our tent, provisions, and baggage becoming soaked with the rain and dampness, two days after, we moved over to Caribou Island and built a house of Canada clapboards, kindly loaned for the purpose by the Rev. C. C. Car- penter, missionary to Southern Labrador, for whom a large frame house, sheltering under its roof a chapel, study, and living-rooms, was building. A Canadian clapboard is twelve inches long and six inches wide ; with these and a few joists two of the party built a house twelve feet square, which sheltered us from the sun and the black flies, and only leaked vyhen it stormed, which happened regularly twice a week, usually Wednesdays and Sundays. Six berths were put up on the north side (the seventh man was accommodated in the mission-house) ; a wide board placed on two flour-barrels at the west end served as a dining and study table, and in the southeast corner a little stove, not over fifteen inches square, with a funnel whose elbow, projecting out-of-doors, had to be turned with every change of wind, was the focus, the modern- ized hearthstone, over which hung our Lares and Penates, sundry haras and pieces of dried beef, pilces-de- resistance of our meals, often alleviated by game and fish, clams and scallops or pussels {^Peden magellanicus), with entrees of seal and whale flesh. How we college, boys cooked and ate, rambled and slept in those seven weeks of subarctic life is a- subject of pleasant memory. They were days of rare pleasure, of continuous health, and formed an experience whose value lasted through our future lives. We made hunting, ornithological, entomological, botanical, and dredging expeditions in all THE LABRADOR FLORA. 65 directions, by sea and land ; the geology and the flora and fauna were explored with zeal, and resulted in the discovery of many new forms and the detection of Alpine and arctic European species before_ unknown to this continent. We investigated the Quaternary for- mation, ice marks, drift and fossil shells; procured fossils of the Cambrian red sandstone beds, chiefly a sponge (a new species of ArchcEocyathus), which were scattered along the shore, probably derived from the red sandstone strata so well developed at Bradore, also visited by some of our party. The results were perhaps of some importance to science, but the lessons in natural science we learned were of far greater moment to ourselves. The coast of Labrador is fringed with islands, large and small, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Hud- son"'s Strait. A sailboat can go with safety from one point to the other, and only occasionally will be exposed to the ocean swell. These islands are the exact counter- part of each other, differing mainly only in size and altitude. Caribou Island was two or three miles in length, formed of Laurentian gneiss, which had been worn and molded by glaciers. Its scenic features re- called those of the more rugged portions of the coast of Maine, particularly in Penobscot Bay and Mt. Desert. The higher portion of the island is of bare rounded rock, with deep valleys or fissures down which run little rills ; these valleys are dense with ferns, shelter many insects, and where they widen out into the lower land support a growth of dwarf spruce, hackmatack and wil- low. In the more protected parts a few poplars and mountain-ash rise to a height of from ten to fifteen feet. 66 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. The Alpine vegetation is mostly confined to the exposed boggy places or moors, in which are pools of water, supporting water-boatmen, case-worms, aquatic beetles and numerous water-fleas, and an occasional hair-worm or Gordius. Along the lower portions by the shores are patches of salt marsh with shallow pools of water, which in the spring and autumn are undoubtedly frequented by ducks and geese, though only a few of the former were to be seen. Indeed, I was surprised to see so few sea-fowl. They were principally the parroquet, which abounded on the sea a mile or two away from shore. A favorite breeding-place of this most interesting of arctic birds was in the soft red Cambrian sandstone of Bradore, an island Iving fifteen miles easterly from Caribou Island. With their powerful parrot-like beaks they excavate the crumbling rock, extending their galleries in to the dis- tance of several feet. Three of our party made an ex- pedition to this well-known breeding-resort, and in thrusting their hands into the burrows received an occa- sional bite from the sharp strong bills of the birds which was not soon forgotten. Ducks were occasionally seen, the eider-duck and also the coot, as well as the loon, both the northern diver and the red-necked loon. Shore- birds, particularly the ring-necked plover, and others of its family, abounded, while the most familiar bird was a white-headed sparrow which nested near our camp. It was not yet the time for the curlews. About the middle of July the sheldrake and coot, which breed in the inland ponds, lead out their young and appear in ereat numbers. The old ones are wary and hard to shoot, but the young will then be in fine condition. At MOUNTAINEER INDIANS. 6/ this time the " 'longshoremen" abandon their diet of salt pork, bread and molasses, and feast on game, for then, we were assured, they have "great plenty fowl." In August, also, one or two families of the red Indians or Mountaineers of the interior come down to the mouth of the Esquimaux, or ** Hawskimaw" River, as it is pro- nounced by the settlers, to hunt seal, especially the young, and ducks as well as curlew. These Indians are entirely governed in their wandering by the situation of the deer and other game. One may travel a hundred miles up the Esquimaux River without meeting them. I saw but a single Esquimau man at Caribou Island. His low stature, his prominent, angular cheek-bones, pentagonal face, and straight black hair sufficiently char- acterized his stock. The only other native Esquimau was the wife of an Englishman, John Goddard, the " King of Labrador," who lived on a point of land three miles west of Caribou Island. She was a famous hunter, would go out in a boat, shoot a seal and dress it, making boots and moccasins from the skin. Whether these Esquimaux had strayed down from the north or, as I suspect, were the remnants of their people who may have inhabited the entire coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the arctic regions, deserves further investi- gation. Few mammals were to be seen. The deer and cari- bou were confined to the mainland. On our island was a white fox, or rather a blue one, for his summer pelage was of a slate-color. His burrow was situated in a hill- side behind our house. He would prowl about our camp at night, and he might have known that it was un- safe to come within reach of our guns. His skin un- 68 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN EABRADOU. doubtedly adorns the museum of the Lyceum of Nat- ural History of Williams College. A weasel also visited our camp. The otter frequents the brooks at the head of Salmon and Esquimaux rivers. In winter they rarely come outside, i.e., to the coast. It is well known that in Newfoundland the bears, especially those living near shore, will eat fish, their diet being mixed, and such bears are more savage than those in the interior, which live chiefly on berries and ants. While on Caribou Island a fisherman living a mile and a half from us had his sea-trout nets invaded by two old bears accompanied by a young one ; at low water they would walk out to the nets, tearing them apart in order to eat the fish. We were told that a Mr. Hay ward, an Englishman who lives at a distance of two miles across the bay, had about ten years since shot the last polar-bear seen on this coast. Speaking of trout, th6re are two kinds : one living in the brooks and lakes, the other the sea-trout, a handsome fish about twelve inches in length, whose food we found consisted of a surface-swimming marine shrimp, the Mysis oculata, which lives in immense shoals. The sea- trout is taken in nets, and so far as we experimented do not, in salt water, rise to the fly. Although it was now the 15th of July, the warmer summer weather had not yet come, we were told by the people on shore. There is, however, scarcely any spring in Labrador. The rivers open and the snow disappears by the loth of June as a rule, and then the short summer is at once ushered in. Potatoes, and especially turnips, are raised without LABRADOR BUTTERFLIES. 69 much difficulty as far north as Caribou Island. Rhu- barb is said to do well farther up the coast towards the Mecatina Islands'. Among the wild-flowers blooming in the middle of July were the dandelion and Potentilla anserina. Another Potentilla was the P. iridentata, the mountain trident, with its three-toothed leaf and modest white flower. It was pleasant to see this flower, so familiar from my earliest childhood, as it flourishes on the plains of Brunswick, Me., and is common on Mt. Washington as well as on the mountains of Maine, and abounds on the bare spots about Moosehead Lake, particularly at the foot of Mt. Kineo. The wild cur- rant, strawberry, and raspberry were in flower ; the straw- berry plants were luxuriant, sometimes eight inches in height, but the raspberries were dwarfed, not exceeding the strawberry in height. Up the rivers the raspberries and blackberries are abundant, but the latter low and dwarfish. The shad bush ( Avtelaiickzer canadensis^ was now in flower,. blossoming in southern New England in April or early May, while Rubus chamcBtnorus, the cloud-berry, so abundant in Greenland and Arctic America as well as on the fields of Norway and Sweden, and the "tundras" of Siberia, was going out of flower. With it were asso- ciated the star-flower, Trientalzs arnericana, sl few Ch'n- tonia borealis, Smilacina bifoliata and probably S. stellata, Streptopus amplexifolia ; one or two species of Andro- meda ; an Iris, species of Vaccinium, the Ai^ctostapkylus uva-ursi or bear-berry ; the shore-pea, a honeysuckle {Lonzcera coerzded), a Viburnum, and also the buckbean {Menyanthes trifolzata). Among the flowers fluttered the white butterfly 70 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. {Pieris frigidd), a Colias labrador exists, Argynnis tricla- reV, and some geometrid moths, while a few owlet moths flew out of the grass at the late twilight, which now lasted until near eleven o'clock at night, when fine print could be read. We were told that the average temperature in June here is 48°, that of July 56°. In the warmer days of summer the thermometer rises from 64° to 68°, rarely to 70°. July 17th was one of the warmest and most pleas- ant days of the month; the temperature was 60° F. The 2ist, however, was much warmer, the thermometer being 72° F. " July i8th was the day of the eclipse; the sun was ob- scured in the forenoon ; the light of day was much modi- fied, though not approaching twilight. The steamer which we saw on the day of the storm in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was without doubt that which bore the Coast Survey eclipse party to Cape Chidley, where the eclipse was total. After roaming over the island and making pretty full collections of the insects, we paid attention to the marine zoology. Shore collecting is not as remunerative in Labrador as on the Maine and Massachusetts coasts. The most noticeable form is the six-rayed starfish {Aster acanthion polaris) , which sometimes measured twenty inches from tip to tip of its opposing rays ; its color was a dirty yellowish white. PELICAN S FOOT SHELL. MARINE LIFE. 7 1 not red as in the common five-finger, also abundant. The polar star-fish is common in Greenland, and is a truly arctic form. The common crab {Cancer iri^ora^d) iiequently oc- curred under stones, but the lobster was neither seen nor heard of ; though common on the southern shores of Newfoundland it does not reach north into the Strait of Belle Isle. Among the worms which occurred at low- water mark was the Pectinaria. On the New England coast it only occurs in deep water below tide mark. Dredgings were first made at the mouth of Salmon River, a few rods from shore, in some eight fathoms of water in a firm deep mud. The most characteristic shells were gigantic Aphrodite groenlandica, large -cock- les {Cardium islandicuni), as well as the pelican's foot {Aporrhais occidentalis), which occurred of good size and in profusion. In the soft mud occurred multitudes of the neat little sand star {Ophioglypha nodosa). An- other form dredged on rocky bottom was Cynthia pyr i- f or mis, or the sea peach, and large specimens were cast up by the waves on the beach. Every spare day was given to dredging, and having been deeply interested in marine zoology by the writings of Gosse, in England, and of Stimpson in this country, and having obtained a good idea of the local marine fauna of Casco Bay, in Maine, it was with no little interest and expectation that we dropped the dredge in arctic waters, and we were not a little delighted with the result of finding so near shore and in such shallow water, forms which off the coast of Maine, in deep water, were rare and usually but half grown. July 25th a party of us rowed up Salmon Bay and 72 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTliEKN LAbRADOR. went a mile up the river. The tide was out and \vc looked for the fresh-water mussel (^A lasmodon arcuata), which is our northernmost species, and inhabits the rivers of southern Newfoundland. We could find none, although the settlers told us that mussels, clams, and " oysters " were common enough in the river. But something better was discovered. We found traces of genuine Quaternary marine sands and clays containing fossils. There were several banks of sand and clay along the edges of the river. In the latter I found Aphrodite groenlandica and Aporrhais occidentalism with Buccinu^n undattcm. They had been washed out of the clay into the bed of the river, and were collected at low-water. I also dug several inches into the clay bank and found the disintegrated shells of the Aphrodite, so as to leave no doubt but that the shells were fossils. Down at the mouth of the stream at the head of the bay, on the flats, I found SQVtYdX Buccinum tindatum, and quite a number of Aporrhais, young and old, broken and entire. On each side of the river was a terrace of sand and clay, with a thick growth of alders and willows, with the fire-weed {Epilobium angusti/olium), the golden-rod and a large cruciferous plant common in the mountainous parts of New England ; also Comartcm palustre, and a Thalic- trum. Farther back and mostly lining the banks was a dense growth, impossible to penetrate save occasion- ally where there was a break in the thicket of spruce and birch, perhaps Betula. populifolia. Still farther up and away back stretched the bare moss-covered hill- tops, the summer-resort of deer and caribou. Here we saw a ptarmigan. But this was one of our halcyon days, of which there were few, as the last two weeks of UP THE ESQUIMAUX KIVEK. 73 July were stormy and wet. The clear fair-weather winds were from the southwest ; the southeast winds brought in the fog and rain, while the northerly winds brought a few curlew, the advance-guard of the hosts which were to arrive early in August. The 3d of August was a fine day. A party of us went up the Esquimaux River to Mrs. Chevalier's, whose husband, now dead, entertained Audubon when visiting this coast. The sail up the river was a pleasant one. It was about three miles from its mouth to an expansion of the river on whose shores were four or five winter houses. Although most of the settlers live on the coast through the year, some have their winter and summer houses. Those who live up the interior, sometimes a distance of seventy miles from the coast, where there is wood and game, move from the shore about the 20th of October. They spend a month in cutting wood, a fam- ily burning through the winter about thirty cords. Then succeeds a month of hunting and trapping. The snow does not come, we were told, until the last of De- cember, although we should judge this to be an extreme statement, and the snow is not usually more than three feet deep. The people profess to like the winter better than the summer. They shoot deer, foxes, etc., black fox being sometimes secured, whose skin is worth be- tween two and three hundred dollars. Grouse are abundant, a good hunter securing from sixty to seventy a day in favorable seasons. At any rate fresh meat is obtained for each family two or three times a week. The houses are small, built of wood, boarded and shingled, seldom constructed of logs, and are heated by peculiar stoves, great square structures resembling Dutch 74 I-IFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. Stoves, and heating the whole house, the two living- rooms opening into each other,, the stove being placed partly in each, the partition between the two rooms be- ing cut away to admit the stove. The French residents at the Mecatina Islands, more social and gayer than the phlegmatic English settlers about the mouth of the Esquimaux and Salmon rivers, spend the winter evening in dancing and other gayeties to which the Anglo-Saxon, in Labrador at least, is a comparative stranger. The Esquimaux River at its eastern entrance is but a few rods wide. Passing Esquimaux Island we sailed out into a broad bay or expansion of the river, with ravines leading down to it, and under the steep bank protected from the northerly winds were the winter houses pre- viously described. Up the river, just beyond Mrs. Chev- alier's, the river contracted into narrows with rapids ; it then opened into another bay or expansion two miles wide, the river being a succession of lakes connected by rapids, and this is typical of the rivers and streams of the Labrador peninsula. A barge cannot sail up the Esqui- maux River more than fifteen miles, although one can push farther on in a flat boat. We were told that the river is about two hundred miles in length, and although perhaps the largest in Labrador it has never been ex- plored. Here we met the black flies in full force, and al- though we had been fearfully annoyed by them in ram- bling over Caribou Island, here they were astounding, both for numbers and voracity. The black fly lives dur- ing its early stages in running water. The insect finds nowhere in the world such favorable conditions for its UP THE ESQUIMAUX RIVER. 75 increase as in Labrador, over a third of whose surface is given up to ponds and streams. The insides of the win- dows of Mrs. Chevalier's house swarmed with these fiends, the children's faces and necks were exanthema- tous with their bites ; the very dogs, great shaggy New- foundlanders, would run howling into the water and lie down out of their reach, only their noses above the sur- face. The armies of black flies were supported by light brigades of mosquitoes. No wonder that these entomo- logical pests are a perfect barrier to inland travel ; that few people live during summer away from the sweep of the high winds and dwell on the exposed shores of the coast to escape these torments. They are effectual es- toppels to inland exploration and settlement. Accepting our hostess's kind invitation to take dinner, we sat down to a characteristic Labrador midday meal of dough balls swimming in a deep pot of grease with lumps of salt pork, without even potatoes or any des- sert ; nor did there seem to be any fresh fish. The sta- ples are bread and salt pork ; the luxuries game and fish ; the delicacies an occasional mess of potatoes, brought dowai the St. Lawrence once a year in Fortin's trading schooner. Over the mantelpiece was a stuffed Canada grouse or partridge and a ptarmigan in its winter plumage ; but I was most delighted with the gift of some Quaternary fossils with which Mrs. Chevalier kindly presented me, including large specimens of Cardita borealis, Apoi-- rhais occidentalis and, most valuable of all, the valves of a brachiopod shell, which I had also dredged on the coast in ten fathoms, the Hypothyris psittacea. On our return down the river we fished up the valves of the y6 J, IKE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LAKKADOR. Pecten magellanicus, the great scallop shell, which lives in five or six feet of water. . This mollusc, which is lo- cally known in Labrador by the name of "pussel," we afterwards obtained in quantity, fried it in butter and meal, finding it to be delicious eating, combining the properties of the clam and oyster, the single large ad- ductor muscle being far more tender than that of the common scallop of southern New England and New York. With our man, James Mosier, and his sailboat we spent two days in dredging in from forty to fifty fathoms out in the Strait of Belle Isle, three or four miles from land. The collection was a valuable one, containing some new species. The crown of the bank which we raked with our poorly constructed dredge was packed with starfish, polyzoans (including a coral-like form, or myriozoum), ascidians, shells, worms, and Crustacea. The collection was purely arctic, and had not the only dredge I had become broken, we should have reaped, or rather dredged, a rich harvest. As it was, the novelties were quite numerous, and the interest and excitement, as well as labor, of overhauling, sorting, and preserving what we did obtain lasted for several days. The only plant besides stony vegetable growths called "nullipores" dredged at this depth was a delicate red sea-weed, the Ptilota elegans, which was found after- wards to extend as far down in depth as ninety fathoms. Those who glibly talk, on terra firnta, of plant life as affording a basis for animal life, should dredge in deep water. They will find that a vast population of animals of all sorts and conditions in the scale of life is spread at all depths over the sea-bottom, thriving almost with- DREDGING IN THE STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE. 17 out exception on one another — on animal protoplasm — and in the beginning of creation animal life was without doubt contemporaneous in appearance with vegetable existence. Indeed, what is the difference in form and structure between a bacterium and a moner ? The two worlds of plant and animal life arise from the same base, a common foundation of simplest structure, showing A Bkanching Polyzoon. Myrlozoiiiii subgracilc. (Natural size.) none of the distinctive characteristics of animal or plant life, and only barely earning the right to be called or- ganisms, that vague term we apply for convenience to any, even the simplest structures endowed with life. Of all the pleasures of a naturalist's existence, dredg- ing has been, to our mind, the most intense. The severe exertion, the swimming brain, the qualms of sea-sick- ness, tired arms and a broken back, the memory of all these fade away at the sight of the new world of life, or at least the samples of such a world, which lie wriggling and sprawling on the deck of the sailboat, or sink out of sight in the mud and ooze of the dredge, to be brought 78 LIKE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. to light by vigorous dashes of water drawn in over the side of the boat. Those days of dredging on the Lab- rador coast, where there was such an abundance and luxuriance of arctic varieties, were days never to be for- gotten. There is a nameless charm, to our mind, in everything pertaining to the far north, the arctic world, and we can easily appreciate the fascination which leads one back again to the polar regions, even if hunger and frost had once threatened life. Arctic exploration has but begun, and though its victims will yet be numbered by the score, enthusiasts will still attempt the dangers of arctic navigation, and fresh trophies will yet be won. Early in August, during the few still clear nights suc- ceeding bright and pleasant days, we had auroras of wondrous beauty, not excelled by any depicted by arctic voyagers. On the loth of August the curlews appeared in great numbers. On that day we saw a flock which may have been a mile long and nearly as broad ; there must have been in that flock four or five thousand ! The sum total of their notes sounded at times like the wind whistling through the ropes of a thousand-ton vessel ; at others the sound seemed like the jingling of multitudes of sleigh- bells. The flock soon after appearing would subdivide into squadrons and smaller assemblies, scattering over the island and feeding on the curlew-berries now ripe. The small plover-like birds also appeared in flocks. The cloud-berry was now ripe and supplied dainty tid-bits to these birds. By the i8th of the month the golden rods were in flower. Here, as has been noticed in arctic regions, few bees and wasps visit the flowers ; the great majority of LABRADOR FOSSILS/ 79 insect visitors are flies (Muscidae), especially the flesh fly and allied forms. A bumble-bee occasionally presents himself, more rarely a wasp, with an occasional ichneu- mon fly, but the two-winged flies, and those of not many species, were constant visitors to the August flowers. The black flies still remained to this date terri- ble scourges in calm weather, though in cloudy days and at night they mostly disappeared. Wandering through the fog and drizzle along the mud flats on the northern side of the island I picked up Aporrhais occidental-is, Fusms tornatus, Cardita borealis, large valves of Saxicava rugosa, Buccinum and Astarte sulcata 2ind compressa ; these diud Pecten islandicus diXiA other shells forming much the same assemblage as I had dredged a few days previous out in the straits in fifty fathoms. The only recent shells lying about were shal- low-water forms, such as the common clam, Tellina fusca and the razor shell. It was evident that here was a raised sea-bottom, and the Quaternary formation. In the afternoon I returned to the spot and dug up many more shells mingled with pieces of a yellow limestone containing Silurian fossils, brachiopods, and corals. This horizon, then, represented a deep sea-bottom, over which the open sea must have stood at least 300 feet, while the clay fossils of the mouth of the Esquimaux River must have lived in a deep muddy bay sheltered from the waves and currents of the open sea. The drift deposits of La- brador are scanty in extent compared with those of the Maine coast. They are but isolated patches compared with the extensive beds of sand and clay which compose the Quaternary deposits of New England. On the 2 2d August we made our last excursion up 8o • LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. the Esquimaux River, going up some six miles from its mouth. From a hill-top I could look over the surface of this lake-dotted land. The surface was rugged and bare in the extreme. The river valley, however, was well wooded, the spruce and birch perhaps thirty feet in height. Here and there the river passed through high precipitous banks of sand. The hills were rough, scarred with ravines, precipices, and deep gaps, the syenite wearing into irregularly hummocky hills, the rough places not filled up with drift, and thus the contours tamed down as in New England. Indeed, Labrador at the present day is like New England at the close of the ice period or at the beginning of the epoch of great riv- ers, before the terraces were laid down and the country adapted for man's residence. Labrador was never adapted for any except scattered nomad tribes. It is still an unfinished land. While the hills were bare and the rocks covered with the reindeer moss, here and there by the river's edge in favorable, protected places were tall alders and willows, with groups of asters and golden rods. Here I saw a veritable toad, and glad enough was I to recognize his lineaments. I was also told that there were frogs in ex- istence, though we never saw or heard them. There are no snakes or lizards, so that our history of these animals in Labrador will be as brief as that of the Irish historian, but we did find a small salamander at Belles Amours in a later trip to this coast. On our return we found that a whaler had towed a whale into the mouth of the river and was about to try out the oil. We secured a piece of the flesh, and on reaching camp boiled it; it was not bad eating, tasting THE RETURN HOME. 8l like coarse beef. Seal's flippers we also found not to be distasteful, though never to be regarded as a delicacy. Dredging and collecting insects on fine days when not too calm filled up the measure of our seven weeks. The time passed rapidly, the days were too short for all the work we planned to do, and it was not without regret that we left the rugged untamed shores of " the Labra- dor." On the afternoon of the very day she had set for her return to Caribou Island, the Nautilus hove in sight. As she made our harbor she struck upon a sunken rock, tore off a piece of her keel, but slid, off and came to an- chor as near as practicable to the mission house, and then succeeded the mutual spinning of Labrador and Greenland yarns by the reunited party. CHAPTER V. ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. Four o'clock Saturday morning, July 7th, i860, in the Strait of Belle Isle, and that huge rampart of rock, these few icebergs stranded here and there, this occa- sional lump of floe-ice floating down with the tide, these outlandish puflins, and large flocks of eider-ducks skim- ming the surface or flying high overheard, tell us that, after nine days of sailing, we are sighting the Labrador coast. Here codfish grow largest and most .numerous; so twenty thousand fishermen from the British colonies and about five thousand Yankees migrate hither every sum- mer for the cod, herring, and salmon that swarm in these icy waters. Here, in the spring of the year, num- bers of hardy Newfoundland sealers risk their lives in the ice just breaking up ; while all the year round there are estimated to be five thousand Esquimaux, Micmacs, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Jerseymen, and half-breeds, who live, thanks to the codfish, on these favored shores. Here people are born, live, and die, who have never seen a horse, cow, sheep, or cat, or a civilized dog. Wild Esquimaux dogs, savage, wolfish creatures, are the only beasts of burden. The animals and birds are half arctic and half temper- ate. Sweet, dwarfish, arctic flowers here nestle in beds of reindeer-moss, while our Alpine flora one may gather 82 APPROACHING THE COAST. 83 on Mount Washington luxuriates with stunted growths of bushy firs and birches. So, nearly all the shells, worms, and creeping things are the same in kind and number as those that Otho Fabricius wrote of in his " Fauna Gronlandica," during his dreary life in southern Greenland one hundred years ago. As we approach land no capes run out to greet us, or sheltered harbor opens its arms to embrace. An unin- terrupted line of coast confronts the gulf. In one place alone is the intense monotony of the outline relieved by the Hills of Bradore, where the coast sweeps round fif- teen miles to the eastward, and the Strait widens out. It is a charming morning, the sun up but an hour, and just breeze enough to move us over the placid sea. Flocks of grave, enormous-hook-billed puffins sweep by us in squadrons of fifties and hundreds, or flocks of eider- ducks fly swiftly out from the land. Coming up nearer to this strange coast, the line breaks here and there ; a few rocks and islands start out from the shore. We pass by schools of two-masted fishing-boats, with two men apiece hooking codfish ; we hail the fellows, but they are too busy to look up. Things look a little more live- ly ; more islands appear, channels wind through them, choked with fleets of fishing-smacks. But the wind leaves us, so we put out a boat and are towed through these narrow passages, whose walls of rock rise on each side higher than the masts of our schooner, though not very precipitously, for all has been worn down and sub- dued by water. So we move along, as if on a smooth- flowing, deep, narrow river, or a Norwegian fiord ; now we round a point, and can almost jump ashore ; then a bend in the channel takes us over to the other side ; now 84 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. we luff a little to avoid a group of Nova Scotia fisher- men, fat, sleek, moon-faced fellows, whose boats, loaded with fish, are busy discharging their burden, pitching up on deck half-dead cod, which are seized in a trice by groups of "headers," "splitters," and "gutters." And then the multitudinous smells, now coming _ fierce and strong from deck and hold, anon gentle and spicy as the cook turns the morning fry. Now the surface is streaked with oily films, but these break away and dis- close, six or eight fathoms below, a clear, sandy bottom, strewed with fish offal, on which banks of sea-urchins feed. If we look long and steadily enough, we shall see swarms of beautiful, delicate, transparent jelly-fish, with an occasional Clio, a winged mollusk, fully as pure and beautiful, only more transparent. Suddenly the bottom is obscured by an immense shoal of caplin, slowly swim- ming just above the bottom. The rocks now reveal green, sunny declivities ; little valleys, sprinkled with flowers ; an arctic butterfly comes out to our vessel ; and now we open upon a house ; it is only a deserted fish- house, but a cur, keeping up an incessant barking on the other side of the hill, lets us know that there are human beings, as well as canine, not far off. If we may believe it, there is a small, stunted, homely, Quebec cow feeding on the side of the hill. Here was a clear case of unnat- ural selection. The scenic features of this coast do not demand a cow to grace the foreground. Her nautical owner informs us, in sturdy Labradorian dialect, that she had been brought up this spring. " I made her fast to her moorings, and there let her bide to eat the grass." Her husband had broken loose from his moorings, and was emulating the roar of the waves on the " land-wash." CARIBOU ISLAND. 85 The children, more used to seals, and sea-cows, had not yet recovered from their astonishment at this freak of Nature. • The channel now widens out into the*bay of Bonne Esperance, a fine open space of water, tolerably well sheltered from storms. Two days after I got settled on Caribou Island, in Salmon Bay, three miles east of Bonne Esperance. Nearly the whole coast of Labrador is lined with mul- titudes of small islands, separated by deep, narrow chan- nels from the mainland, with here and there a bay of some extent, where the islands are separated far apart. Thus, a small sail-boat can start from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and take an inside passage up to the Strait of Belle Isle, and there will only be a few places where she will encounter the outside swell. These num- berless islets and channels are too numerous and intricate to be accurately mapped. At least, our ordinary charts give no accurate idea of their location, and navigation for the whole coast is a matter of guess-work. Caribou Island is the largest within fifty miles, per- haps, of Salmon Bay. It is about two miles long and half as broad. But it is in vain to guess about the length or breadth of any part of this rough-and-tumble country, so I will measure it with my legs. It is a fresh, cool, breezy morning ; thermometer, say, at 56°. At noon it will not be higher than 65°. At the outset, it may as well be said that this is no country for slippers or calfskin boots of ordinary make. Here Jersey cowhide or native-made sealskin boots are the mode. With anything on but these, two minutes' walk out-doors will wet one's feet thoroughly, so wet 86 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. and soaked is the boggy ground. For bog-trotting, or moss-tramping, or climbing rocks, sealskins a la Esqui- maux, so light and water-tight, are indispensable. The way lies round the head of a little bay, which meets a quiet vale, filled with grass and ferns at the top^ but half-way down, as it widens out, choked with a stunted spruce and fir growth, or what the people call "tucking," or " tuckermel-bush." It is in vain that we try to push through it, so dense the growth, so gnarled, twisted, and grown together in one impenetrable m.ass the trunks, and so flat and table-like the branches spread out above. Here is a perfectly tight shelter, should it rain. Many a hunter, belated at nightfall, has crept under these bushes and made a comfortable night of it. So the bears find good hiding-places here, and cannot be found without dogs to scent them out. Lower down, the valley extends into an alder-swamp, a lilliputian growth, perhaps three feet high, choked with rank grasses and sedges, crowding the sides of a slow-moving brook. Here mosquitoes and black-flies swarm ; we are under shelter of a cliff, and there is no wind to keep off these horrible pests. How they rage and torment, these myr- iad entomological furies ! Now for a frantic rush out of this purgatory, and a tiresome climb of a hundred feet up this cliff ! It is high, but not very rough, for all the rocks are hidden by soft reindeer-moss, and the crev- ices are filled up with tuckermel, and the ravines that run down its sides have their dripping, mossy walls sprinkled over with Alpine flowers and their bottoms carpeted with coarse arctic grasses. Only here and there patches of the original granite show themselves. Now and then a brown or yellow butterfly flits by, or an arc- SALMON BAY, 87 tic bumble-bee hums and buzzes in the flowers ; two or three beetles crawl over the fern-leaves, while a few meagre, lean-looking flies lead a sort of doubtful exist- ence. There is none of that outburst and profusion of insect-life that characterizes woodland life in the States in midsummer. For the benefit of the entomologically curious, I will state that nowhere on the coast, or inland, at least within twenty miles of Salmon Bay, has a grass- hopper been seen or heard of ! The common red-legged grasshopper, that is so abundant everywhere with us all the summer, which luxuriates on the summit of Mount Washington, and is found by arctic travellers about Mel- bourne Island, spread, in fact, all through British and Arctic America, is here wanting, so scanty and parsimo- nious is the distribution of insect-life on these shores. But I must mention the wasp's nest I stumbled upon one day, about as large as one of Heenan's fists, stuck down under the moss, in a mass of roots. Well aware of the notorious temper of these insects, and fully con- scious of past sad experiences, I approached the dread precincts, extended a six-foot pole, and gave a gentle tap — no answer ; another — two individuals crawl out — a simultaneous rush of the invader to the rear ; the " com- bat deepens" — four more dabs with the six-footer — a baker's dozen issue forth and fly around, alas ! how dolo- rous and sad ! They give chase for a pace or two, and then pause, look back irresolutely, and give it up. Such was my experience with Labrador wasps. By this time we have topped the cliff, and far down below lies Salmon Bay. Seven fishermen from New- buryport find here one of the best harbors on the coast — securely landlocked, and good anchorage in fifteen 88 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. fathoms' mud — a beautiful dredging-ground. Large cockles, curious pelican's-feet, delicate nereids, clumsy crabs, and neat, active shrimp, abound and multiply as the sands of the sea in number. On the right is Salmon Bay settlement, one of the most populous places on the coast, consisting of seven families. And now the eye, sweeping north, east, and west, takes in the vast desola- tion of hills, relieved only by gleaming fragments of ponds, or snow-banks of a sullen white. There is no continuous series of ranges rising up back of one an- other, like any well-ordered mountain group, but a chopped sea of undeveloped mountains, whose tops seem to have been ground down by water and ice when the world was much younger than it is now, but which, after this, as if a rebel horde of Titans, made seemingly inef- fectual attempts to grow up again, and only succeeded in spots ; which, bare then, have been kept bare ever since by arctic frosts and snows. If we imagine we can see forests growing among those hills, it is o.nly because we have been told that woods do grow in the sheltered valleys, and now and then venture up the hill-sides. Thus the country runs back for hundreds of miles, the hills rising five to eight hundred feet high, bare and desolate, but the valleys are much better wooded in the interior of the country, be- ing warmer and more sheltered. There are no regular rivers in Labrador, only rows of ponds — and very crooked rows — linked by rapids, which the Mountaineers only can navigate in their light canoes. There are no water-sheds, no continuous valleys to unite into one stream the thousand ponds that gather in every depres- sion. STONE CIRCLES. 89 But we have feasted long enough upon this rare, unique scene. We speak not of the freshness of the breeze, of the exhilaration and inspiration it brings, and not, least of all, of the perfect freedom from every sign of fly or mosquito. Now, as we return, for two miles of bog- trotting, an hour of black-fly and mosquito fighting ! While sitting upon the hill during that half-hour's rest the breeze kept the flies from our face ; but how secretly and in what untoward numbers had the silvery-legged rascals crept into our flannel shirts, covered hat and back, doing nothing but hold on for the wind ! but now, under lee of this wall, the plagues have the advantage. They fly into our face, eyes, nose, and mouth ; they do not bite hard, like the mosquitoes, but the vampires suck long and deep, leaving great clots of blood. To com- plete the work, half a dozen frightful horse-flies of gigan- tic stature hover about ; now and then, when we are not watching, they will settle down on our hands and bite terribly, making a wound which does not heal for days. It is useless to try to bear it. I make a stampede up the rocks to the breeze, but they follow in clouds, pounc- ing down like small-shot on my wide-awake. So run- ning, as if for my life, one moment, and stopping to rest the next ; now starting up a white-headed finch or soli- tary robin, or stopping to watch a Canadian jay or hun- gry cormorant sailing aloft, or pausing to trace out two or three contiguous circles of bowlder-stones, which marked the former wigwams of the Esquimaux, who used to have bloody fights on this island with the Mountain- eer Indians ; now wading a swamp, or making detours round miniature ponds, or jumping a narrow ravine, or circumnavigating a growth of tuckermel — I come to a 90 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. Stand on the south side of the island. It has been blow- ing fresh for two or three days from the southwest, and the gulf rolls in a magnificent surf, sweeping grandly upon the pebbly beach or dashing wildly against the sea-walL Half a mile from shore a huge iceberg is stranded, and the wind blows cold and damp. Farther out on the Strait the sun flashes on four or five other fine bergs, though it is the middle of July. And so clear is the air, that the low blue-limestone coast of Newfoundland, forty miles opposite, can easily be seen. Now, where are all the sea-birds that I expected to find filling the air, and crowding the rocks, up here in Labrador ? A lonely raven is just passing over, a few small land-birds are chipping on the rocks, a small owl wings his noiseless flight low over the bogs — these, with a pair of saddle-back gulls sailing aloft, are about the only birds to be seen. Sometimes a loon flies over the island, or a small flock of eider-ducks settles down in a pool. If one pushes out a little way into the Strait, he will start up a few razor-billed auks, or see a flock of guillemots, or their cousins, the murres. People here call the guillemots sea-pigeons, though more like crows than pigeons in size and color. A flock of puffins will fly oflf just out of gunshot across the bows of one's boat, for all these sea-birds are shy and difficult to approach. I must delay a moment on these puflins. They are queer, grave birds, profoundly Quakerish in their habit, wise-looking as the seven Gothamites, only wanting a pair of good, old-fashioned, silver-bowed spectacles to set ofT their enormous hook-nosed visages. Just here they are not very abundant, but fifteen miles up the coast, at Bradore, these peculiar people have appropriated A FLOCK OF CURLEWS. 9I a red-sandstone island. On this patch of rock, whose soft, crumbling surface they bore in all directions, mak- ing galleries about a foot from the surface, they have bred from time immemorial. However wild they are on the waves, here they suffer themselves to be pulled forth from their holes and summarily choked by ardent ornithologists without a squeak of resistance. Indeed, June and July, or the first of August, is no time to come to Labrador for birds : all the ducks are among the inland ponds, breeding. The sea-birds that breed here gather in one place sixty miles down the coast, on the Bird Islands, forming the Mecatina group. There are few to molest their nests, and they live in compara- tive quiet. Let a crew visit a breeding-place in the middle of June, and they can very quickly load a boat with eggs. It is said that vessels come up here from Boston every year, and load up with eggs to carry back to the States. About the middle of August that beautiful and grace- ful bird, the sea-swallow, or arctic tern, makes its appear- ance, flying about the sea-cliffs, hovering over the fisher- men's boats, and keeping up an interminable screeching and twittering ; they are the most garrulous of gulls. With them appear a few of the rarer gulls. Then the ring-necked and semipalmated plover, and flocks of sand- peeps and yellow-legs gather on the flats. But the cur- lews eclipse them all. We had had intimations of their arrival. Already had small squadrons been seen wheel- ing around the hill-tops, and now over the sea, and as they advanced or retreated, their "mild mixing cadence" now grew loud and near, and now waxed fainter and fainter. On the afternoon of the loth of August I heard the alarm of " Curlew !" and, sure enough, over 92 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. across the neck, a mile away, was a flock of these birds, darkening nearly a square mile of the sky. There must have been many thousands in that flock, all piping and whistling like the jingling of ten thousand sleigh-bells, or the whistling of the wind through the ropes of a squadron of seventy-fours, while performing a series of evolutions of wonderful celerity and precision. The whole mass wheeled around the hills and over the plain, now stretching out over the bay, made up of smaller, troops, chasing each other around and through the whole moving mass in the greatest apparent confusion and dis- order. It was really a great sight, this marshalling of the curlew hosts. After this grand review of their forces they separate into small flocks, scatter over the country to feed on the curlew-berries now ripening, or to patrol the shore at low-water in search of stray worms and snails. The inhabitants kill large quantities of this deli-- cious bird, and salt them down in barrels for winter use. They cannot conjecture where they come from, but say that the first northeast wind in late summer always brings them. But the sun is going down in the fog and mist driving in from the gulf. The wind has hauled to the east, and blows chilly and damp ; and so ended many of the thirty fair days of the fifty I spent in Southern Labrador. CHAPTER VI. a|[sUMMER's cruise to northern LABRADOR. I. From Boston to Henley Harbor. In the spring of 1864, Mr. William Bradford, the well- known marine artist of New York, organized a party to cruise along the coast of Labrador, and if. possible to reach Hudson's Strait, for the purpose of painting ice- bergs and arctic scenery. After having previously spent a summer on the southern coast, with no opportunity of extended explorations, it seemed rare good fortune to make one of a party bound for the Moravian settle- ments, and possibly Cape Chidley. On the 4th of June, at 10.15 a.m., the fast schooner Benjamin S. Wright, Captain Brown, with two pilots, Capt. Ichabod Handy of Fair Haven, Mass., for the northern coast, and Capt. French for the southern shore, a Norwegian mate and two deck hands, with a cook and two cabin boys, carrying a party of fourteen gentlemen comprising lawyers, clergymen, naturaUsts, sportsmen, and pleasure-seekers, left the Philadelphia Packet Pier, Boston. Owing to an easterly wind a tug towed us down to the Narrows, where we spread our canvas, and beat down to Provincetown for the purpose of buying a whaleboat, making harbor there at 9.30 in the evening. Spending Sunday at Provincetown, where we visited some friends in the coast-guard, several of whom after- wards distinguished themselves in the war of the Rebel- 93 94 A SUMMER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. lion, on the 6th, with a fresh northwest wind which so effectually ruffled the ocean that nearly every man set- tled his account there and then with the sea-god, our course was laid for Cape Sable, which we sighted at about I o'clock in the afternoon of the 7th. The following day we bowled along at the distance of twelve miles from the Nova Scotian coast, the wind blowing a fresh gale from the northwest, and about 2 A.M. of the 8th ran into Chedabucto Bay, anchoring four miles from Port Mulgrave. Weighing anchor the next day and moving up to the town, a mean little fishing- hamlet, while the crew took in wood and water, each one, according to his taste, went either shopping or trouting in the rain, or geologizing. On the following day I walked towards Porcupine Point, a bold headland said to be 275 feet above the Gut of Canso. ^ The view over the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a very pleasant one. The Gut of Canso opens into the Gulf four miles from the Point. The drift material consists of a rich soil con- taining bits and masses of red sandstone, some of the fragments containing calamites and the impressions of delicate sea- weeds. The rocks in situ are a white con- glomerate dipping at an angle of 80° and with a N. and S. strike. The shores of the Gut of Canso are high and bold on the western side, but much lower on the Cape Breton shore. The contours of the hills on the Nova Scotian coast are like those of a granite-gneiss region, the hills terminating in drift "scaurs." On the Cape Breton side the houses are more numerous and the farms either more fertile or cultivated with greater care. At Port Mul- grave the inhabitants did not raise vegetables enough for IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 95 their own consumption ; and not infrequently a farmer was seen ploughing with a single ox. Exchange was $1.95. The people were all "sesesh." Although for the disunion of the " States," nothing could separate them from the love of whiskey and gin, as in the course of the afternoon there was a miserable stabbing fray, witnessed by a good many of the inhabitants, though it should be said that there were thirty sail then in the port, from which part of the #naterial for the affray was afforded. Our fishermen returned with a liberal supply of trout, and Mr. Bradford shipped a steward, who turned out to be an Indian soldier, and had assisted in blowing Sepoys from the cannon's mouth. Whether he was morally and intellectually worse or better than a Sepoy was often a matter of discussion on the cruise. We were now ready to push out into the Gulf, and the latter was now ready for the reception of the Benj. S. Wright. For but a few days ago vessels had been jammed in the ice immediately north of Port Mulgrave, the ice having remained later in the Gulf and been more abundant the past spring than for years. We were told that it was possible for people to walk on the ice a hun- dred miles out from the Magdalen Islands. The next day found us off St. George's Bay, the sport of light, baffling winds or of dead calms, but these ena- bled us to receive lasting impressions of the beautiful green slopes of the Cape Breton shores, with their ex- panse of green sward framing the square acres of ploughed land centred by red farm-houses. These were our last views of cultivated fields and well-trimmed glebes, until on our return we beheld the rich red farm-lands ot Prince Edward's Island. 96 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. Sunday the 1 2th was a red-letter day, spent about the home of the gannet or solan-goose. At seven o'clock in the morning — and what a glorious one it was : the air soft and balmy, our good vessel's bows gently rising and falling on the swell as if saluting in a measured, dignified way the appearance of the god of day — at this hour Entry Island, one of the Magdalens, was twelve THE LARGEST OF THE BIRD ROCKS, AS SEEN IN 1 864. (From a Photograph by Black.) miles off. It is a high mass of red sandstone with abrupt sides and surmounted by two knolls ; near it were several small islands, and a high grayish rock deeply incised by narrow valleys plunging suddenly down to the sea. At noon we approached the Bird Rocks, a group of three islets, the largest 250 feet high and from a THE BIRD ROCKS. 9/ quarter to half a mile in length, the longest diameter extending east and west. The top is nearly flat and slopes gently towards the south. It is formed, as seen from the south side through a good glass at a distance of half a mile, of red friable sandstone, with thin beds of grit, which near the water's edge are several feet in thickness, while several loose fragments look like bowl- ders, though there are no true transported rocks on the island. The islets were nearly white on top, and I supposed this was due to the guano, but Mr. Bradford assured me that the white frosting, as it seemed to be, was the birds themselves ; and sure enough, except a central patch of brown and green herbage, the western end was in part, and the eastern half of the island entirely, white with female gannets, resting on the rock above as well as on the larger shelves on the sides, while the small nooks and shelves of grit were appropriated by myriads of murres. At the report of a gun swarms of birds would rise from the rock and flutter in the air like flies, and at a rough estimate 10,000 were there. To the leeward many gannets, males, were seated in the water or flying over it, in company with a few murres — but nearly all were as if in ceaseless motion, and busy fishing or re- turning with fish to the avian metropolis.* * In this connection it is interesting to read the description of the Bird Rock in Cartier's first voyage. "Wee went southeast about 15 leagues, and came to three Hands, two of which are as steepe and vpright as any wall, so that it was not possible to climbe them; and betweene them there is a little rocke. These Hands were as full of birds, as any field or medow is of grasse, which there do make their nestes ; and in the greatest of them there was a great and infinite number of those that wee call Margaulx, that are white, and bigger than any geese, which were seuered in one part. In the other were onely Godetz, but toward the shoare 98 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. Mr. Bradford spent a busy day in sketching the unique scene, and his photographer, Mr. Pierce, from Black's studio in Boston, took four good photographs of the rocks and birds. These rocks are the remnants of what were once vastly more extended strata, and the question arose in my mind whether the red soil of Port Mulgrave and vicinity were not the debris which had been in part borne from the Magdalen Isles, and in part from Prince Edward's Island. Since 1864, when the photograph was taken by Mr. Bradford of which the accompanying sketch is a repro- duction, great changes have come over the famous gan- net rookery of Bird Rocks. Mr. W. Brewster, who, with Prof. Hyatt and others, visited these rocks in 1881, says in his account : " In i860 the number of gannets breeding on the top of Great Bird (then uninhabited) was estimated by Bryant at about ' fifty thousand pairs,* or one hundred thousand birds. In 1872 Maynard found this portion of the colony reduced to about five there were of those Godetz, and Apponatz. We put into our boats so many of them as we pleased, for in lesse than one houre we might have filled thirtie such boats of them : we named them the Hands of Margaulx. About five leagues fro the said Hands on the west, there is another Hand that is about two leagues in length, and so much in breadth : there did we stay all night to take in water and wood. That Hand is enuironed round about with sand and hath a very good road about it, three or foure fadome deep. Those Hands have the best soile that euer we saw, for that one of their fields is more worth then all the New land. We found it all full of goodly trees, medovves, fields full of wild corne and peason bloomed, as thick, as ranke, and as faire as any can be seene in Britaine so that they seemed to have bene ploughed and sowed. There was also a great store of gooseberies, strawberies, damaske roses, parseley, with other very sweet and pleasant hearbes. About the said Hand are very great beasles as great as oxen, which have two great teeth in their mouths like vnto elephants teeth, and liue also in the sea. We saw one of them sleeping vpon the banke of the water ; wee thinking to take it went to it with our boates, but so soone as he heard vs, he cast himselfe into the sea. We saw also beares and wolves ; we named it Brions Hand. (Hakluyt, iii. 254.) FIRST VIEW OF " THE LABRADOR. 99 thousand birds (a lighthouse had been erected on the summit of the rock and several men were living there). When w^e landed in 1881 the top of the rock was prac- tically abandoned, although there were some fifty nests at the northern end, which had been robbed a few days before, and about which the birds still Hngered." Mr. Brewster says, however, that the common guil- lemot (^Lomvia troile) still breeds at Bird Rocks in amazing numbers, but that the number is rapidly de- creasing, owing to the introduction of a cannon which is fired every half-hour during foggy weather. " At each discharge," he says, "the frightened murres fly from the rocks in clouds, nearly every sitting bird taking its ^^^ into the air between its thighs and dropping it after fly- ing a few yards. This was repeatedly observed during our visit, and more than once a perfect shower of eggs fell into the water around our boat." At 6 o'clock this evening we were 95 miles from Little Mecatina Island, and at 1 1 o'clock of the next day (the 13th), we sighted land lying under a mirage which looked like the land itself, while the snow-banks ashore were transformed into icebergs floating in the quasi sea. This singular mirage lasted until evening. As the land gradually "hove" in sight the mirage re- ceded and the . bergs became veritable banks of snow. Little Mecatina was passed at 6 in the evening ; its longer diameter was north and south, and the southern end of the glaciated island showed finely the"stoss" side, the " struck " side gradually sloping towards the north. The Labrador coast at this point becomes high and bold, presenting a continuous front to the Gulf, with an occasional " hump " rising perhaps 300 feet or more lOO A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. above the general level of the land. The Island of Mecatina is 685 feet above the Gulf, Cape Mecatina being the highest land from Mingan to Bradore. We dropped anchor in Sleupe harbor in Gore Island, after the quickest voyage Capt. French had ever made. The run from Boston had been a fine one, with north- west winds throughout, and no fog. At sunset the thermometer was 42°, and it grew still cooler as we ran into our harbor, which was on the southern exposure, on which were numerous snow-banks in the deep gulches leading down to the water. The rocks were red syenite, like those of Mt. Desert, Me., with its characteristic hummocky outline and pre- cipitous walls fronting the sea. No bowlders were seen about the harbor, but the rockv shores were marked and polished by the ice for a few feet above the water's edge. The murres and saddle-back gulls were now just hatching, while the eider-ducks were beginning to lay their eggs. The curlew-berry was now in flower. In the garden of one of the settlers (Michael Cante), who were French Canadians, the rhubarb or pie plant was just above ground, the parsnips were six inches high, and the grass about the houses was four inches in height, but as yet there was no verdure on the hills, the surface being still sere and rusty, the snow having so recently melted away. The season opens here the middle or last of May, when the snow mostly disappears. The ice left the bay the 20th of May, and about this date the black bear comes out of his winter quarters. It was too early for cod or salmon, and the capelin had not appeared. Our harbor was between two islands, and on one were two houses, and on the other five, one of them a well- THE EIDER-DUCK AND ITS NEST. lOI built, neat house. About them lounged several Esqui- maux dogs. We dredged in ten fathomfj on a rocky bottom, not, however, bringing up any novelties, though the animals were all of purely arctic typ^s. June 14 was spent in egging and in collecting insects. Mr. Bradford secured the services of a Frenchman and his sail-boat, and with several others of the party landed on three islands situated four or five miles away. We found eight nests and twenty-five eggs of the eider- duck, with those of the murre or guillemot and auk, besides three gull's eggs, probably those of the saddle- back. We also found a nest of the red loon : it was situated on the edge of a small pond, The nest, partly submerged, was fourteen inches in diameter and in size and appearance like the gulls' nests, though the latter were placed in dryer localities. The eider-ducks' nests were abundant, as were those of the razor-billed auks, but those of the murres were even less common. The eider-ducks ten years ago were extremely abundant, but the unremitting attacks upon their nests by "eggers" has resulted in the partial extinction of this valuable and interesting bird. All the eiders were busy in making their nests and in laying their eggs. The old or com- pleted nests contained a great mass of down, and were i'2 to 15 inches in outside diameter, the downy mass in which the eggs sank being five or six inches high ; the newer nests were without down ; there were about five eggs to a nest. Most of the nests which we saw were built on low land, near pools and not far from the sea- water, in a dense thicket of dwarf spruce trees, called " tucking-bush " or " tuckermel." The murres and auks, as is well known, do not make nests, but drop their eggs 102 A Sl^MMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. under propcting rocks, or on overhanging shelves on high cliffs, or under blocks of granite. I found one murre's egg w.^ich had been laid on the ice under a huge rock, and as I v'orked my way under the rock to get at the single egg, the stupid bird did not fly, but simply moved a few steps beyond my reach, making an odd guttural noise. It need scarcely be added that the vicin- ity of a murre's or auk's nest is filthy in the extreme. The egg-shell of these nestless birds is very thick, so that they may roll about or drop down without break- ing ; how they came to be so much more conical or pointed at one end than usual is an interesting question.* We also saw a king eider flying with a small flock of eiders, as well as several "shags" and a northern phal- erope. Insect-life was now stirring ; the pools abounded in water boatmen {Corixd)^ and whirligig beetles {Gyri- nus), while a species of feathered gnat {Corethrci) was just leaving the pupa, the cast skins of the latter floating on the surface of the pools. A lonely humble-bee was flying fussily about, a syrphus-fly was hovering over the flowers of the cloud-berry, and other insects were found under stones, amongst the moss, or in the water. The appearance of insect-life corresponded to that of south- * " There was one bird in particular which we watched for some time, the proud possessor of a brilliant green, strongly marked egg— as usual, to all appearance quite out of proportion to her own size — which she arranged and rearranged under her, trying with beak and wing to tuck the sharp end between her legs, but never quite satisfied that it was covered as it should be. But for the wonderful provision for its safety in the shape of the gtdllemof s egg (a round, flat-sided wedge, -which makes it, when pushed, ttirn rotmd on the point instead of rolling, as eggs of the usual form if placed on a bare rock would do), most of those we saw would probably have been dashed to pieces long before." (T. Digby Pigott's Birds of the Outer Faroes, 1888.) THE CORMORANT AND ITS NEST. IO3 ern Maine at the end of April. The next day a white- faced wasp {Vespa maculatd) flew aboard the vessel. The day was spent in searching for eider nests, of which I found a dozen in the " tucking-bush," with thirty eggs, and the rude nests and eggs of the saddle-back gull. June i6th was a beautiful day, rather warm, with light winds from the east and south, or quite calm. In the afternoon a shower passed over from the west, and at night the wind was northerly ; the southwest summer winds had not yet set in, the prevailing winds being northerly. We spent the day in a search for the eggs of the " waupigan " or common cormorant, and those of the shag or double- crested cormorant ; William, a very intelligent French Canadian, taking us to their nesting-place in his row-boat. The nests were situated on a high cliff, a sort of shelf. We let William down over the precipice with a rope. There were fifty-five nests in all, and over them rose flocks of cormorants disturbed at our coming ; they were very shy and flew rapidly far off", wheeling about in cir- cles, but not daring to come near the nesting-place. There were five eggs in a nest ; the latter were about 20 inches in outside diameter, built of thick birch limbs, whitened, as was the rocky shelf, with the excrement of the birds, and the entire neighborhood was pervaded with a far-reaching and intolerable stench of decaying fish. The eggs of the common cormorant are said to be laid earlier in the season than those of any other bird ; they are long, pointed, and of a dirty tea-color, some nearly white. The shags' nests, mixed with those of the waupigan, were situated in another place adjoining. They are usually laid on the bare rock, and William was surprised to find them on the precipice. The eggs are I04 A SUMMER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. smaller than those of the common cormorant, are whiter and more pointed, and are laid later than those of any- other bird. On our return we went by invitation into William's •house ; his children were attractive in looks, with fine eyes. This family and a neighboring one were the two leading French Canadian families on the coast. They told us that it was harder to gain a livelihood than here- tofore, the game and fish getting scarcer. Still, one family winter before last shot iioo partridges. William, by the way, told us that there were four varieties of part- ridge : the spruce partridge, and the white or ptarmigan, of which they distinguish the mountain ptarmigan and the river ptarmigan, the latter the rarest ; the fourth kind they call the pheasant. The partridges were said to be now laying their eggs. William raised last year twenty- five bushels of potatoes, also turnips, while barley, hav- ing three months to grow, ripens on this inhospitable coast. Sheep might be raised ; there were no cows, though to the westward they are kept the year through. We were told that a walrus was killed near St. Augus- tine within twenty-five years, and that two had been seen in this vicinity since then. " It will be remembered that the walrus formerly abounded in the Gulf of St. Law- rence, having been rendered extinct by the early fisher- men on the Magdalen Islands. We saw an egging vessel at a distance. The "agg- ers " watch their chances to take great quantities of eggs of sea-birds, especially those of the eider-duck and murres. But there are now few who follow this illegal and nefarious occupation. Twenty years ago the busi- ness was at its height, and a schooner would load a cargo TRANSPARENCY OF THE WATER. IO5 of 65 barrels of eggs and take them to the States or up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec or Montreal. Of late years they would give half of what they found to the settlers on the coast as hush-money. When collecting the eggs they would make "caches" of them, covering the heaps with moss ; and if they were on the point of being caught they would smash the whole cargo of eggs rather than be seized with them. Many are the adven- tures which the eggers have passed through, and the stories told of them rival the tales of smugglers and pri- vateersmen on more favored shores. They still collect and wantonly destroy the eggs of murres. The eggs of the eider-ducks we found to make a good omelet, but those of the murres and gulls were too fishy lobe palatable ; the food of the murres and puffin as well as gulls consisting largely of small fish, such as capelin and lance fish (^Ammodytes). We saw male eiders two years old ; they were brown with a little white ; we were told that the eider is four years in arriving at maturity ; the guillemot only two years ; the puffins and murres becoming adult in one year. The eider-duck is easily domesticated, and the young will follow a person to whom they are accustomed like a dog. As soon as our vessel came into shallow water, — and in our boat excursions we were constantly impressed by the transparency of the water on this coast — we could look down for thirty or forty feet and see with distinctness the bottom with dark masses of sea-urchins and starfish. The water is more transparent than on the Florida coast. Indeed the fishermen sometimes complain of this prop- erty of the water, saying that the fish can see the nets too readily and do not enter them. The water is so clear I06 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. that the Cteiiophores, Idyia roseola and Pleurobrachia, as well as another kind I could not secure, were beautifully distinct far down in the pellucid depths. Fishing had begun at this locality to-day, the cod having struck in. It is evident that the ice having disappeared for nearly a month the water inshore undoubtedly had grown warm enough to allow the cod and other fish to come into shoal- water and spawn. It was manifest that as the season opened later and later from south to north, the move- ment inshore would be later and later from south to north, and this fact has undoubtedly given rise to the popular impression that the cod and other fish migrated from the southern to the northern portions of the coast of our continent. I anxiously questioned William as to the nature of the interior of Labrador. He told me that there were plains and terraces inland ; that there were toads and frogs and " lizards," which being interpreted undoubtedly means the salamander, most probably Plethodon glutinosus of Baird. He had been here twenty years before he saw ^ a grasshopper, but this was not on the coast, but in the interior ; and I know scarcely a better criterion of an arctic land-fauna than the entire absence of grasshoppers on the Labrador coast, since none occur in the circum- polar regions, either treeless Arctic America, Greenland or Spitzbergen ; but the interior wooded portion of the Labrador peninsulsf supports a truly boreal or " Canadian" insect fauna, with grasshoppers. Among the insects found were the showy caterpillars oi Arctia caja and a weevil. Of the more noticeable flowers, there were a pink Arenaria, and a leek-like plant which I have often seen on the summit of Mt. Washington. CARIBOU ISLAND. 10/ The 1 7th we weighed anchor, and with light winds and some rain early in the morning, but a strong north- easterly head-wind in the forenoon, we made only twenty- five miles during the day. The coast along our course was of very even height, the monotonous outline being relieved by an occasional elevation. The rock was of syenite with its characteristic scenic features. It was of warm, reddish flesh tints, but full of chinks and cracks, made by the water percolating or running into them and freezing, resulting in the cracking and disruption of large rock masses. Then the continued action of the frost year after year widens the chinks into gulches, with even, precipitous sides, now filled with snow-banks ten or fifteen feet long, and sometimes a dozen or more rods in extent, their edges bordered with arctic flowers. The hills were barren on top, with moss and dwarf spruce in the cavities or ravines. Here and there were to be seen clumps of grass, but the herbage in a Labrador fore- ground is not grasses or sedges, but low shrubby woody plants such as the dwarf cranberry, the curlew-berry {EmpetrtLin nigi^twi), etc., which form a dense uniform carpet of varied but dull green hues. On the afternoon of the i8th we dropped anchor near Caribou Island, and on landing found Mr. Carpenter, the missionary of these shores, who had befriended us in so many ways while camping on this island in the summer of i860. He was well and prospering in his good work. I lost no time in borrowing a spade and digging for quaternary fossils, and was rewarded with the discovery of several species not detected in i860; among these were Serripes groenlandicus, Buccinwm undatiLin, etc. On the evening before June 20, the longest day of the I08 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR, year, I could read fine print until half-past eleven at night. The next morning I dredged in eight fathoms before weighing anchor, and was delighted to find several large specimens of a delicate bivalve shell (^Pandorma arenosa); it was afterwards dredged up the coast at Long Island in fifteen fathoms in sand and stony bottom. It had not before been found south of the polar seas ; its discovery so far south was interesting from the fact that we had found it in a fossil state in sandy strata of clay at Brunswick, Me., and had also been found in the quaternary clays at Saco, Me., by Mr. C. B. Fuller. The association of this shell with Nucula expansa (antiqua) in the brick-yard clays gives positive proof that during the wane of the ice period the shore of Maine was the home of a truly polar assemblage of marine animals, and that then as now on this coast these shells were not con- fined to deep water, but lived in shallow retired bays in water not over fifty feet in depth. Throughout the day we were in sight of the butte-like Bradore Hills, the highest of the three mountains being 1264 feet above the level of the Gulf. As these moun- tains overlook the scene of Jacques Cartier's explorations in the Straits of Belle Isle, we would suggest that the highest of the three elevations be named Mt. Cartier. On the shores of Bradore Bay are still to be seen, it is said, the ruins of the ancient port of Brest, which was founded by the Bretons and Normans about the year 1500. The ruins are situated about three miles west of the present boundary of Canada at Blanc Sablon. Samuel Roberton states in his Notes on the Coast of Labrador : "■ As to the truth of Louis Robert's remarks there can be no doubt, as maybe seen from the ruins and MOUNT CARTIER. IO9 terraces of the buildings, which were chiefly constructed of wood. I estimate that at one time it contained 200 houses, besides stores, etc., and perhaps 1000 inhabitants in the winter, which would be trebled during the sum- mer. Brest was at the height of its prosperity about the year 1600, and about thirty years later the whole tribe THE BRADORE HILLS, THE HIGHEST PEAK MT. CARTIER. of the Eskimos, who had given the French so much trouble, were totally extirpated or expelled from that region. After this the town began to decay, and towards the close of the century the name was changed to Bradore." no A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. By sundown our vessel had made only ten miles, be- ing off Belles Amours, with a southerly and very light breeze. The sunset was a glorious one, while the rnoon rose through the haze and mirage over the snow-banks of the Newfoundland coast. At three in the afternoon we saw several miles ahead of us the fields of ice which we were soon to encounter, choking up the straits, and enhanced in apparent extent by the mirage. The Labra- dor coast, along which we were sailing, is very bold and bluff-like, with lower points of land reaching out to us in a picturesque way, the remarkably even outline of the coast being interrupted by the Bradore Hills. The dredge was put down about two miles from shore in from ten to fifteen fathoms on a hard, stony bottom, with good success. Beautiful specimens of Lucernaria quadricornis, four inches in height and of a dull amber brown, came up in the same dredge with that superb naked mollusc, Dendronotus arborescens, which were of a beautiful amber hue, dotted with white points. From the stomachs of fishes caught by some of the party were extracted specimens of a rare arctic crab {Chionoecetes opilio), which proved to be not uncommon in from ten. to fifty fathoms in the Straits of Belle Isle. The next day, from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon, we moved slowly through the floe-ice, which proved to be the outskirts of the immense fields of ice which this summer lined the northern coast of Labrador. Mr. Bradford kept his photographer busily at work taking views of the more remarkable forms. The splendid green hues, so varied and striking; the endless variety in the water-worn forms ; the weird noises,- now harsh and grating, now loud and roaring, produced by the CTENOPHORES IN THE FLOE-ICE. Ill attrition of the cakes of ice ground together by the sHght swell or the conflicting currents, lent unending interest to the scene. The floes had evidently the air of tired and worn travellers ; they had been borne for at least a thousand miles from Baffin's Bay ; had been thrown upon one another by storms and ocean currents, broken and frozen together over and over again ; they were now rap- idly melting away in the bright, warm sun, for the water was filled with bits of clear dark ice, the fragments of large floes. Our vessel, her sails scarcely filled out by the light baffling breeze, rose and fell, ploughing her way through the yielding floes. The water between the cakes was alive with bits of animated ice, myriads of transparent Ctenophores crowding the sea from the surface to a depth of a fathom or more. The roseate Idyia, throwing off the most delicate reddish tints, seemed be- sides to reflect the delicate blues and greens cast off by the floes ; an Alcinoe- like form, floating on its side, with blood- red tentacles, rose and sank among the ice- cakes, and with these in lesser numbers was associated that beautiful spherical liv- ing ball of ice, the Beroe or Pleurobrachia rhododactyla the Mertensia ovum, a creature as fragile as it is beauti- ful. It is of a delicate pink color, with iridescent hues ; the ovaries bright red, the deep purple-red tentacles in striking contrast with the delicate tints of the body itself. From this point until we reached Hopedale in lat. 55° 30' it constantly occurred in the floe-ice, but was rarely seen in waters from which the ice had disappeared, as in harbors free from ice the Mertensia would keep out of ,_,, A 1 • T1 r Idyia roseola, nat- 1 he Alcmoe-like form was urai size. 112 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. view near the bottom ; but as soon as the ice drifted in and choked up any harbor we were in, myriads could be seen near the surface, rising and falling between the ice- cakes, gracefully throwing out their tentacles, which were nearly two feet in length, and suddenly withdraw- ing them when disturbed. No true jelly-fish were to be seen ; the season was early for them, but the beautiful polar shell-less snail, the Clione limacina, with its long wings and bright red tints, was not uncommon. Stopped by the ice early the next morning we came to anchor at Belles Amours, waiting for a change of wind to allow a passage past or through the floe-ice. The coast is high, abrupt, and precipitous. Numerous streams well stocked with trout tumble into the sea, and the drift deposits, of limited extent, consisted of coarse gravels and bowlders of syenite. We looked for insects, finding nothing of particular interest, though noticing that the ants had just come out of their winter quarters. Glad enough were we to find a snail {Hyalina electrina), and in the mud at the bottom of the ponds a little bivalve shell {Pisidium) ; under stones in the brooks were larval stones-flies and Ephem- erae ; while a little salamander {Plethodon glutinosus) of a slate color with a paler light dorsal band ran into the water, to my great disappointment just eluding my grasp, as it is doubtful if any salamander occurs much farther north on the coast than this species. Here the alders were still in blossom, showing that the season had just opened, though the shadberry, the golden thread {Coptis) and the bunch-berry {Cornus canadensis) were likewise in bloom ; on the other hand the mountain-ash was just unfolding its buds. THE KILLER. II3 Dredgings carried on in so shallow water as four and six fathoms revealed pelicans' feet (aporrhais) in abun- dance and very fine large Serripes groenlaiidica, and with them in the mud and sand a great abundance of nemer- tean and other worms, and Amphipod Crustacea, with fine examples of Ctmia bispinosa. The principal house-owner at this fishing-station was a Mr. Buckle, who had been out here for twelve years from Boston. To his comfortable house was attached a conservatory and garden. Though the scanty soil on this barren point looked unpromising enough, it was comparatively rich. He had built his own schooner, a vessel of thirty tons. On the beach was the skull of a " killer" ; it had re- cently been " brought ashore and was surrounded by a number of hungry whelks {Buccimwi iLndatttni) which were cleaning off the flesh from the bones. The killer is the most voracious of the smaller cetaceans, and is the bulldog among the whales. The head is very blunt, the skull thick, the jaws powerful, the teeth longer than those of the grampus. It is at once known when swim- ming in the water by its high, narrow, pointed dorsal fin, which projects five or six feet out of water. It at- tacks with great boldness and pertinacity the right and finback whales, gouging out from their lips and side lumps of flesh, and, as Captain Handy told me, is espe- cially fond of the whale's tongue. The next day we walked inland, following up the stream which empties into the Gulf at Belles Amours. We, however, took the wrong side of the brook and failed to see the cascade where the stream, as we were told, falls down over a precipice forty feet high ; but irom a 114 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. hill perhaps five hundred feet high, which overlooked the country, we could trace the course of the brook for about two miles, where it ran down a steep ravine, with ponds on either side, from which flowed streams sending thin and broken sheets of water over steep precipices. The lake from which the stream issued was perhaps a mile long, situated on high land, and a foaming stream poured into it from the northwest, while farther on in another depression was probably a second lake like the one in view. Such is an ordinary Labrador stream — a chain of pond^ connected by rapids or waterfalls. There was a dreary sameness to the surface of the country, relieved, however, by a few snow-banks. During our ramble we heard the familiar liquid notes of the wood thrush, and saw some coots flying over the pond. In the afternoon the wind hauled into the eastward and was followed by rain. The 24th was misty and drizzly ; the wind east veering to the northeast. We dredged all the afternoon, part of the time scraping a coralline bottom. An arctic sea-cu- cumber {Peniacta calcigerd) was common in five fathoms in mud, with the largest Serripes yet met with. The most interesting form brought up was a beautiful hydroid {Coryne mirabilis) growing on the red sea-weed {Ptilota elegans). It was anchored by its stalk, with bell-shaped medusae attached, which were provided with four pink eyes and short, thick, knotted tentacles, the pendant proboscis being very long, club-shaped and of a pinkish hue. While lying at anchor a few boat's lengths from shore we were visited by two or three w^easels, which must have swum off" to the vessel. They were exceedingly BELLES AMOURS. 115 tame, approaching within a foot of my finger even when it was kept in motion. On one side of our harbor was, as at Caribou Island, a sandy beach where the fishermen could, haul their nets for lance. The Newfoundlanders would come here in their clumsy boats from a distance of eight miles, where their vessels were at anchor, and seine for lance fish. They made a great deal of noise about it, though there were only two boats ; one man would stand up in the stern paying out the net, while the full boat's crew would row rapidly around the fish, and another man standing up to his waist in the water hauled in the net ; in this way four barrels of fish are often caught at a single haul. Mr. Phoenix, one of our party, here caught a young salmon eight inches long. The next day (the 25th) saw us still weather-bound with thick fog and rain, clear- ing up towards the evening. In codfish caught at a depth of fifteen or twenty fathoms we found large fine specimens of the "lobworm {Arenicola piscatorwm) 2^1^, a fine polar shrimp {Crangon boreas). To-day I found the first Cyanea or nettling jelly-fish, the species which grows on the banks of Newfoundland by the end of summer, two feet in diameter, with long, trailing ten- tacles sometimes six fathoms in length ; it is these feelers, filled with microscopic darts or lasso-cells, which become entangled with the lines and poison the hands of the fishermen. As yet not a common jelly-fish, the Aitrelia aurita, had been seen. The next day we were released from our prison ; a fresh northwest wind cleared the ice from the shore, and our good ship made a fine run to Henley Harbor ; time from,6 A.M. to 3. 30 p.m. | fAs we sailed out of the harbor Il6 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. we could see that the low point running out into the Gulf from the Laurentian background of syenite was the western extremity of the basin of Cambrian red sand- stones and grits which extend between Belles Amours and Anse-au-Sablon. Skirting the coast within a mile or two of these interesting series of rocks, they are seen to rise to a height of five or six hundred feet, forming the coast line, but with a contour tame and monotonous compared with the syenitic hills of Bradore. The belt is a narrow one, and while sailing past the shore we could look up through the harbors and bays to the low coni- cal hills of Laurentian gneiss in the interior. Passing by Bradore Bay the lofty buttes of Bradore are seen to rise up from the low foreground of red sandstone. We then passed within sight of Greenly Island, where in 1 856, during a severe southwest gale, so sudden and common in the strait, thirty-one vessels for want of good anchor- age and shelter were driven upon a lee shore. Parra- keet Island then hove in sight, a favorite breeding-place for the parrakeet or puffin, with a single house on it, the hospitable mansion of a member of the ubiquitous Jones family, where in i860 a party from our camp on Caribou Island received board and lodging for which only thanks would be accepted. We then sight Blanc Sablon. The land here is high and descends to the sea in five very distinct terraces, of which the second is much the highest. There were huge bowlders of grit on the beach ; the raised beaches were packed with bowlders and the terraces in general direction appeared in perspective, as if dipping up the strait ; like river-terraces they were parallel to each other, but the lower one gradually dips down and loses THE PRIMORDIAL SANDSTONES, II7 itself in the water, while another slopes in the opposite direction. The higher terraces appear as if wooded or green. There were indeed three shades of green : in the lower terrace the debris is covered with a pale green herbage ; the older vegetation is darker, while the upper rusty green tint is very dark. At Blanc Sablon, which was originally so named by Jacques Cartier, the settlement consists of twenty houses ; they were painted white and from the vessel appeared like masses of floe-ice stranded on the shore. Of the houses four are "rooms," or fishing-establish- ments. We then pass the fishing-settlement of Forteau, with a lighthouse on the point, besides about twenty houses, and a Catholic church. Off the lighthouse is Shallop Island ; the harbor is two or three miles deep, walled in by vertical cliffs, furrowed and streaked by rain and frost. Into the harbor empties a salmon stream ; one man here seems to have the monopoly of the salmon fishery, put- ting up from twenty to sixty barrels a year ; they are salted and sent to Europe, Now as we pass on, the bay opens and at its head we can see the Laurentian formation, with its low, ob- tusely pointed gneiss hills ; but the general surface of the Labrador coast is very uniform, while the opposite shores of Newfoundland now recede and appear to be much lower. The strait is about eleven miles wide in its narrowest part. Sailing on but half a mile off shore at Anse-au-Loup, we can plainly see that the Cambrian rocks are red and gray sandstones — that the strata, almost horizontal, dip a little to the west, descending to the strait by three Il8 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. rock-terraces or shelves. A large brook here plunges in a broad sheet of foam straight down into the sea. The east side of the harbor of Anse-au-Loup is much higher than the western, the surface is irregular, and the but- tressed steeps recall the Palisades of the Hudson. Then we pass along a beautiful green glacis, and on the northw^est face of the bluff are five terraces,, with the sandstone strata slightly inclined. Here on the lowest bluff are to be seen four terraces (Fig. B). In the bay east of Anse-au-Loup, whose shores seemed -^.TERRACES AT BLANC SABLON ; B, AT ANSE-AU-LOUP ; C, TERRACES SEEN FROM THE MOUTH OF A BAY EAST OF ANSE-AU-LOUP. to be well wooded, we can again look through to the original broken Laurentian rock, and the Cambrian sandstone (Fig. C) runs out into a low point terminat- ing in a low, shelving, green glacis. On this point is the fishing-hamlet of Semedit (a corruption of Saint Modeste), with but two houses. The wind freshened off the cliffs, and now sailing on, BELLE ISLE. II9 the rough and fissured syenitic coast is in marked con- trast to the Cambrian shores we had just left. Going farther on we pass from syenitic to gneiss rocks, which rise from the water in long swells. Belle Isle, the Isle of Demons of the early navigators, now heaves in sight ; the Labrador coast is more sub- dued, the shores sloping to the water's edge. There are no islands along the coast, and within five miles of Henley Harbor the rock becomes entirely gneiss in char- acter, and we lose sight of the rough, hummocky syen- itic hills, though masses of flesh-red syenite are seen resting upon the dark gneiss rocks, forming a sea-wall. Now that notable landmark, the Devil's Dining Table, appears to view, and we soon distinguish Henley and Castle Islands, the two latter like two flat oblong blocks laid by Cyclopean hands on a foundation of rock. CHAPTER VIL A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. II. HENLEY HARBOR TO CAPE ST. MICHAEL. As we entered Henley Harbor the scene was unique. The strait was clear of ice, though a few days earlier the harbor had been packed with it, and remnants were stranded along the shore or carried hither and thither with the tides. The outlines of some of the pieces were beautiful ; many were painted with green tints while the sun was high, but later in the afternoon the greens were succeeded by bright azure blues, contrasting with the almost cobalt blues of the distant Laurentian hills. The entrance to Henley Harbor is very fine, the sea- cliffs being over 200 feet high, while behind are the pe- culiar outlines of the Laurentian gneiss, rising in long swells like whales' backs to a height of perhaps five or six hundred feet. Henley Harbor lies under the lofty, precipitous basaltic cliffs of the Devil's Dining Table, which caps Henley Island. We sail through a fleet of Newfoundland fishermen, whose low, thick masts, strong, clumsy rigging, and ironed and planked hulks — for they were sealers, and had not stopped to doff their ice-armor — contrasted with the beautiful model, slender, tapering masts and spars of our fleeter craft. Their decks were crowded with men, women, and children, dogs and goats, for these people had, like the old Norsemen, brought their families and stock with them for a sum- THE SEAL FISHERY. 121 mer's stay on the coast. Ashore, under the dark, beet- ling crag, lay the fishing-hamlet of Henley Harbor. The houses were small and mean, the flat roof of some covered with turf, the grass or moss growing on them, w^hile the fish-houses and "stages" were of the meanest description. After coming to anchor we were boarded by the cap- tain of one of the sealers, a brigantine of perhaps 140 tons burden, lately in from Carbonear in Conception Bay. Her bows and also her sides were planked and heavily ironed to resist the ice in the spring sealing in the Gulf. The captain had, immediately after discharging his cargo of sealskins and blubber — and the smells rising up through the hold and companion-way proved the fact ad naiiseam — only delayed long enough in port to put in 130 bushels of salt, and then cleared for the Labrador coast without stopping to strip off the outer planking. The captain was an intelligent, stalwart, English-born man only twenty years old, who had been to sea for six years. He was frank and communicative, and in half an hour gave us some insight into the mysteries of fish- ing and sealing. He had inherited the business, his fa- ther having been a sealer for fifty years. He owned the vessel and had brought along a cook ; he took, pas- sage free, eleven families, numbering 130 souls, men, women, and children, with goats, dogs, cats, and provi- sions for the whole party, and was to land them at some harbor on the coast north of the Strait, where they might spend the fishing season in their rude summer houses, called " tilts." During the voyage up the women are stowed aft and in the hold, and in a storm — and when are there two 122 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. continuously pleasant days on this coast ? — the hatches are battened down, the food is handed to them through a hole in the cabin, and then they are left to take care of themselves as best they can until the storm clears off, when the hatches are removed, and the forlorn passen- gers can take a breath of fresh air. The captain does' not take an active part in the fish- ing, but makes his profits by charging for freight on the fish. If the season is a good one and his vessel is soon filled, he goes back to Newfoundland and charters more vessels to carry back all the fish which have been caught. The season lasts from the end of. June until about the 20th of October. The season for the seal fishery during the past spring was from March 25th until June 4th. The Gulf, of course, was filled with ice, no water being in sight from shore. A successful "catch" of seals is "better than 9000." Each vessel carries fourteen boats, which are piled up on deck ; four men man a boat ; each man is provided with a gaff or boat-hook and a piece of ratline three and one-half fathoms long. On coming up to where the seals are lying, the crew land on the ice. The sealer runs up to a seal lying near its hole, which may be only a rod or so from the vessel or boat, clubs it — and it is easily stunned and killed with one or two blows — sculps it, then peals off the skin and blubber, leaving the carcass on the ice-floe. Each man can tie up five sealskins, and drag them to the vessel, and sally out again, rushing ahead and racing with the other crews of " bloodhounds." The scene is one of excitement and peril, the ice constantly endangering the vessel, which is liable to be " nipped " and to founder, leaving the ship- THE SEAL FISHERY, 1 25 wrecked sealers to burn their vessel and make their way ashore over the ice. One of Mr. Bradford's most suc- cessful paintings represents a sealer " nipped " by the ice, the crew abandoning her after having set fire to their vessel, and walking with mournful steps over the ice in the direction of land. The delicate blues of the ice, the sullen, neutral tints of the sky, the red glare of the flames breaking out of the burning ship, and the warm tints of the costumes of the men in the foreground, vividly portray a most tragic scene, enacted only too often on. the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To return to our statistics: a "crew" of sealers on the ice is composed of fifty men ; each one, if successful, securing five seals. Two hundred and fifty pelts may be brought back after each sally from the vessel. In this way, when the seals are abundant, from 2500 to 3000 sealskins are taken in a single day, 9000 making a cargo. The shares in the enterprise are ^60 each man. The captain takes "half, "leaving the men in the lurch," as our informant said, which being interpreted means that the men realize little or no profits from the voyage. A sealskin is v.'^orth $4.00, a full cargo, perhaps, sell- ing in the rough to traders for $30,000 or $40,000 ; the profits on a full cargo are therefore considerable, but the men's " half," being distributed among a large number, does not amount to much for each man. This spring (1864) the seal fishery was a failure. The young seals are killed by knocking them on the head with a boat-hook or club, and the old ones by shooting them with heavily loaded old muskets. The hunters .make holes in the ice and then watch for their heads to appear above water. Of all the different kinds 124 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. of seals, the Greenland or harp seal is the most fero- cious. The summer at Henley Harbor was a very backward one ; the salmon had not yet appeared at the mouths of the bays and rivers ; nor had the cod and their natural food, the capelin, moved in from the deep water. The enormous extent of fioe-ice which skirted the coast had lowered the temperature of the sea ; at the same time the ice-fields had prevented any icebergs from entering the Strait. The prevailing winds were cold and easterly ; the cold climate, the strong tides and the three-knot Labrador current passing around the cape into and down the Strait of Belle Isle render navigation here uncertain and dans'erous. June 27. The light southeasterly wind brought into the Strait the fog which had lain all the day previous outside of our harbor, and inland the clouds rested on the hills ; the day being dark and lowery. In the morn- ing some of us rowed three miles up to the head of Pitt's Arm, in Temple Bay, a deep fjord penetrating the high gneiss hills, into which pours, over a stony channel, a rapid trout stream about five yards across. The sandy beach was an ancient sea-bottom containing deep-sea shells.''^ On each side of the mouth of the brook were two terraces ; on the upper terrace, which was about forty feet above the sea, were two winter houses. I par- ticularly observed the appearance of these houses. One was 21X15 f^^t in size, the walls of upright, thick boards, the frame of poles ; the fiat roof was constructed of poles * The shells were Buccinum undatum, a variety with two ribs on the whorls; Saxicava riigosa, Mya tiddevallensis , Macoma proxima, Sernpes groenlandica, Natica clausa, of large size, and a branching ^oXyzoon, Celleporaria stcratlaris. A WINTER HOUSE. 12$ placed near together and covered with birch and hemlock bark, the strips, which were a foot wide, being placed crosswise; the eaves were scarcely five feet above the ground, and the floor was in part of boards and in part of turf. The door, hung on iron hinges, and closed with a wooden latch and string, was only four and a half feet high, and there was a single window, 16x15 inches. Within were three beds and a settle. The lumber for these shanties had evidently, by the piles of sawdust near by, been sawn upon the spot and taken from the Labra- dorian forest of firs near at hand, which measured twelve inches through at the butt, and were about twenty feet high. In their branches a robin and a sparrow were flit- ting about. The willow bushes were here five feet in height. On the sides of the sandy terraces were blackberry and raspberry bushes, and currants, shadber- ries, and golden thread just in blossom, while the alders were still in flower. I dredged in water about fift}^ fathoms deep, in Chateau Bay, bringing up, among molluscs, fine large Leda permUa, Astarte banksii, Lyonsia arenosa, Car- diutn islandicum ; rare sandstars, and young and old arctic crabs {Chion(Ecetes opilid). The 28th was almost wintry in its cold, changeable weather. A northeast storm raged, with a few drops of rain and a little snow in the forenoon, while after dinner there was a thick snow-storm, the hill-tops being whit- ened with snow for several hours, which, however, disap- peared by the evening. The water in the harbor was intensely cold, and the Mertensia and Clione, those beautiful creatures of the icy seas, abounded. The forenoon was spent in examining the trap rocks 126 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. on the harbor side of Henley Island, and in shore-col- lecting. The rock-weeds or fuci do not grow luxuriantly on the coast of Labrador, but are stunted and dwarfed, like their more highly-born relatives of the vegetable kingdom ashore. Below tide-mark, however, though the tide on the Labrador coast rises and falls only two or three feet, the Devil's Apron or Laminaria is seen, but not so common and large as on the coast of Maine. Life between tide-marks is scanty compared with the New England coast. We never detected the common whelk that gives the purple dye {Purpura lapillus) ; but the two Littorinas {L. rudis, less commonly L. lit- toralis) were common ; these are circumpolar forms, abounding at the water's edge at Greenland. In this region scarcely a sea-bird was to be seen, and rarely even a gull ; but on one occasion three ducks, while a lonely raven flew about the cliff. Insect life was scanty, and with the animals and plants showed in its appearance a strange intermixture of what at home would have been characteristic of early April and late May. Frogs are seen here, we were told : in the garden the turnips were just up. Thirty ^^years ago there was but a single house at Henley Harbor, and none at Red Bay, where now there are thirty. The fish and birds here, meanwhile, have vastly decreased in numbers. The fish are principally cod, salmon, and herring. Old Captain French, our pilot, never saw a hake on the Labrador coast, and only two haddock, though both , kinds are abundant and troublesome to cod fishermen at Bay Chaleur, on the New Brunswick shore. Detained another day by head-winds and rain in the DREDGING. 12/ early part of the day, the wind in the evening hauled around to the S. W., giving us a fine evening sky. I dredged in the morning in the rain over the side of the vessel in four fathoms, the bottom rich in the red sea- weed {Ptilotd), the Desmarestia, and the sea-colander (Agarum turneri), and besides a portly queer-spined amphipod {Ainphithonotus cataphractzts), which carried its brood of young, also bristling with spines, a fine large Crangon boreas with other bright red shrimps came up. NEBALIA BIPES. (Enlarged six times.) In^the afternoon we sailed out two or three miles to the mouth of the harbor, and dredged in from ten to twenty fathoms on a hard, pebbly bottom, evidently the contin- uation of the beach, and showing that the land was for- merly at least from one hundred to three hundred feet higher than at present ; besides Lyonsia arenosa, Kenne- rliaglacialis, and other shells and crustaceans, the interest- ing iVl::B.Jaapjuea ZlJDmvSram/lild St. UUXtn/A ftuSSmi-aZava i:. AJ'eroaUt KX.TrarJi, Covg, 3i. SJSaUiJffeneBrCap^ !f(La£av • K. OTtcLvto-fe 23.AJifes7ur- 33.Ch.i (mieer'^''™^™ iuJstu&, 17, JlThomcLS ZlJbmSiuZLct sy. G.Flonerjn, IfS^^AAW^jSicaXt- IS. ^ij&S Sjm^ ZSJi.OuJJo 3a,Sh'.<}rin>es-ira^ l/^iMi^MM^ ja^tT.SrnTTx&eidi ZS.JTWJiiai 3ff.A.3ams.Bigaa2at3 QCmvm^ Map of the Coast of Northern LAiiRAD (xAHer Reichel.) To /ace page tc THE COAST NEAR HOPEDALE. I95 lands of this coast, which in nearly all respects are arc- tic and circumpolar, though Hopedale is in the latitude of Dublin. Another Greenland shell, a little fresh-water bivalve {Pisiduim steenbuchii^ not before known to live south of Greenland, was common in the pools, from which were arising caddis-flies and an Ephemera. A worker bumble-bee was also seen here for the first time, not- withstanding the cold weather of the past few days. Here were again to be observed the signs of the for- mer depression of land which marked the height of the Leda-clay epoch (the Champlain epoch of the books) ; beaches at least loo feet high, with two terraces, the lower one from fifteen to twenty feet above the sea-level. The afternoon of July 30th saw us safe in the harbor of Hopedale. A fresh, fair, west wind blowing all night let us out of our snug little haven at Strawberry. Our pilot simply knew the way to Hopedale, and some of the more dangerous rocks along our course. The wind was so fresh that our cautious captain took two reefs in the mainsail, but- it only blew strongly out of the bay, being an off-shore wind, and the force of the breeze di- minished sensibly as we went out to sea. The mountains and hills around our harbor and perhaps for a distance of ten miles northward, some of them 800 and 1,000 feet high, were spotted with snow, the remnants of the past storm. As we approached within twenty miles of Hopedale, the outer islands at the mouth of Kippokok Bay were seen to be more or less hummocky, some of them high and rounded, evidently composed of the lab- radoritic syenite, w^hile the mainland at the head of the bays was of Laurentian gneiss. Still as we advance 196 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. northward the whole country, or at least the coast, grad- ually rises higher above the sea, which made me more than ever anxious to see how it culminated in the wild, crater-shaped, snow-streaked lofty mountains near Cape Chidley ; but it was not to be our good fortune to reach that promised land. CHAPTER IX. ' A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. IV. HOPEDALE AND THE ESKIMO.'! About an hour before we reached Hopedale, we passed a high sugar-loaf-shaped island, "The Beacon," with four well-marked terraces carved by the weather or shore-ice when the sea stood at different levels in the ages gone by, as the land halted in its upward rise. This ROCK TERRACES ON "THE BEACON," 70O FEET ELEVATION, NEAR HOPEDALE. was the landmark for the Moravian vessels from London, and by boiling water on the summit it had been ascer- tained to rise 700 feet above the sea. The rock was evi- dently that variety of syenite containing labradorite and green hornblende. In the interior a few miles distant was to be seen a high elevation, broad and massive at the base, but conical or nipple-shaped at the summit, and rising perhaps 1,500 feet above the sea. As we entered, on a Saturday afternoon, the harbor of Hopedale, which is situated at the head of a deep, 197 198 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. broad bay or sound, we nearly overhauled the Moravian supply ship " Harmony," just out from London. She was a bark of 300 American tons, very neatly kept, thor- oughly well-appointed, and well-officered and manned, her chief officer, Captain Linklater, a Scotchman. As she approached the harbor and before we discovered the mission building ashore, she fired a salute from two nine- pounders, at the same time sending her flag up to half- mast : both announcing her arrival and signalling disas- ter — the death in London of Rev. Mr. Latrobe, Secre- tary of the Society of the United Brethren. A salute from a small gun near a flagstaff on the rocks not far from the mission, and an irregular volley from the fowl- ing-pieces of the Eskimos answered ; then a dory and a kayak put off from shore, followed by a heavy, clumsy boat with a square block tiller, which bore the three mis- sionaries, clad in seal-skin frocks with capotes, who greeted the others aboard with a kiss on each cheek. The boat's flag was also at half-mast, as the oldest mis- sionary, Superintendent Kruth, had died at Hopedale but a few days previous. The " Harmony" had brought over besides a missionary who had been absent for two years, the agent or supercargo, Herr Lintner, who had been educated as a civil engineer, and was the son of the owner of the vessel ; he visits the three mission stations^ and reports to the Society at home as to their condition and progress.* * This was the only vessel which visited Hopedale while we were there. Since that date this part of the coast has been visited by fishermen from New- foundland and Nova Scotia, attracted northward by the greater abundance of codfish. Dewitz states that up to the year 1S79 nearly 2,200 vessels had visited Hopedale, from 500 to 600 annually reaching the port, while in the year 1879 800 vessels touched at Hopedale, and on one morning 72 vessels lay in Hope- dale Bay. ESKIMO WOMEN. 199 Meanwhile we were boarded by a large delegation of the squat, square-faced aboriginals ashore, full of curios- ity and interest, quite ready to accept any offering from our dinner-table, or even the scullion's waste-pail, and examining our spars and deck with approving glances. We returned the visit, and it may be confessed that we fully reciprocated their interest in our surroundings'when we inspected their own. There are six Moravian settlements in Labrador, the oldest being Nain, which was founded in 1771 ; Okkak was founded in 1776; Hopedale in 1782; Hebron and Zoar in 1830. Hopedale is situated in lat. 55° 25', Nain in lat. 56° 25', Okkak in lat 57° 2,3', and Plebron in lat. 58° 50'. At these stations there were in all, in i860, twenty missionaries and about 1,400 Eskimos. Rama was founded a year or two after our visit. The new science of anthropology was not so generally cultivated in 1864 as now, and we took no notes of the height of the Eskimos at Hopedale and elsewhere ; but in "Science" for July 29, 1887, we find the following statements by Mr. W. A. Ashe as to the mean height of the Eskimo at North Bluff on Hudson Strait, taken from measurements of "60 families," the exact number of persons measured not being stated. The men aver- aged 5 feet, 3.9 inches, and the women approximately 5 feet, in height. And here it may be said that the condition of the women, whether the effect of their semi-civilization and Christianization or not, was certainly not that of subjec- tion, but of normal equality. They were certainly sharper at a bargain than their husbands, and within doors, at least, appeared to be mistresses of the mansion. 200 A SUxMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. The women's dress differs from that of the men in the long- tail to their jacket-like garment ; some wore an old calico dress-skirt over the original Eskimo dress, — a thin veneer of civilization typical perhaps of the educa- tion they had been receiving for the past few generations, which was not so thorough-going as not to leave external traces at least of their savage antecedents. But may this not be said of all of us ? For only a few centuries ago our ancestors were in a state of semi-barbarism, and the An- glo-Saxon race can date back to Neolithic Celts and bronze-using Aryan barbarians. However this may be, the Eskimos at Hopedale were a well-bred, kindly, in- telligent, scrupulously honest folk, whereas their ances- tors before the establishment of the Moravian mission- aries on this coast were treacherous, crafty, and murder- ous. To be shipwrecked on this inhospitable coast was esteemed a lesser evil than to fall into the hands of wan- dering bands of Labrador Eskimos. The natives have evidently been well cared for by the missionaries, kept from starvation in the winter, and their lives have been made nobler and better. Even in an Eskimo tepic life has been proved to be worth living. Fishermen and cruisers are (1864) not welcomed here, and it was not until a day or two had elapsed and the object of our ex- pedition made known that we were cordially welcomed- There were four missionaries at Hopedale : Brothers Shutt, Kreuchmer, Vollpracht, and Samuel Weiz, the latter, who died in 1888, a good botanist and interested in the zoology of the coast. They were now living with their families under one roof in the new mission house — a red-roofed yellow building of wood, of two stories and a half, a large, convenient, warm house — ''^^^i00:^fSM^^ A Full-blooded Eskimo Fa.iily at Hopedalf, Labrador, 1864. (From a photograph by Bradford.) To face page 200, THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF TREES. 20I there being seven buildings in all, including the unfin- ished new chapel ; at a distance from the others was a small powder-house. The servants in and about the sta- tion were Eskimo, neat, cleanly, and intelligent. There was plenty of lumber, judging by a pile of spruce-logs, which were about fifty feet long and twenty inches in thickness at the butt."^ We were also told that the Eskimos had built and manned a schooner of fifty tons. The mission is impart a trading-post, but at present is paying only half its ex- penses ; the missionaries dealing in furs and curiosities, which they sell in London. Mr. Weiz kindly gave me a list of the plants and vertebrate animals of Labrador, accompanied with notes, and his herbarium was very complete in the plants of Okkak, which he said was warmer, more protected, and had a more luxuriant flora * The northern limit of trees on the Labrador coast appears from the state- ments of L. T. Reichel to be not far north of Hebron, as he says that while the extreme northern part of the coast is treeless, the bays south of Hebron are well wooded with spruce and larches, and south of this point with birches. Although situated considerably more to the south than Greenland, the winter is longer and the cold greater than in Greenland, since the southern extremity of Greenland is warmed by a branch of the Gulf Stream, while the winter climate of the Labrador coast is lowered by the floating ice borne by the Labrador current from Baffin's Bay. In Greenland the water becomes open in April, while in [Labrador the bays are not free from ice till the first of July. On the other hand, the summer months are considerably warmer than in Greenland, and hence there is a forest growth, since the interior of Greenland is buried in ice. In Dewitz's pamphlet it is stated that in the deep bays between Zoar and Hopedale birches occur, also willows, stunted bushes of the mountain-ash, and alders, until south of Hopedale the vegetation passes into the forest flora of Canada. But we observed that the outer islands are nearly bare from Cape Harrison to Hopedale, the shrubs and stunted trees mentioned only growing in protected valleys. Dewitz adds that there are rem- nants of forests on the coast, but that the missionaries have been unable to plant forests, and they think that the existing forest growth owes its origin to -an earlier, warmer period. 202 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. than Hopedale. Mr. Vollpracht told me that a large fresh-water snail {Limncea, near elodes) was abundant in a lake at Okkak. The collection of birds' eggs was a good one, and they also had skulls of the polar and black bears and of seals, which they sold to us. I also purchased a valuable collection of insects, principally butterflies and moths, obtained at Okkak. We visited the rather large cemetery, well laid out and fenced in, situated in a level spot where the soil was deeper than elsewhere : at one end were the graves of the mis;sion- aries, over which memorial slabs were laid ; a large mound marked the last resting-place of Superintendent Kruth, while among the others was an infant's grave ; at the opposite end of the yard were the short graves of the Eskimos. There were six little gardens, each perhaps belonging to a separate family. They were laid out like those in the fatherland, with clumps of spruce and larches, em- bracing a summer-house, a rustic seat, and a grass-plot. There were also rows of hot-beds, where they rear let^ tuce from plants raised in the house, yielding them salad in May. Turnips were well forward, onions were in bud, currant bushes two feet high were in blossom, as well as potatoes, which were six inches high, and the rhubarb was quite luxuriant in its growth, its flowers having been open for some time. The Eskimos were ready enough to traflic, though slow at first to bring out their wares, which consisted of birds' eggs, principally those of robins and murres, models of kayaks and oomiaks, as well as sleds in bone and seal-skin. From one of them, named Caspar, a lame boy who had lived ten years in Hamilton Inlet EVENING PRAYERS. 203 and knew a little English, I was told that a narwhale was seen many years ago on this coast. It appears that this polar animal occurs now as far south as Hudson's Strait. Captain Handy told me that on the north side of Hudson's Strait the narwhale commonly goes in herds of thirty. Malmgren, a Finnish author, says that the narwhale leaves Spitzbergen in summer for more northern and colder latitudes.* None of them, however, had ever seen a walrus, but the white bear was said to be not uncommon ; and he mentioned the wolverine as occurring in the neighbor- hood. • Showing Caspar the picture of the lobster in my Gosse's Zoology, he said it, with the shore crab, was not found here, but south of Grosswater Bay (Hamilton Inlet); the salmon (kavishilik) were taken in nets; he was also familiar with the starfish, which he called ougiak. At sunset the chapel bell rang for evening prayers, and all left their work or houses and made their w^ay to the sanctuary. The men and women sat separately and at opposite ends of the room, even entering by a sepa- rate door ; and the oldest members of the congregation sat back on the higher benches, probably to overawe the juveniles on the front seats ; although these must have been duly restrained by the presence of the seven mis- sionaries who sat against the opposite wall on the right side of the leader's desk, their seven wives on the left. The service was brief, lasting twenty minutes, consisting of an invocation or address in Eskimo, and a few chants to German tunes, the congregation joining in the music * Wiegmann's Archiv flir Naturgeschichte, 1S64, p. 96. 204 A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. of the organ, which was well played by an Eskimo boy. From the chapel all dispersed to their quarters, and the settlement long before dark was buried in profound silence. Sunday, the 31st July, was a warm, sunny day, unfor- tunately as much enjoyed by the mosquitoes and black- flies as by us. In the forenoon we went to the service, which was simple and brief, the natives not being wearied with a long discourse ; like the yesterday even- ing prayers it consisted simply of an invocation or ad- dress, congregational singing and the litany, and in half an hour the assembly dispersed. The day was observed by the natives and all others with more reverence than we have noticed in Lutheran countries. The evening by invitation was spent aboard the " Harmony." Captain Linklater, an unusually in- telligent man, was, as he told us, six weeks gn his voy- age from London here ; he generally first sights Cape Webuc, though steering for " The Beacon" below Hope- dale. In saihng from Hopedale to Nain the " Harmony" takes an inside course. Above this point the coast is still more deeply indented by bays and fjords, their mouths checked with islands which extend fifty miles or more out to sea. The captain is ordered by the company or gov- ernor to take two Eskimo pilots from each port ; he gen- erally leaves them to return when fifteen miles out from harbor, as they are unacquainted with the rocks and shoals. Navigation to Nain is represented to be difficult ; at one place the vessel has to double two points closing in one beyond the other. The captain while in harbor is -gradually making charts of the coast, which at best can THE FLOE-ICE. 20$: only be approximative ; the missionaries have also, by as- cending the highest points near their respective stations, taken the bearings of the islands about, Captain L. by a patent log taking the distance between them. * For ninety years a " Harmony" — the name being handed down to successive vessels — has made its annual voyage to Labrador, the missions having been established in Green- land in 1733 and first on this coast in 1771 ; dming that time but two men have been lost from the vessel, one of them having been drowned by upsetting in a kayak. From the hills east of the station the ice-field could be seen about ten miles out to sea, but bergs were visible all along the coast. Captain Linklater on this voyage encountered more ice than in any previous year of his service. He found the field to be eighty-five miles wide ; and from careful observations during a number of years judged the rate of travel of the floe past the coast at this point to be at the rate of twenty-seven miles a day, or a little over a mile an hour. During this summer the ice had, as we had observed, been running down the coast from June 2 2d to August 2 2d, though it actually began earlier and must have continued later than that. That the ice finally disappeared by melting rather than by sinking we believe, though the fishermen on the coast maintain that it finally sinks. The extent of the ice-fields therefore off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland must have been this season not much less than 80,000 square miles ; the effect of such a wet blanket on the coast may well be imagined. * The results of these surveys were embodied in a MS. map by the Rev. S. Weiz, and it was this map which was kindly loaned me by the Secretary, IMr. Latrobe, of the London ofBce, and used in compiling the map of Labrador in the present volume. 206 A summer's cruise to NORTHERN LABRADOR. August I St was spent in geologizing, as it was cold and cloudy, with an easterly wind. The island on which Hopedale is situated is of the ordinary Laurentian gneiss, which behind the mission house is curiously contorted ; it is fine-grained, distinctly banded, with veins of quartz and of granite ; at one point it dipped about 60° W. with a N. W. and S. E. strike. There are a number of trap dykes, in places like slightly winding stairs or steps descending to the water's edge, justifying the term trap applied to this rock, which is from the Swedish 'trappa, meaning a series of steps or stairs. The rocks are water-worn and terraced to the tops of the hills. Behind the mission house is a raised beach of large, loose, rounded sea-worn bowlders, generally two feet in diameter, and mostly concealed by the growth of Empetrum ; it is narrow and slopes down to a little bight east of the Eskimo village, and its shores are formed by what proved to be a raised sea-bottom. To our great surprise and delight this beach above and between tide- marks abounded in multitudes of deep-water shells with other fossils ; and I spent half the day in picking them up, renewing the search the next day. That it was an old sea-bottom which had been raised at least from 75 to 100 feet, if not more, was proved by the habits of the shells, now living at the depth of from 15 to 20 fathoms off shore, and also by the quantities of nullipores encrust- ing the shells and pebbles, showing that the beach had not been disturbed since its elevation. Indeed it struck me, though I have no essential proof, that the coast of Labrador is now slowly rising, and this is also the opinion of Campbell (Frost and Fire). Returning to the vessel towards night, an active trade KAYAKING. ^ 20/ was carried on with the Eskimos to our mutual satisfac- tion ; we bartered our old clothes for sealskin boots, mittens, and miniature kayaks, etc. The two next days were warm and sunny, with westerly winds, and the time was mainly given to the entomology of the island, though the mosquitoes were excessively annoying. On the hills were the Chionobas butterfly, so wonderfully mimicking the colors of the lichens on the rocks. The little blue butterfly {Polyommatus Frank- linii) was very abundant here, resembling some moths when in flight. We made long calls upon the missionaries, finding them very cordial and pleasant, with much love of natural history. They returned our visit, and their wards, the Eskimos, swarmed over our vessel like flies. Always good-natured, without exception rigidly honest and up- right, they were a continual source of interest and amuse- ment. They lent us their kayaks, which are framed of spruce wood and covered with sealskin, and rather wider and therefore safer to row in than Greenland kayaks, which are framed .with bone. I found it easy enough to paddle in them, but difficult to keep the bows steady on the course, each stroke of th,e double-ended paddle caus- ing the bows to go too far one side ; they are by no means so safe, however, as a birch canoe. Some of the passen- gers and our crew paddled for a distance of one or two miles, and after a little practice made good kayakers. One day while rambling over the hills near the station I came upon a fissure in the rock, marked by -a pole, and loosely covered with a few flat stones. It contained two skeletons, presumably of an Eskimo man and woman. I hastily put the skull and bones into the bottom of 2o8 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. my butterfly-net and covered them with grass ; on my way past the chapel I came plump upon a wedding party going away from the doors. The bride led the party^ clad in her old-time costume, with the addition of a calico skirt ; at the distance of a few paces followed the groom, while the friends straggled along behind. Without being asked too curious questions I carried my precious freight aboard, glad — to use a sepulchral simile — to kill two birds with one stone, i.e. to secure the last remains of an old-time Eskimo couple and to see a young and living couple so recently united. At Hopedale we understood the oldest person, the patriarch of the colony, to be a woman of seventy years r we saw her — a picture of ugliness which still haunts our memory. There were three Eskimos who were sixty years old. A man becomes prematurely old when forty- five years of age, as the hunters are by that time worn out by the hardships of the autumnal seal fishery. CHAPTER X. A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. V. THE RETURN VOYAGE TO BOSTON. On August 4th we bade farewell to Moravians and Eskimos ; and with deep regret that it was not possible for us to go farther north, at least to the 60th parallel of latitude, we weighed anchor and ran with a fresh west wind abeam to Thomas's or Maggovik Bay, where the Norwegian Andersen lives in a well-wooded bight. Andersen told me he had seen only one sort of caribou, and did not know of a " barren-ground" as distinguished from a "wood" caribou. He also said that the white and blue fox littered together, but that the blue variety was very rare. After dredging a while in fifteen fathoms on a muddy bottom, where the interesting Myriotrochtis was common, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon Mr. Brad- ford went with a boat's crew on a trading trip to Thomas's house. The wind being dead ahead we had to row all the way up, nearly thirty miles, and back, reach- ing the vessel at one in the night. We took a late sup- per at Mr. Thomas's hospitable house, and enjoyed a cup of tea with goat's milk and good bread. The house was comfortably situated near some quite sizable spruce-trees, with a flourishing garden near by. Mr. Thomas (for the site of his house see 1 7 on the map of Eskimo Bay) is 209 2IO A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. a trader in furs, of which he had two or three hundred dollars' worth on hand, and he professed to have more than he wanted to live on. This little trip gave me some idea of the country inland, as Thomas's Bay is thirty miles deep, forming a broad sound, with few is- lands except at the mouth. Both sides of the bay are thickly wooded, with mountain summits rising bare and gray through the covering of dark green coniferous trees, the birches or poplars not being abundant enough to en- liven the sombre hues of an evergreen Labrador forest. The contours of the ridges and hills were regular, the country was rather low, the scenery on the whole monot- onous ; and such, I conceive, are the features of the in- terior of the Labrador plateau, though diversified with- lakes and deep river valleys. Both sides of the bay- were terraced : on the north side were three long and regular terraces ; those on the south side were less regu- lar and much shorter ; one formed a point of land per- haps a hundred feet high and descending into the water by three terraces. Farther up, the slope of the hill was paved with large sea-worn bowlders, for the most part covered over and hidden by the vegetation. At the mouth of the bay are also three naked terraces, the longer one winding up; following the shore, a growth of trees partially concealing it from sight. The return row down the bay and the sunset effects were extremely fine I cannot attempt to describe them. How the scenery at this point appeared to a better artist in words than myself may be realized by the following extract from one of Rev. Mr. Wasson's papers in the Atlantic Monthly of May, 1865 : " In the early afternoon a dense haze filled the sky. A LABRADOR LANDSCAPE. ' 211 The sun, seen through this, became a globe of glowing ruby, and its glade on the sea looked as if the water had been strewn, almost enough to conceal it, with a crystal- line ruby dust, or with fine mineral spicules of vermilion bordering upon crimson. The peculiarity of this ruddy dust was that it seemed to possess body, and, while it glowed, did not in the smallest degree dazzle, — as if the brilliancy of each ruby particle came from the heart of it rather than from the surface. The effect was in truth indescribable, and I try to suggest it with more sense of helplessness than I have felt hitherto in preparing these papers. It was beautiful beyond expression, — any ex- pression, at least, which is at my command. " Such a spectacle, I suppose, one might chance to see anywhere, though the chance certainly never occurred to me before. It could scarcely have escaped me through want of attention, for I could well believe myself a child of the sun, so deep an appeal to my feeling is made by effects of light and color : light before all. " But the atmosphere of Labrador has its own secret of beauty, and charms the eye with aspects which one may be pardoned for believing incomparable in their way. The blue of distant hills and mountains, when ob- served in clear sunshine, is subtile and luminous to a degree that surpasses admiration. I have seen the Cam- den Heights across the waters of Penobscot Bay when their blue was equally profound ; for these hills, beheld over twenty miles or more of sea, do a wonderful thing; in the way of color, lifting themselves up there through all the long summer days, a very marvel of solemn and glorious beauty. The ^Egean Sea has a charm of at- mosphere which is wanting to Penobscot Bay, but the 212 'A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. hue of its heights cannot compare with that of the Cam- den Hills. Those of Labrador, however, maintain their supremacy above even these — above all. They look frozen sky. Or one might fancy that a vast heart or core of amethyst was deeply overlaid with colorless crystal, and shone through with a softened, lucent ray. Such transparency, such intense delicacy, such refine- ment of hue ! Sometimes, too, there is seen in the deep hollows between the lofty billows of blue, a purple that were fit to clothe the royalty of immortal kings, while the blue itself is flecked as it were with a spray of white light, which one might guess to be a precipitate of sun- shine. "This was wonderful ; but more wonderful and most wonderful was to come. It was given me once and once again to look on a vision, an enchantment, a miracle of all but impossible beauty, incredible until seen, and even when seen scarcely to be credited, save by an act of faith. We had sailed up a deep bay and cast anchor in a fine large harbor of the exactest horse-shoe shape. It was bordered immediately by a gentle ridge some three .hundred feet high, which was densely wooded with spruce, fir, and larch. Beyond this ridge to the west rose mountainous hills, while to the south, where was the head of the harbor, it was overlooked immediately by a broad, noble mountain. It had been one of those white-skied days when the heavens are covered by a uni- form filmy fleece, and the light comes as if it had been filtered through milk. But just before sunset this fleece was rent, and a river of sunshine streamed across the ridge at the head of the harbor, leaving the mountain beyond, and the harbor itself with its wooded sides, still A LABRADOR LANDSCAPE. 21 3 in shadow. And where that shine fell, the foliage changed from green to a glowing, luminous red-brown, expressed with astonishing force, — not a trace, not a hint of green remaining ! Beyond it the mountain pre- served its whited gray ; nearer, on either side, the woods stood out in clear green ; and, separated from these by the sharpest line, rose this ridge of enchanted forest. You will incline to think that one might have seen through this illusion by trying hard enough. But never were the colors in a paint-pot more definite and deter- mined. " This was but the beginning. I had turned away, and was debating with myself whether some such color, seen on the Scotch and English Kills, had not given the hint for those uniform browns which Turner in his youth copied from his earlier masters. When I looked back, the sunshine had flooded the mountain, and was bathing it all in the purest rose-red. "Bathing it? No, the moun- tain was solidly converted, transformed to that hue ! The power, the simplicity, the translucent, shining depth of the color were all that you can imagine, if you make no abatements and task your imagination to the utmost. This roseate hue no rose in the garden of Orient or Occident ever surpassed. Small spaces were seen where the color became a pure ruby, which could not have been more lustrous and intense had it proceeded from a polished ruby gem ten rods in dimension. Color could go no farther. Yet if the eye lost these for a mo- ment, it was compelled somewhat to search for them, — so powerful, so brilliant was the rose setting in which thev were embosomed. "One must remember how near at hand all this was 214 A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. — not more than a mile or two away. Rock, cavern, clifif, ail the details of rounded swell, rising peak, and long- descending' slope could be seen with entire distinctness. The mountains rose close upon us, broad, massive, real — but all in this glorious, this truly ineffable transforma- tion. It was not distance that lent enchantment here» It was not lent; it was real as rock, as Nature ; it con- fronted, outfaced, overwhelmed you ; for enchantment so immediate and on such a scale of grandeur and gor- geousness — who could stand up before it ? " In_sailing out of the bay next day, we saw this and the neighbor mountain under noon sunshine (lat. 55° 20'). They were the handsomest we saw, apparently composed in part of some fine mineral, perhaps pure labradorite. In the full light of day these spaces shone like polished silver. My first impression was that they must be patches of snow, but a glance at real spots of snow corrected me. These last, though more dis- tinctly white, had not the high, soft, silver shine of the mineral. Doubtless it was these mountain-gems which, under the magic touch of sunset light, had the evening before appeared like vast rubies, blazing amidst the rose which surrounded them. " And this evening the spectacle of the preceding one was repeated, though more distantly and on^a larger scale. Ph thought it the finer of the two. Far away the mountain height towered, a marvel of aerial blue, while broad spurs reaching out on either side were clothed, the one in shiny rose-red, the other in ethereal roseate tints superimposed upon azure ; and farther away, to the southeast, a mountain range lay all in solid carmine along the horizon, as if the earth blushed - . AN ARCTIC PTEROPOD. 21$ at the touch of heaven. . . . All the wildness and waste, all the sternest desolations of the whole earth, brouor ^Asellelsle. rocks occur also at Sloop Harbor, rising two hundred feet high, and are capped by syenite, which is very pale in color, with particles of black hornblende. Here, as at Tub Harbor, the strata at the point of contact with TRAP DYKES. 289 the syenite become a dark gneiss. The Esquimaux Islands, which lie off this coast, are composed of this light-colored gneiss. Invariably accompanying these rocks is a doleritic trap of a peculiar mineralogical character, occurring in overflows of a peculiar physiognomy, and upheaved in a direction at nearly right angles to that of the Laurentian dykes, thus following the general northwesterly trend of the Atlantic coast of the peninsula. This rock differs from the hard fine-grained trap at Henley Harbor in being coarsely porphyritic. It is composed of large crystalline masses of hypersthene and labradorite, this last being of a dark smoky color, and precisely such as described as occurring on Square Island. It seems to follow that this porphyritic trap is the result of the refusion of the anorthosite rock, which must con- sequently underlie this Domino quartzite. This is an argument for the unconformable bedding of this gneiss upon the Lower Laurentian gneiss, while this trap-rock is evidently of the age of the Domino gneiss, which it has somewhat disturbed. The Isle of Ponds is largely composed of these trap hills. Huntington Island is a large mass of trap. Tub Island, as its name betokens, is a peculiar, truncated cone of trap, resembling an inverted tub. These trap overflows extend northward to Cape North, which is a lofty headland of trap capping the gneiss, and thus adding very materially to the elevation of this as of all the other numerous gneiss promontories which run out from the main land. Occasionally an island is seen half black and half white, one side being composed of the dark trap-rock, and the other of the light-colored quartzite. Such is " Black and White," a 290 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. very prominent island near " Indian Tickle," a harbor at the northern side of Hamilton Inlet. Here are some remarkable dykes which ascend the gneiss hills in huge- irregular zigzag crests, often crossing each other at right angles. Beyond this point the older Laurentian gneiss again appears, and forms the high bold shores extending to Hopedale, rising in the interior into lofty imposing^ mountains on whose tops lie patches of snow. Among the erratic rocks at Domino Harbor were some which show that in the interior are beds of jasper and chert. There occurred several small bowlders of jas-^ per and gneiss. The jasper was pale green, banded and striped by darker shades of green, while the irregularly alternating bands of syenitic gneiss appeared to be an altered quartzite, as it was found under a glass to be largely composed of a fine granular quartz-rock, with a little flesh-colored and white feldspar, and minute par- ticles of hypersthene. Several bowlders of chert occurred at Tub Island. This was a very tough, compact, silicious rock, lineated by fine veins of quartz. It weathers to a dull chalky white. It is most probable that these rolled stones were borne down from the interior by glaciers, but the chert pebbles may have been borne on floating ice from Frobisher's Bay, as Mr. Hall notices such rocks as being abundant there. At Tub Island I was shown specimens of mag- netic iron ore, which were brought from " Cartwright's Tickle," a few miles toward the main land. It occurred in veins half an inch wide.'''" * For further information regarding the Laurentian rocks of Northern Labra- dor, see Dr. Bell's observations in Report of the Canadian Geological Survey for 1884 and '85. THE LABRADOR DRIFT. 29I Quaternary Formation. — In studying the drift piie- nomena of Labrador as compared with those of the tem- perate zone, we shall at the outset find ourselves disap- pointed in our anticipations as to their relative develop- ment. In a region which has evidently been exposed to the most intense action of glaciers, prolonged over a period vastly longer than in Canada or New England, we have surviving this period of denudation and wasting away of the surface but few drift scratches remaining on any exposed surfaces below a height of five hundred feet above the sea, and superficial deposits which are re- duced almost to a minimum as compared with those of the temperate zone. In this absence of drift and more recent deposits, the Labrador plateau agrees exactly with all mountainous districts above the level of most deciduous trees. We are to look to the lowlands about their base for the debris and drift borne down by streams or glaciers from the mountain centres. The Labrador plateau has been greatly denuded. Its highest mountains have been trun- cated and their peaks sliced off by the denuding agent as if by a knife. The Domino gneiss has lost at least three hundred to four hundred feet of its comparatively soft strata, as evidenced by the lofty trap hills which now rise above the strata of altered sandstones. The trap .is as firm and hard at the top of the overflov/s as at the base. The loose material resulting from this long.con- tinued denudation is not now found in the interior or on the coast of Labrador, except in very small quantities. It was evidently conveyed southwards by icebergs and floe- or shore-ice, and forms the bottom of the St. Law- rence Gulf, and the banks and shoals southward. In 292 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. most subarctic and all arctic lands the soil is but a few inches deep. In all temperate regions the superficial deposits have been characterized by Prof. Desor* to be " a succession of rocky hills and drift plateaus or valleys, which can be traced to the highest elevation of the country, near the dividing ridge, each following plateau or valley being commonly at a higher level than the preceding." This state of things obtains in Labrador, but there is an im- mense disproportion between the rocky hills and the drift deposits. We find no sandy plains or level tracts of glacial drift, or marine clays, distributed at intervals from the coast to the interior. They take the form of occasional, isolated sand-banks and cliffs of clay, of slight extent, overhanging rivers, and which by their secluded and retired positions have escaped the general denuda- tion by the Labrador current which must have passed over the lower levels of the peninsula subsequent to the glacial epoch. In travelling in the interior we find our- selves walking, when it is possible to walk or climb at all, over the rocky floor of this inhospitable region, smoothed in spots, though rarely striated by glaciers, but on the coast more generally mangled and torn by the action of shore-ice and frosts, which have here shown a vast power. The Leda clays are mostly confined to the head of re- tired bays, or if in more exposed situations, lie between bold headlands. The vast sand barrens of Canada and New England spreading into broad plains, are here rep- resented by precipitous masses of sand hanging upon the * Foster and Whitney's Report on the Geology of Lake Superior. GLACIAL Marks. 293 steep mountain slopes. The traveller stumbles upon them in ascending the swift impetuous streams. The most abundant superficial deposits in Labrador are the ancient sea-beaches, which are found, according to Prof. H. Y. Hind, at all levels to a height of twelve hundred feet above the sea, at a distance in the interior of one hundred and twenty-five miles from the coast. They are evidently altered glacial moraines. Glacial Epoch. Drift Strics and Rozinded Rocks. — The Labrador plateau has been, at least near the Atlan- tic, moulded by ice to a height at least of twenty-five hundred feet above the level of the sea. In Southern Labrador Dr. Bell states that the valleys and hills, " up to the height of sixteen hundred feet, at any rate, have been planed by glacial action." (Rep. for 1884, ^'] D.D.) The gneiss mountains are moulded into large flat cones, often with a nipple-shaped summit ; the syenites are either moulded into domes or into high conical sugar- loaves ;"M;he anorthosite syenite at Square Island occurs in high rude cones ; and the trap overflows accompanying the Domino gneiss form rough irregular bosses. Only at one point, near the northern termination of the penin- sula at Cape Chidley, have the mountains by their alti- tude escaped the rounding and remodelling action of glaciers. These scraggy peaks, covered with loose square blocks detached by frosts from their slopes, remind us of the summits of Mount Washington in New Hamp- shire and Mount Katahdin in Maine, In a sketch of the former mountains by Mr. Lieber, as given in the " Report of the Coast Survey," the transition from the remodelled low mountains of the coast to the "wild volcanic-looking mountains" of the interior height of land 294 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. is very marked. Mount Bache, which was determined by the expedition to be two thousand one hundred and fifty feet high, was " one of the smallest mountains." The larger ones are inaccessible. Those who have been upon the summits of Mount Washington or Katahdin will recognize how well Mr. Lieber's description of the summit of Mount Bache agrees with the physiognomy of the New England alpine summits : " A second cause of the irregularity of surface here is to be found in the tremendous power of the frost of a Labrador winter, the influence of the heavy covering of snow, and very probably also the former existence of glaciers, all of which we shall presently take occasion to discuss. " The effects of frost are manifested in a singularly forcible manner. The entire surface, where it is not too steep to enable debris to collect, is covered with broken masses of rock, cubes of ten feet and less scattered in wildest profusion. Sometimes a patch of moss, the grass and heather of this country, fills up the crevices, but gen- erally we may look down into them far and deep with- out ever detecting the base upon which the rocks rest, hurled aloft, as they appear, by the hands of Titans. In scaling, in company with Mr. Venable, the summit of Mount Bache, on an occasion intended mainly for taking its altitude barometrically, we enjoyed the finest oppor- tunities for studying this phenomenon. The summit and sides of the mountain present few steep precipices. I speak comparatively only, and in reference exclusively to Northern Labrador. Yet, scattered helter-skelter over all, and piled up in endless number, the whole surface is cov- ered with such loose rocks. The difficulties of locomotion A MINIATURE GLACIER. 295 may readily be conceived. In scarcely a single instance 'did we see the gneiss beds still in situ, and in only one or two exceptions some giant wedge seemed to have driven them asunder. Yet none of the blocks were rounded. Attrition of no kind had influenced them to any perceptible extent, neither had atmospheric influ- ences altered the color, hardness, and composition of their exteriors ; it was simply a wilderness of unchanged blocks of the gray gneiss. " There was a puzzle. Whence came these broken rocks ? There was no higher spot whence they might have fallen. The slight protrusion of the uptilted beds of gneiss in situ, to which I have referred, alone seems to have been permitted to remain for the purpose of instructing us. Clearly, that force which had riven its beds asunder, no other than the frost, had broken the Test from their foothold and. prepared them for removal by another coming into play at a later season — the thaw- ing down-gliding snozu. Many of the blocks were prob- ably but slightly removed from their original position, perhaps barely turned over or merely forced a little out of place. Yet the effect to the eye of the beholder would be as great as if they had been transported hun- dreds of miles. " When we descended from the mountain we crossed over a broad patch of snow, deeply packed (twenty feet deep), which clearly taught us how the blocks were moved. In truth, this was a miniature glacier, and a regular moraine was piled up along its edges. It is im- possible for us to form any estimate of the amount of snow which may fall per square foot in a winter, but from the fact that such quantities were still remaining 296 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. late in July, and certainly they never altogether thaw away, we may reasonably infer that during its downward progress, either as snow or water, a tremendous force must be exerted, a force quite sufficient to account for the characteristic surface phenomenon just described." Contrary to the statement of Sir John Richardson in his " Polar Regions," both the accounts of Parry and the earlier arctic voyagers, and especially C. F. Hall in his " Arctic Researches," prove that on the northern edge of the American continent, and as low down as lat. 62°, and upon land rising between one thousand and tWQ thousand feet above the level of the sea, there are mers de glace of great extent, discharging glaciers into the sea which present ice-fronts one hundred feet high. Parry, in his second voyage (p. 12), states that on the north side of Hudson's Strait, after passing by Res- olution Island, there "is a smooth part of the land rather higher than that in its neighborhood, and for an extent of one or two miles completely covered with snow. The snow remains upon it, as Mr. Davidson in- formed us, the whole summer, as they find the land pre- senting the same appearance on their return through the Strait in the summer. This circumstance, which has obtained for it the name of 'Terra Nivea' upon the charts, I do not know how to account for, as the height, of the land above the level of the sea cannot certainly^ exceed a thousand feet." Mr. C. F. Hall, during his residence in Frobisher's Bay, had excellent opportunities of observing during all seasons of the year both ends of the Kingaite range of mountains on ' Meta Incognita' which support this mer de glace, which he named the Grinnell Glacier, and which. GLACIERS NORTH OF LABRADOR. 297 on the coast annually discharges icebergs from its streams. He describes it as being two miles long, starting from a sea of ice which extended many miles N.W. and S.E., reaching across the peninsula of Meta Incognita, nearly to the strait which divides Frobisher's Bay from Hud- son's Strait. Mr. Hall states that " from the informa- tion I had previously gained, and the data furnished me by my Innuit companion, I estimated the Grinnell Glacier to be fully one hundred miles long. At various points on the north side of Frobisher's Bay between Bear Sound and the Countess of Warwick's Sound, I made observations by sextant by which 1 determined that over fifty miles of the glacier was in view from, and southeast of, the President's Seat. A few miles above that point the glacier recedes from the coast and is lost to view by the Everett chain of mountains; and as Sharkey [an Esquimau] said, the ou-tt-e-too (ice that never melts), extends on lues-se-too-ad-loo (far, very far off). He added that there were places along the coast below what I called the President's Seat, where this great glacier dis- charges itself into the sea, some of it in large icebergs. " From the sea of ice down to the point where the abutting glacier was quite uniform in its rounding up, it presented the appearance, though in a frozen state, of a mighty rushing torrent. The height of the discharging face of the glacier was one hundred feet above the sea." Given, as stated below, the rise of the Labrador penin- sula only five hundred feet above its present level, and we must have had during the glacial period most exten- sive glaciers fed by broad seas of ice resting on the table- lands, reaching above the line of perpetual snow ; as only one hundred and twenty miles northward of Cape Chidler 298 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. we find the snow-line reaching as far down as one thou- sand feet, or thereabouts, above the sea-level. We are inclined to doubt the accuracy of Parry's estimate of the height of these table-lands, as the height of Mount Bache is over two thousand feet, and it just reaches the lowest limit of the snow-line, which in Greenland is two thou- sand feet above the sea. Owing to the extensive weathering of the rock, glacial grooves and scratches occur very rarely.^ I doubt not they will be found abundantly after ascending five hun- dred to eight hundred feet from the sea-level, for below -this point the action of the waves and shore-ice has •obliterated both striae and loose drift. We have eood evidence that an enormous glacier once filled the great fiord, Hamilton Inlet, which at its mouth is forty miles broad. Peculiar hmoid furrows were observed on the .northern and southern shores about forty miles apart, -which would seem to justify the conclusion, that the glacier was of that breadth where it descended into the sea. The best examples of these lunoid farrows oc- * J. F. Campbell, who visited this coast in 1864, states in his work entitled '" Frost and Fire," that at Indian Island, lat. 53° 30' "the striae pointed into Davis's Strait at a height of four hundred feet above the sea; at Red Bay, in the Strait of Belle Isle, they aimed N. 45° E. at the sea-level." At Newfoundland, about St. John's, " the striae which were found were near the coast, and seem to indicate large land-glaciers moving seawards. At St. John's the marks run over the Signal Hill, five hundred and forty feet high, from W. and N. 85° W. eastwards; at Harbor Grace, from S. 75° W. down the bay northeastwards; at the head of Conception Bay they fill a large hollow, over- run hills, and point from S. 15° W. northwards. Vast terraces of drift stretch along the base of rounded hills at the head of Conception Bay, at Harbor Grace, .and at Old Purlican, near the end of the bay, sixty miles off. At the head of ithe bay most of this drift seems to have come from the hills. Opposite to ■granite hills are numerous blocks of granite; opposite to sandstone and slate hills, sandstone and slate bowlders abound." — " Frost and Fire," ii." 1865, p. 240. GLACIAL LUNOID FURROWS. 299 curred at Indian Harbor on the northern shore of Ham- ilton Inlet, near the fishing estabHshment of Mr. Nor- man. This harbor is a narrow " tickle" or passage, where the Domino quartzites, very smoothly worn and pol- ished, are capped by trap overflows, and run under the water to the depth of thirty feet, forming a" polished and smooth bottom to the harbor. The marks occur about twenty-five feet above the water's edge, and below the line of lichens which are kept at a distance by the sea spray. These crescent-shaped depressions, which run trans- versely to the course of the bay, were from five to four- teen inches broad by. three to nine inches long, and about an inch deep vertically in the rock. Their inner or concave edge pointed southwest, the bay running m a o-eneral S.W. and N.E. direction. They were scattered GLACIAL LUNOID FURROWS AT INDIAN TICKLE, LABRADOR. irregularly over a surface twenty feet square. When several fallowed in a line, two large ones were often succeeded by a couple one quarter as large, or vice versa. Also at Tub Harbor, on the southern coast of this bay, similar markings, but less distinct, occurred about the same distance above the sea, and on a similar polished quartzite. These agree precisely with the " lunoid fur- rows" of Mr. DeLaski, as observed by him in great abundance on Isle-au-Haut, in Penobscot Bay, speci- 300 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. mens of which he has deposited in the Museum of the Portland Society of Natural History. These were the only glacial markings I observed. It should be noted that Mr. Jukes, in his "Geology of Newfoundland," states that he never observed any glacial striae during his explorations on that island. They were observed in abundance by Professor Hind about fifty miles from the mouth of the river Moisie, where occurred "gneiss terraces five in number, the highest being about one thousand feet above the sea, and backed by a stunted birch- and spruce-clad mountain some eight hundred feet higher still. The sloping sides of these abrupt steps are rounded, polished, and furrowed by glacial action. Cuts half an inch deep and an inch or more broad go down slope and over level continuously. Rounded and water-worn bowlders are perched here and there on the edge of the uppermost terrace. These strange memorials of the drift begin to be more com- mon" (p. 133), Fine examples of rounded and embossed rocks oc- curred at a bay situated a few miles to the westward of Little Mecatina Island. Here the numerous islets of syenites assume a low dome-like shape, whose shores descend to the water's edge by a gentle slope, and are so smooth and polished that one can with difficulty descend them when wet without slipping. On the southern coast the eminences all present their longer slopes to the northward, and their lee sides de- scend seaward and southward in sudden falls and slopes. On the contrary, on the eastern and Atlantic shores the stoss or struck sides look westward, and the lee side is on the eastern side of the hills, thus showing that the GLACIATION OF HUDSON S STRAIT. 3OI denuding and abrading agent moved downwards from the top of the water-shed — that is, always nearly parallel to the coast. The adjoining illustration brings out clearly some of the characteristic features of the scenery of the coast of Labrador. In the foreground the rocky shore of the Horsechops, as the deep fiord is called, which is situated far up on the eastern coast of Labrador, has been ground ■down, smoothed, and polished by the great mass of land- ice which formerly filled Hamilton Bay and moved slowly down from the table-land in the interior, and whose ice- front must have presented to the sea a wall — perhaps five hundred to one thousand feet high. Across the fiord on the shores of the bay, which rise abruptly in great rocky terraces — also a characteristic feature of Labrador and arctic landscapes, — may be seen scattered snow-banks, which linger on these shores as late as August, while those in the more shaded, protected places may live on until the early snows in September give them a renewal of life, so that their existence may become perennial. About Cape Chidleythe hills and rocks are shown by Mr. Lieber's drawings to have been rounded and moulded by ice to a height corresponding to that of Mount Bache, as noticed above. Dr. R. Bell shows that the basin of Hudson's Bay may have formed a glacial reservoir receiving streams of ice from the east, north and northwest, and south and southwest. The direction of the glaciation on both sides of Hudson's Strait was eastward. "That an extensive glacier passed down the strait may be inferred from the smoothed and striated character of the rocks of the lower DISTRIBUTION OF BOWLDERS. 305 levels, the outline of the glaciated surfaces pointing to an eastward movement, the composition of the drift, and also from the fact that the long depression of Fox's Channel and the Strait runs from the northwestward towards the southeast, and that this great channel or sub- merged valley deepens as it goes, terminating in the Atlantic Ocean. Glaciers are said to exist on the shores- of Fox's Channel, and they may send down the fiat-top- ped icebergs which float eastward through the lower part of Hudson's Strait into the Atlantic. During the drift period the glacier of the bed of Hudson's Strait was probably joined by a contribution from the ice wdiich appears to have occupied the site of Hudson's Bay, and by another, also from the southward, coming down the valley of the Koksok River, and its continuation in the bottom of Qngava Bay. The united glacier still moved eastward round Cape Chudleigh into the Atlantic." Distribittion of Bowlders. — The whole surface of the country is strewn thickly with bowlders. After ascending five or six hundred feet above the level of the sea, and penetrating into the interior, their presence is especially marked. Near the shore they are rarely seen, being covered by vegetation. We must look for them about the edges of ponds and along the banks of the rivers, and especially in raised beaches. I am also inclined to- think that their abundance near the coast is greatly less- ened by their having been carried off by shore-ice into the sea, and there rearranged into submarine beaches. No loose, single bowlders scattered over the surface of the country were seen on the coast from Mecatina to Square Island. They only occurred as stated above,, along the courses of rivers, by ponds, and rearranged 304 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. into beaches. But we first saw them on a hill, estimated roughly to be one thousand feet high, a few miles north of Cape St. Michael, at Square Island, where they lend a new feature to the landscape. At this level they were strewn sparsely upon the tops of the surrounding hills. One was about fifteen by forty feet in size. A large pro- portion were well rounded, while others were angular. The greater proportion were of syenite, a few small ones were of greenstone. Northward of this locality I did not have an oppor- tunity of ascending the mountains above the level of the ancient coast-line. Professor Hind likewise found very few bowlders at a distance from the bed of the Moisie, for a distance of fifty miles from its mouth. But on ascending the water- shed, and penetrating farther inland, they everywhere grew more numerous. A few miles beyond " Burnt Portage" on this river, " huge blocks of gneiss, twenty feet in diameter, lay in the channel or on the rocks which here and there pierced the sandy tract through which the river flowed ; while on the summits of moun- tains and along the crests of hill ranges they seemed as if they had been dropped like hail. It was not difficult to see that many of these rock fragments were of local origin, but others had travelled far. From an eminence I could discover that they were piled to a great height between hills three and four hundred feet high, and from the comparatively sharp edges of many, the parent rock could not have been far distant." * Also at Caribou Lake, an expansion of the same river, * The Labrador Peninsula, p. 227. Also, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Jan. 20, 1864, p. 122, On Supposed Glacial Drift in the Labrador Peninsula, etc. RAISED BEACHES. 305 he States, "the long line of enormous erratics skirting the river looked like druid's monumental stones ; for in many instances they were disposed in such a manner as would almost lead one to suppose they had been placed there by artificial means" (p. 229). Of this same expedition Mr. Cayley has published an account in the " Quebec Transactions," where we have the statement of this observer that bowlders are very thickly strewn over the surface and on the summits of mountains 2,214 ^^^t high, and situated one hundred and ten miles from the coast, being near the head-waters of the Moisie. " Immense numbers of bowlders had for the last few miles strewn the sides of the mountains, in some cases almost seeming to make up the very mountains themselves ; there being this difference, that whereas the rock itself in situ is granitic, the bowlders in every case are of gneiss." * Nowhere did I see on the coast of Labrador any de- posits of the original glacial clay, or " unmodified drift." Upon the sea-shore it has been remodelled into a strati- fied clay, and the bowlders it once contained now form terraced beaches. Professor Hind, however, notices the occurrence of " drift clay, capped by sand," in precipitous banks rising seventy feet above the level of the Moisie River, twenty miles from its mouth. Before giving an account of the marine clays and their fossils, which should naturally come in at this place, I would draw attention to the numerous raised beaches that line this coast. Raised Beaches. — Some of the finest examples of raised beaches and rock-shelves representing ancient coast- * Up the River Moisie, loc. cit., N, S,, vol. i. p. 88. 3o6 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. lines, about four hundred feet above the present coast- line, are seen in the lowest Silurian rocks on both sides of the Strait of Belle Isle. The following notes and sketches were made while coasting along the northern shore, which rises in high sandstone and gritty bluffs, contrasting in their regular water-worn outlines most strongly with the peculiar swelling curves of the Lauren- tian gneiss which rise near Bradore — according to Bay- f ^Tininr jiirf f ;||!' |f fir-ifnr-^: :n^^;^ TERRACES AT ANSE-AU-LOUP, (A) {B) AND (C) LOOKING EASTWARD AT THE NORTHEAST END OF THE CAMBRIAN FORMATION. field's measurements, one thousand two hundred feet above the sea — or the jagged, rough, and hummocky outlines of the rude syenitic hills, which rise four hun- dred feet above the sea. At Anse-au-Loup, as seen from one half to one mile from the shore, the land rises on the west side of the bay in three very regular terraces (^A), the lower of which is covered with debris. On the east side the land is much more irregular, descending in buttressed steeps like the Palisades on the Hudson, though far exceeding them in height. On the east point RAISED BEACHES. 307 are five terraces on the N. "VV. side with heavy buttresses, and beyond four terraces come in sight (^). The strata here are nearly horizontal, dipping under the Strait at a very slight angle. At the eastward termination of the formation are again seen five very regular terraces (C) running out in a long low point, beyond which rise the syenite hills. At Blanc Sablon five terraces are very distinctly marked, the second of which is the highest ; and there is a beach of huge bowlders very regularly packed by the action of the waves, as observed by Admiral Bay- field. In Chateau Bay and Henley Harbor are some fine ex- amples of ancient sea-margins. They occur in recesses in the shore which have been sheltered from the denud- ing agency of the waves and strong arctic currents, which have swept around this bend in the coast with great power. The most plainly marked example forms the eastern shore of Henley Harbor, being the western short of Henley Island. This beach, which is one hun- dred and eighty feet high above the water-level, is com- posed of three well-marked terraces, which become steeper as we go from the bottom to the top. The upper terrace begins at the base of the basaltic columns capping this island, and is covered at its upper edge with the debris from this mass of trap. The two lower ter- races at the northern end of the island present a delta- like expansion facing the northwest. On these terraces, which are destitute of the usual covering of moss and Empetrum, can be most distinctly seen the windrows of pebbles and gravel thrown up by the retreating waves. A continuation of this beach is seen on Castle Ishnd just south. (See p. 134.) 308 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. On the eastern side of the same island is a beach of the same height, but much steeper, as it directly faces the ocean, and more irregular than the one just described, as its surface is broken by jagged masses of syenitic rock which protrude through it, and by large masses of trap which have fallen from the cliffs above. North of Henley Island is a broad flat beach consist- ing of two low terraces, on the uppermost of which, and commanding the harbor, are the ruins of an old fort built during the last century. Also on the mainland near the head of the bay are situated in bights in the shore three low beaches, each composed of two terraces overgrown with vegetation. They are all apparently of the same height, and correspond in height with that of the second beach or terrace on Henley Island. On the east side of Pitt's Arm is another similar beach, and still another at the head of the bay on the west side of the stream emptying into this bay. Upon this latter beach are large bowlders, often two feet in diameter. Across the bay from Henley Island is a lofty steep beach slop- ing towards the east, and of the same height. It is an important fact that the present contour of the coast, from the sea-level to a height of about five hun- dred feet, also extends to at least fifty fathoms, or three hundred feet below the surface of the water. Such we found to be the fact in dredging for a distance of nearly six hundred miles along the coast. The jagged nature of the rocky terraces at Strawberry Harbor, so interest- ing a feature in the coast scenery, extends at least to a depth of two hundred and forty feet, a few rods from the shore, as in anchoring with the kedge anchor it would drop on to a rocky shelf, and then drag and fall twenty RAISED BEACHES. 3O9 fathoms lower on to another syenitic shelf ; such a suc- cession of rocky terraces we have no doubt extended much farther below the point sounded by our ship's lead. Again, dredging was carried on off Henley Harbor on a pebbly bottom three hundred feet below the surface which formed the continuation of the same beaches which rose some two hundred feet above the sea-level. It follows from this that as both the jagged rocks and submerged beach must have formerly formed a coast-line, the land once stood at least three hundred feet higher than at present, and it is more than probable, much higher. Such an elevation would have produced the most important modifications of climate, lowering it greatly, bringing the snow line farther down towards the coast, and must have led to a great accumulation of the snow and land-ice. At the settlement in Chateau Bay is a remarkably steep beach, which ascends half-way up the side of the hill, which is about five hundred feet high. It is com- posed of large bowlders very closely packed in layers, without any gravel to fill up the interstices, and slopes to the level of the water at an angle of at least 40°, being the steepest beach I saw on the coast. It consisted of two terraces, the lowest almost precipitous in its descent. This beach, when below the level of the sea, was evi- dently exposed to the action of the powerful Labrador current which piled these huge water-worn rocks into a compact mass which served to resist the waves, while the coarse gravel and sand were borne rapidly away farther out to sea on to lower levels. It is a general rule that all beaches on this coast with a northerly and easterly 3IO THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. exposure to the open sea, are much steeper, and com- posed of much coarser materials, than those in more shel- tered situations. At Domino Harbor are beaches more than one hun- dred feet high, and in sailing up the sound which lies between the mainland and the numerous islands that line this coast, twelve beaches were seen rising from forty to one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, and composed of two or three terraces. In Sloop Harbor, twenty-five miles south of Cape Harrison, is a noble shingly beach nearly two hundred feet high on the south side of the harbor, consequently facing the north. Thomas Bay, which lies about thirty miles south of Hopedale, afforded, along both of its shores for thirty miles from the sea, fine examples of raised beaches, com- posed for the most part of three terraces. High beaches also occurred at Hopedale. The mission house and buildings belonging to this Moravian settlement also rest upon raised gravelly beaches, which afford soil deep enough for gardens and cemeteries. It is to be regretted that from want of time and proper instruments we were unable to measure the heights of these beaches and their respective terraces. Those given are simply approximative, with the exception of the one noticed as occurring upon Henley Island. The mass of basalt was rudely measured by Lieut. Baddeley, and es- timated to be two hundred and fifty-five feet high. The terraces rise to the base of the pillars, which he estimated to be one hundred and eighty feet above the sea. I believe it will ultimately be found that all these beaches rise above the present level of the sea at uniform RAISED BEACHES. 31 1 heights, and will be found generally to agree in this re- spect with similar beaches in the St. Lawrence River and the coast of the British colonies and New England, after making due allowances for local oscillations of the land. At Chateau Bay it could easily be seen that all the terraces composing the different beaches were of the same height ; and, so far as memory would show, in the absence of actual measurement, all those beaches ob- served farther northward presented terraces which very generally corresponded in height with those of Chateau Bay. I am informed by Captain Ichabod Handy of New Bedford, Mass., who has spent several years in Hudson's Bay engaged in the whale fishery, and is a close ob- server, having coasted in a whale-boat the whole shore from Nain to Resolution Island in lat. 62°, that there are several very high raised beaches near Hebron, and also near Nain, one of which he roughly estimated to be three hundred feet high. He observed that the beaches north of Nain increased in height. There were also beaches on Button Island. He noticed one on Reso- lution Island, about two hundred feet high, which was composed of three terraces. On the Lower or East Savage Island he described to me a plain of soft clay ele- vated fifty feet above the sea, into which he "sank knee- deep," and perceived in it numerous " clams and mussels," and also the skeleton of a whale, the " boar-head " whale {Balaena bobps), stranded upon the surface. This ancient sea-bottom was flanked by a raised beach from thirty to forty feet in height. At Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome he describes the beaches as being higher than any observed southwards. 312 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. and he also noticed clay-banks, containing shells, raised above the present level of the sea. Prof. Hind has noticed some remarkable beaches far in the interior of the southern part of the peninsula, and at a great height above the present level of the sea. Though this author does not refer to their rearrangement by the currents and waves of the sea, his description of the immense deposits of rounded and water-worn bowlders agrees precisely with similar raised beaches both upon, and a mile back from, the coast, observed by myself, where they are covered by moss and Empetrum, or stunted spruces. At " Burnt Portage," upon the river Moisie, one hundred miles from its mouth, and 1,857 feet above the level of the sea, this author describes a " hill of bowlders or erratics, all water-worn and smooth, without moss or lichen upon them, and piled two or three deep, and, for aught you know, twenty deep. . . . The well-worn masses of all sizes, from one foot to twenty feet in diameter, and from one ton to ten thousand tons in weight, are washed clean. ... I could without difficulty see three tiers of these 'travelled rocks,' and in the crevices the charred roots of trees which had grown in the mosses and lichens which formerly clothed them." Another feature of great interest in this connection are the rocky terraces or steps which have been hewn out of the solid rocks along the coast for a height of five hun- dred feet above the present level of the sea, and mark the oscillations of the old coast-line ; and as there occur in the interior of the country one thousand feet above the present coast-line similar lines of erosion, they pre- sent the best evidence we have, to determine how far ROCK TERRACES. 313 above its present level the glacial sea stood. These rock terraces could only have been formed so fully as seen here during a vast period, and the ice-foot of Dr. Kane, to which their formation is probably due, must have remained on the shore during the entire year. Fine examples of similar terraces are described and figured in Kane's " Explorations," vol. ii. p.8i. At various points along the coast the joint action of frost, the waves, and floating ice can even now be seen building up these steps in the slopes of trap and syenitic rocks, by taking advan- tage of the jointure and cleavage planes which cross at nearly right angles. At Strawberry Harbor the syenitic rocks have broken oif into huge cubical blocks of many tons' weight. The rock abounds in cracks and fissures, into which the ice has entered wedge-like, and burst them asunder, while the fragments have been borne away by shore-ice. Thus for a height of five hundred feet the shore consists of a series of steps ten to thirty feet high, forming broad shelves on which the sea-birds build, and where a little vegetation lodges. Where the shore con- sists of trap-rocks, as at Domino Harbor and Tub Island, the steps are much smaller and more numerous. At Domino there are regular steps in the quartzites, which lend a very peculiar feature to the shores of the harbor, as at a little distance the rocky slopes descending by hundreds of steps to the water, appear like a lofty beach of bowlders. At Sloop Harbor these rocky steps are of vast extent, their tops shelving inland, and in profile the rocky promontory presents a strange serrated outline when viewed from the sea. The lofty sugar-loaf syenitic island a few miles south of Hopedale, noticed previously, 314 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. and which is seven hundred feet high, has its surface di- vided into four terraces of rock, which reach two thirds q s ^ 5 < 5 s pa w w H u en o cq D o of the distance up its sides from the water, thus affording a means of estimating the different heights at which the ROCK TERRACES. 315 land paused in its oscillations upwards.* We must again refer to Mr. Hind's work for an account of similar rocky terraces in the interior of the peninsula. Near the *' Lake where the land lies," he describes the gneiss hills ROCK TERRACES ON A CONICAL PROMONTORY NEAR HOPEDALE, LABRADOR. as rising in "gigantic terraces." He likewise speaks of ^'gneiss terraces five in number, the highest being about one thousand feet above the sea," and he states that the sloping sides of these abrupt steps are rounded, polished, and furrowed by glacial action. f Mr. Cayley has described them also quite fully : " We now made the fifth portage [fifty miles from the mouth of the river, and 370 feet above the level of the sea], where we first met with some curious natural steps or terraces, which were continually repeated on our march. They were usually five or six in number, averaging three or four feet in heio-ht ; the distances between each rather irregular, just affording room enough to take two or three paces, and their surfaces presenting the appearance of having been artificially constructed. They were of * " Terraces or banks of gravel and ancient shingle beaches were observed on either side of the inlet [Nachvak Inlet] at various heights up to an estimated elevation of two thousand feet." Bell's "Observations," 1S85, Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada for 1885, p. 7, DD. f Hind's Labrador, p. 133. 3l6 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. the common dark hornblendic gneiss, and ran in a gen- eral northeast and southwest direction." * No glacial striae upon these terraces were observed near the shore. It is evident that this process of terrac- ing the crystalline rocks by frosts and shore-ice began during the glacial epoch. At present we must assume that the striae found by Professor Hind upon these rocky steps far inland were graven by angular stones frozen into the bottoms of glaciers, for we find no such marks at present upon those now upon the coast, which shows how insufficient is the action of floating shore- or floe-ice, or grounded bergs even, in striating so regularly these hard crystalline rocks. We saw a good example of rocks polished by the ice and waves at Gore Island Harbor, a point westward of Little Mecatina Island. On the faces of several cliffs forming perpendicular walls facing a narrow passage into which the waves rushed with great force in the calmest days, the sea-wall was smoothly polished and water-worn for ten feet above its shore-line, w^hile above, the face of the cliff was roughened by the action of frost. Upon this coast, which during the summer of 1864 was lined with a belt of floe-ice and bergs probably two hundred miles broad, and which extended from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence at Belles Amours to the arctic seas, this immense body of floating ice seemed directly to produce but little alteration in its physical features. If we were to ascribe the grooving and polishing of rocks to the action of floating ice-floes and bergs, how is it that the present shores far above (500 feet), and at * Up the River Moisie, loc. cit., p. 82. THE FLOE-ICE. 317 least 250 feet below the water-line, are often jagged and angular, though constantly stopping the course of masses of ice impelled four to six miles an hour by the joint action of tides, currents, and winds? No bowlders, or gravel, or mud were seen upon any of the bergs or masses of shore-ice. They had dropped all burdens of this nature nearer their points of detachment in the high arctic regions. The bergs all bore evidence of having been repeatedly overturned as they were borne along in the current. Thr floe-ice was hummocky, which is a strong proof of its having come from open straits in the polar regions, the masses looking as if having been frozen and refrozen, jammed together, and then piled atop of each other by currents and winds long before appearing upon this coast ; while the bergs exhibited old water-lines pre- senting different angles to the present water-level. The only discoloration noticed was probably caused by seals resting upon and soiling the surface. One bowlder was noticed by a member of the party resting upon an ice- berg off Cape Harrison in August. This huge area of floating ice, embracing so many thousands of square miles, was of greater extent, and re- mained longer upon the coast in 1864 than for forty years previous. It was not only pressed upon the coast by the normal action of the Labrador and Greenland currents which, in consequence of the rotatory motion of the earth, tended to force the ice in a southwesterly direction, but the presence of the ice caused the constant passage of cooler currents of air from the sea over the ice upon the heated land, giving rise during the present season to a constant succession of northeasterly winds from March until early in August, which further served 3l8 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. to crowd the ice into every harbor and recess upon the coast. It was the universal complaint of the inhabitants that the easterly winds were more prevalent, and the ice " held " later in the harbors this year than for many sea- sons previous. Thus the fisheries were nearly a failure, and vegetation greatly retarded in its development. But so far as polishing and striating the rocks, depositing drift material and thus modifying the contour of the sur- face of the present coast, this modern mass of bergs and floating ice effected comparatively little. Single ice- bergs, when small enough, entered the harbors, and there stranding, soon pounded to pieces upon the rocks, melted, and disappeared. From Cape Harrison in lat. 55° to Caribou Island was an interrupted line of bergs .stranded in eighty to one hundred or more fathoms, often miles apart, while others passed to the seaward down by the eastern coast of Newfoundland, or through the Strait of Belle Isle. The Labrador Banks. — Prof. H. Y. Hind* has pointed out the existence of shoals or fishing-banks off the Ailik Head and Kippokak Bay, composed of morainal mat- ter brought down the fiords and pushed into the sea. That the fiords and bays were, however, excavated by the glaciers themselves we are much inclined to doubt, since these bays and fiords were natural valleys, w^hich per- haps date back to Laurentian times, and which have been for many geological ages excavated by streams, though during the glacial epoch remodelled by the ice and sub- glacial streams. Referring to Kippokak Bay, the next * The effects of the fishery clauses of the treaty of Washington on the fish- eries and fishermen of British North America, 1877, Part IL pp. 68, 69, quoted in Goode's Fishery Industries of the United States, V. vol. i. 134-137, 1887. THE LABRADOR FISHING-BANKS. 3I9 bay north of Ailik, he remarks : " But the glaciers of Labrador have probably left even more valuable records, in the form of moraines, of their early existence here than deep fiords or innumerable islands. These are the shoals and banks which lie some fifteen miles outside of the islands, and on which icebergs strand in long lines and in groups. I have styled them the Inner Range of Banks, to distinguish them from a supposed Outer Range in deeper water, where large icebergs sometimes take the ground. The inner banks, as far as they are known, are stated by fishermen to have from twenty to forty fathoms of water on them. Commander Max- well's soundings between Cape Harrison and Gull Is- land, near Hopedale, and just outside of the island zone, rarel}'- show depths greater than forty fathoms. In one instance only, in a distance of about one hundred and ten nautical miles, is a depth of fifty-nine fathoms re- corded. ^'Absence of Islands on the Southern Labrador. — The Admiralty chart portrays a very important confirmation of the Labrador coast-line, from Saint Lewis Sound to Spotted Island. The trend of the coast-line between the Battle Islands, south of Saint Lewis Sound, and Spotted Island, Domino Run, a distance of sixty-five miles, is due north, and, with very few exceptions, there are no islands off the coast throughout this distance, ex- cluding the group close inshore between Spotted Island and Stony Island. As soon as the coast-line begins to turn northwesterly islands become numerous and con- tinually increase in number as far as Cape Mugford, and even towards Cape Chudleigh. Between Cape Harrison and Cape Mugford, the island zone may be estimated 320 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. as having a depth of twenty miles from the mouth of the fiord seawards. The cause of the general absence of -islands south of Spotted Island and Stony Island can probably be traced to the never-ceasing action ol north- ern ice driven on the coast-line, where it suddenly makes its southerly bend by the influence of the rotation of the earth upon the arctic current. This current sweeps past the Labrador coast with a speed of from i^ to 2 knots an hour, and a westerly pressure, due to the earth's rotation, which may be estimated at about eleven inches. That is to say, the mean level of the sea on the coast of Labra- dor is supposed to be about eleven inches above the level it would assume if uninfluenced by the earth's rotation. As soon as the ice-ladened current reaches Spotted Island it is in part relieved from this pressure by the trend of the coast from southeast to due south ; hence the cur- rent changes its course suddenly and onto the land. But the effect of this sudden change in the direction of the current near the shore is to throw the icebergs onto the coast from Spotted Island to Cape Sit. Lewis, where they may be seen stranded each year in great numbers. The islands which doubtless once existed here have been removed by constant abrasion, acting uninterruptedly for ages, and with the islands the moraines lying sea- wards. We may thus trace the cause of the vast differ- ence between the distribution of stranded icebergs south of Spotted Island and northwest of it. In one case they are stranded near the coast-line, wearing it away and deepening the water near it, assisted by the undertow ; in the other case they are stranded some fifteen miles from the island fringe, and continually adding to the banks the debris they may bring, in the form of mud THE LABRADOR FISHING-BANKS. 321 Streaks, from the glaciers which gave them birth in the far north and northeast. It is more than probable that this distribution of icebergs has a very important bearing upon the food and feeding of the cod, which justifies me in referring here with so much detail to the action of glacial ice. " The Inner Range of Banks, — The foundation of the~^ inner range of banks consists, very probably, as already stated, of glacial moraines. In their present state they may reasonably be assumed to be formed in great part of remodelled debris brought down by the same glaciers which excavated the deep fiords. "The absence of deposits of sand in the form of mod- ern beaches on every part of the Labrador coast visited this season, except one, was very marked. The excep- tional area observed lies between Sandwich Bay and Hamilton Inlet, Cape Porcupine being the centre. It is protected from the northern swell of the ocean by the Indian Harbor Islands and promontory. Here large deposits of sand are seen, covering many square miles in area. The reason why sandy beaches are not in general found on this coast, notwithstanding that enormous quantities of rock are annually ground up by coast-ice and ice-pans driven on the shore, arises from the under- tow carrying the sand seawards and depositing it on the shoals or banks outside of the islands. •' It may be advisable here to advert to a popular error which assumes that the depth of water in which an ice- berg grounds is indicated by the height of the berg above the level of the sea. It is commonly stated that while there is one ninth above there will be eight ninths of the berg below the sea-level. This is approximately 322 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. true only with regard to volume or mass of the berg, not with regard to height and depth. A berg may show an elevation of one hundred feet above water, and yet its depth below may not exceed double that amount, but its volume or mass will be about eight times the mass it shows on the surface. Hence, while icebergs ground in thirty and forty fathoms of water, they may expose a front of one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet in altitude, the broad, massive base supporting a mass about one ninth of its volume above the sea-level." Oscillation of the Land. — From all the indications noticed casually by us, such as the position of beaches apparently very recently raised above the sea-level, so as to be just beyond the reach of the waves, the land is slowly gaining on the sea. The Rev. C. C. Carpenter, missionary at Caribou Island, in the Strait of Belle Isle, also informs me that this is his impression, gained both from his observations and information given by the set- tlers. To this last source Mr. J. F. Campbell is indebted for the statement in his "■ Frost and Fire," that the coast of Labrador is slowly rising. On the other hand, the land appears to be sinking about Hudson's Strait. In Dr. Bell's Report for 1884 of Lieut. Gordon's Hudson's Bay Expedition, it is stated that ancient stone structures, erected by the Eskimos, were observed, and Dr. Bell remarks : " From what I have seen of the situa- tions which the Eskimos in various places in Hudson's Bay and Strait choose for their camps, there appeared to be little doubt that they had lived here when the sea- level was twenty to thirty feet higher than it is at pres- ent." River Terrace Period. — Owing to the great denuda- THE LEDA CLAYS. 323 tion of all drift material, and the hilly character of the country, we find no broad terraced river valleys, such as characterize more temperate regions. On the contrary, the rivers are a succession of ponds, connected by rapids, where the stream plunges from one rocky terrace to the next one below, taking the direction of natural ravines. Though the volume of these rivers during the Terrace epoch, or period of great rivers, may have been greater than now, as evidenced by a few small terraces upon their banks, we have no evidence that they ran in much wider channels than at present, owing to the great height of their banks. The Occurrence of the Leda Clays in Labrador. — At the mouth of Salmon River, a small stream flowing into the Strait of Belle Isle three miles east of the mouth of the Esquimaux River, occurred a clay-bank about ten feet high, and situated just above high-water mark, which was dark blue and free from bowlders. It con- tained in abundance Aporrhais occidentalis, Serripes gronlandicuSy and Cardium Hayesii. This deposit of clay is of more recent age than the deposits noticed below, as it was a few feet higher, and situated more inland. It undoubtedly rests upon the lower fossiliferous gravel-beds, though I did not see the point of contact. The most important deposits occurred at Caribou Island at the mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle, at Pitt's Arm in Chateau Bay, and at Hopedale. They consisted of sandy clays and a coarse gravel found between tide marks, and extending beneath the water. Should the present banks now lying off the coast be raised and ex- posed to view, we would have an identical deposit. All 324 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. the Stones and pebbles of this ancient sea-bottom, finely- exposed at Hopedale, are covered with nullipores and polyzoa ; the Mya truncata still remains perpendicular in its holes, and the most delicate shells, with their epi- dermis still on, are unbroken, and their valves often united by the ligament. The delicate Myriozoum has preserved its fine markings nearly as perfectly as in specimens dredged at the present day, and the cases of the delicate Spiochsetopterus are still preserved. It is evident that' this deposit has slowly and almost imper- ceptibly risen some four hundred or five hundred feet,^ without any paroxysmal movement of the continent, over an extent of coast some six hundred miles in length. This rise of the Labrador peninsula must have accom- panied the rise of the polar regions, including Arctic America and Greenland, and in fact all the land lying^ in the northern hemisphere. Many facts in the distri- bution of fossils in these glacial beds, and the present relations of these beds to deposits above and beneath them, tend to prove that the glacial epoch occurred simultaneously over all the arctic regions and the northern temperate zone, and that the submergence and subsequent rise of the continental masses and outlying islands were synchronous in both hemispheres. Pro- fessor Haughton has summed up the evidence of such a rise from raised beaches and ancient sea-bottoms in the American Arctic Archipelago,"^ The researches of Dr. * " McClure found shells of the Cyprina islandica, at the summit of the Cox- comb Range, in Baring Island, at an elevation of five hundred feet above the sea-level; Captain Parry, also, has recorded the occurrence of Venus (probably Cyprina islandica) on Byam Martin's Island; and in the recent voyage of the QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 325 Kane in the extreme north of Greenland enabled him "to assert positively the interesting fact of a secular elevation [480 feet] of the crust commencing at some as yet undetermined point north of 76°, and continuing to the Great Glacier and the high northern latitudes of Grinnell Land." (Vol. ii. p. 81.) We need not here allude to the similar oscillations in northern and central Europe to still greater heights above the present level of the ocean. At various points along the coast from Caribou Island, where they were abundant, to Hopedale, occurred in the drift gravel beds associated with the fossils, numerous pebbles and small bowlders of a light silicious bedded limestone, which contained numerous Silurian fossils. Lieber mentions finding pieces of limestone on the shore •of Aulezavik Island. There can be little doubt that these bowlders were transported on ice from the Silurian basins in the arctic regions on the west side of Baffin's Bay. Perhaps their origin may by future observers be traced to the Silurian limestones found at the head of Frobisher's Bay by Hall. Such fragments are not now to be seen on the floe-ice coming down from the north. A large proportion of the species mentioned in the following lists (reprinted from the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, i. 231-234) occurred in great abundance and in a good state of preservation, so that they could be compared very satisfactorily with 'Fox,' Dr. Walker, the surgeon of the expedition, found the following sub- iossil shells at Port Kennedy, at elevations of from one hundred to five hundred feet: Saxicava rugosa , Tellina pi-oxima, Astarte arctica (borealis), Mya iiddeval- Jensis, Mya trtmcata, Cardium sp., Bticcinuiti tittdahim, Acniea testudinalis , Bala- nus uddevallensis." — Appendix to McClintock' s A^arrative. (Amer. ^dit. p. 370.) 326 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. recent specimens dredged upon the coast. Most of the species, after careful and repeated comparisons with the recent examples, did not present any appreciable differ- ences. In a few instances there were characters found by which the fossils could be distinguished from the recent shells of the same species, and those I have carefully enumerated. Nullipora polymorpha Linn. This plant occurred abundantly at Caribou Island. At Hopedale it was pro- fusely abundant, growing in large free masses or encrust- ing shells and stones. Eury echinus drobachiensis Verrill. ( Toxopneustes dro- bachiensis A. Agassiz. Echimis graitularis Say.) Frag- ments of the shells and numerous spines occurred abun- dantly at Caribou Island and Hopedale. Lepralia Belli Dawson. Encrusting pebbles at Hope- dale. One colony also on a shell. The young cells were large, with crowded and sometimes perforate, gran- ulated conical ovicells. The avicularia are situated either in front of the opening or crowded to one side, and are two in number. Both old and young correspond pre- cisely with a specimen received from Dr. Dawson. Lepralia pertusa Thompson. This species occurred on the shells of Bttccinum cretaceum. It agrees well with the large, oblong and coarsely punctate recent specimens. It is well figured by Dawson in the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Feb. 1859, P* ^5' ^g"- i^- Lepralia ciliata Johnst. This form also occurred frequently with the preceding. The cells are convex,, the avicularia are present, projecting over the aperture. The surface is punctate. Celleporaria surcularis Packard, Can. Nat. Dec. 1863, QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 32? p. 410. Occurred frequently on Lamellibranch shells in large and thick masses at Caribou Island and Hope- dale. Myriozozim subgracile D'Orbigny. {Millepora trun- cata Fabr., Faun. Groenl.) Fragments of the stems of this graceful species occurred abundantly at both locali- ties. Rhynconella psittacea (Gm.). Perfect valves were found at Caribou Island, and others were given me which were reported to have been found three miles from the mouth of the Esquimaux River. Other shells, such as a Cardhcm and Cardita borealis, also came from the same place, showing that they had been washed out of a drift disposit on the river. This species was abundant at Hopedale, where the valves adhered by their ligament. Pecten islandicus Linn. This was not common. Sev- eral ponderous valves, larger than I have seen elsewhere, had the ribs united into groups of two or three, separated by sulci of equal width ; but in young and fragile sub- jects the ribs were equally distributed, and differed in no respect from the living young, or from those of the same age, from the drift clays of Maine and New Brunswick. Yoldia myalls Stimps. A specimen of Yoldia arctica, received from Dr. Liitken, approaches Y. myalis more than Y. sapotilla. It is however, longer, and the lunule is not so short and deep as in Y. myalis. One valve. Hopedale. Leda mimita Moll. {Area minuta Fabr., Faun. Groenl.) Caribou Island, rare. Common at Hopedale. Modiolaria discrepans Moll. One broken valve. Hopedale. 328 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Mytilus edults Linn. Fragments of large valves were abundant, but young shells were uncommon. Cardium Hayesii Stimps. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. p. 581, 1862. This species occurred both at Hopedale and Caribou Island. Serripes gronlandiais (Chemn.) Beck. Caribou Island, frequent. Chateau Bay. Astarte Banksii Leach, Zool. Beechy's Voyage. (^A. IVarhamt Hancock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xviii., 1846, p. 336, pi. v., figs. 15, 16. A. Richardsoni Reeve, Last of the Arctic Voyagers, ii. App. A. fabula Reeve, 1. c. ; A. Latirentiana Lyell ; A. co7npressa Daws,, — not of European authors.) A fine series of specimens, re- cent and fossil, from Labrador, and fossil from Maine and the river St. Lawrence, has convinced me that the numerous variations of form which this species assumes are of local origin, arising from differences in habitat or age. Among a number oiA. Lattrentiana Lyell, received from Montreal through the kindness of Dr. Dawson, are some thinner and more finely striated than usual, but I have recent specimens and also fossils from Labrador agreeing with them. The species varies in the length of the shell and the form of the posterior end, but the shape of the anterior end, the sulci and the hinge characters are in all the varieties very constant. Very elongated forms are like A. Warhami Hancock, which we would consider as a synonym of this species. The varieties A. Richardsoni and A. fabula have oc- curred in the same locality, at Dumplin Harbor at the mouth of Sandwich Bay, Labrador, where I have dredged them alive. Astarte striata Gray. One specimen from Hopedale. QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 329 It did not differ from drift shells found at Brunswick, Maine. This shell, as it occurs fossil, is thicker, more ponderous, more equilaterally triangular ; the beaks are directed more anteriorly, the teeth are much larger, and the lunule broader and shorter, than in A. Banksii. Astarte compressa Linn. {A. elliptica Brown.) Common in all the beds, but not so abundant as A. Banksii. Cardita borealis Conr. Very abundant with the pre- ceding. Macoma sabulosa Morch. ( Tellina proxima Brown.) Of frequent occurrence. Cyrtodaria siliqica Daudin. Several valves at Caribou Island. PanopcEa norvegica Sprengel. A perfect valve of this shell occurred at Caribou Island. Mya truncata Linn. Both the short and common elongated varieties of this species occurred, especially at Hopedale, in great profusion. Saxicava arctica Desh. Large valves occurred in great profusion in all these beds. Chiton marinoreus O. Fabr. Several valves were found at Hopedale. Acmaea testudi^ialis (MlilL). One specimen occurred, encrusted with NuUipora. Lepeca cceca Moll. (/^. Candida Couth. ; P. cerea Moller, Reeve.) Frequent. PM7tcturella noachina (Leach). {Diadora noachina Gray.) Frequent. Margarita cinerea (Couth.). One specimen. Hope- dale. 330 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Margarita varicosa (Mighl. et Adams). Frequent at Hopedale and Caribou Island. Turritella erosa Couth. As numerous in proportion to the succeeding species as at present on the coast. Turritella reticulata Mighl. et Adams. (7". lactea Moll.) Profusely abundant in both places. Turritellopsis acicula (Stimps.). One specimen. Caribou Island. Aporrhais occidentalis Beck. Several. Caribou Island. Ltmatia gronlandica Moll. Frequent. Natica clatisa Sovvb, Frequent. Adniete viridtila Stimps. At Caribou Island. Beta robusta Pack. No specimens of this species occurred at Caribou Island associated with the other species ; it seems quite rare, and has not occurred in a living state. Though very distinct from any of the other species, it might be mistaken for a very much shortened and thickened B. americana. It is much shorter and broader than B. americana ; the whorls are five in num- ber, anguJated, giving the shell a well-marked turretted form ; the fourth whorl is one half to two thirds as long as the first, which is unusually large in proportion to the rest of the shell. The aperture is broad, regularly ovate ; canal long, narrow, oblique, and not gradually widening towards the aperture. It has much fewer ribs than B. americana, there being thirteen on the lower whorl, where in B. americana are eighteen. Length .18; breadth . 1 1 inch. Beta americana Packard. {Fusus turriculus Gould, Invert. Mass. Bela scalaris Packard, Can. Nat. and Geol. 1863, — not of Moll, Index Mollusc. Gronl.) l^a- QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 33 1 riety. One specimen occurred fossil at Caribou Island which differed in no respect from a recent specimen dredged in fifteen to thirty fathoms at Square Island, which will be further noticed below. Bela exarata^oVi. (^De/rancmexara^a MoW., Index Mollusc. Gronl. ; Pletirotoma rugulatus " Moll." Reeve, Icon. Conch, f. 345.) Caribou Island. Common. Be/a WoodianalAoW. (^Pleurotoma karpulariaQowXh.^ Bost. Journ. ii., p. 183. Plezcrotoma lezicostoma Reeve, Icon. Conch, f. 278.) Caribou Island. The most com- mon species of the genus in these deposits, though very rarely found living by us ; it is of large size and much eroded. Bela dectissata (Couth.). It occurred very rarely at Caribou Island. Bela pyramidalis (Strom.). {Pleztrototna rufa Couth.} Not common ; at Hopedale and Caribou Island. Bela violacea Mighl. et Adams. {Defrancia cylin- dracea Moll. Ind, Moll. Gronl. ; Pleurotoma gronlandica Reeve, 1. c. fig. 343.) Of common occurrence at Cari- bou Island. Buccinuni glaciale Linn. Caribou Island, an imper- fect specimen. Bttccinum grdnlandicum Hancock. Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist, xviii. p, 329, pi. v., figs. 8, 9, 1846. Pitt's Arm, head of Chateau Bay ; one specimen, with the outer coating of shell worn off. Buccinum tenue Gray. {Bttccinum scalartforme Beck, Stimps., Can. Nat., Oct. 1865, p. 14.) One specimen occurred at Caribou Island, wanting the lip and spire, but showing well the abbreviated longitudinal waves characteristic of the species. 332 THE GEOLOGY Ol- THE LABRADOR COAST. Buccinuni undatum Linn. {B , undattmi Greene, Gould, Dawson ; B. labradoi'ense Reeve, Packard, Can. Nat. viii. p. 416, 1863.) Tritonofusus cretaceus {Buccinum cretaceum Reeve, Icon. Conch ; Packard, Can. Nat. viii., p. 417, pi. ii. fig. 6, 1863.) This interesting species, now found not uncommonly on the coast of Labrador, also occurs fossil not unfrequently at Caribou Island. It differs in no respect from living forms. Ftisus {NeptMned) tornatus Gould. Rarely found fossil at Caribou Island, and in the blue clay at the mouth of Salmon River. Fusus {Neptuned) labradorensis Pack. CRETACEUS. Shcll fusiform ; whorls moderately convex, sutures deeply impressed, the upper ones somewhat flat- tened, spire elongated, acute, lower whorl ventricose, covered with rather coarse revolving strise. On the lower whorl are twenty nearly straight, coarse, flattened folds, which on the succeeding whorls run the entire length of each whorl. Aperture ovate, columella con- cave, smooth ; canal moderately long, oblique, slightly tortuous, spire a little longer than the shell. Length, one inch ; breadth .48 inch. One specimen at Caribou Island. It differs from Ftisits pullus Reeve (fig. 89) in being apparently a much thicker shell, in the longer canal, and in the more ventricose body of the shell, with the coarser revolving lines. Fustis torhiosus Reeve, Belcher's Last of the Arctic Voyagers, ii., p. 394, pi. 32, fig. 5. Our specimens dif- TRITONOFUSUS QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 333 fer from the description, in the absence of the long tor- tuous canal which gives the species its name. The fos- sils have the same convexity of the whorls, which are covered by similar revolving striae ; but the first whorl is less contracted at the origin of the canal, and the canal itself is from half to two thirds the length of the first whorl, while in F. torhtosus the canal nearly equals the length of the whorl. In this respect it approaches Fmsus pygmcE2is Gould, from which it is distinguished by its size, the greater convexity of its whorls, and the deeply impressed revolving lines. This was a frequent shell in the gravel deposit on Caribou Island, and large specimens measured nearly three inches in length. Trichotropis borealis Sowb. et Brod. Not uncom- mon at Hopedale and Caribou Island. Spirorbis glo7nerata Mlill. Occurred as usual on shells at Caribou Island. S. vitrea Stimps. Only young an-d flattened speci- mens occurred. SpiochcEtopterus typus Sars, Fauna littoral is, ii. Frag- ments of tubes belonging apparently to this worm were found fossil at Caribou Island. Balanus porcatus Da Costa. Numerous fragments occurred at Caribou Island and Hopedale. In the above list occur several forms of great interest which have not been found fossil elsewhere, or in no such profusion, and seem to be perhaps characteristic of this fauna and to have had their metropolis either in this area or in Arctic America, in contradistinction from Arctic Europe. Such are 334 'i'HE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Cardita borealis Be la exarata, Astarte Banksii, Bela woodiana, Margarita varicosay Bela robtcsta, Turritella recticulata, Bela americana, Turritella erosa, Fusus tortuosus, Apoi^rhais occidentalis, Fusus labradorensis, Adviete viridula, Buccinum undttlatum, Tritonofusus cretaceus. From this list the polyzoa are excluded, since no spe- cies are recorded from Greenland, except by Otho Fa- bricius in the Fauna Gronlandica. Upon comparing this list with that of the species comprised in the present fauna of Labrador, we can ob- serve how similar are the two faunae, and how persistently the characters of the earlier of the two have survived the important changes this region has undergone since the glacial epoch. We have here the present Syrtensian* or Newfoundland Banks fauna in its purity, without the intermixture of the few southern forms that have subse- quently encroached upon its limits. We shall below show where it shaded almost imperceptibly into the Acadian fauna, its nearest southern neighbor ; but now we have to determine its most northern limits. Fortunately MoUer, in his " Index MoUuscorum Gronlandise," and Rink,f have noticed the few fossils * We have applied the term Syrtensian to the subarctic assemblage of marine animals characterizing the Banks of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia, and the coast of Southern Labrador and of Newfoundland. It is a subdivision of the Arctic fauna, being in some respects intermediate between the Arctic and Bo- real faunae. f Udsigt over Nordgronlands Geognosi af H.. Rink. Viden. Selsk. Skrifter, Kjobenhavn, 1853, p. 96. The species were identified by Dr. O. A. L. Morch. QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 335 which have occurred in the Quaternary clays of southern Greenland, a list of which is here given. Pecten islandicus, My a truncata, Leda muiuta, My a arenaria, Mytilus edulis, PanopcEa norvegica, Modiolaria discors, Saxicava arctica, Astarte semisulcata\uQdic\\, Tellina calcarea, Astarte corr^igata Brown, Tellina fragilis^ (^gronlan- CardiuTU (^ Aphrodite^ died), gronlandicuni, Natica clausa B. & S., Cardium islandicum, Littorina gronlandica, Cryptodon fiexuosus, Fusus despechis Linn, Cyrtodaria siliqua, Margarita glauca, Pusus gracilis Da Costa. By reference to the lists of fossil shells found in the clays of the New England and Labrador coasts it will be seen that during the Quaternary of the French and Scan- dinavian geologists, or post-pliocene period of Lyell, the distribution of marine animals was governed by the same laws as at the present day. In going southward from Labrador to New York the seas became warmer the more they came in contact with the heated waters of the Gulf Stream, whose influence was slightly exerted on the coast of New England during the glacial period. The climate of New England was not purely arctic, but rather sub-arctic, where now it is " boreal." While this period was characterized by the wide distribution of what are now purely arctic or circumpolar species, there were also intermingled boreal or Acadian forms. Thus the arctic Leda arctica, Pecten gronlandictis, Serripes gronlandtcns, Pandorina arenosa, and Fus2is tornatus 336 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. were then widespread and most characteristic shells from Greenland to Portland, Maine. The Leda especially, abounding in every clay deposit, has now become wholly extinct south of Spitzbergen and the 70th parallel of latitude. An exceedingly small percentage, if any, of the species has become wholly extinct, the only instances occurring to us being the Beluga vermontanay about which there must be great doubt, since owing to the difficulty of distinguish- ing the fossil species of whales, it may be the common white whale and the new species of Fmsus {F. labra- dorensis), and, possibly, Bela robusta, described above. A considerable number have become extinct in the north temperate seas, owing to the great changes in the climatic conditions. A parallel case is shown in the southward migration and subsequent extinction in Eu- rope of the musk-ox, polar bear, lemming, and other quadrupeds now confined mostly within the limits of the arctic circle. During the glacial period, or that of the deposition of the glacial beds (Leda clay of Dawson), which are un- mistakably rewashed terminal moraines left during the incoming or coldest period of the Quaternary (when, we have every reason to believe, true glaciers of great extent eroded the present river systems as far south as New York, the southern limits of the ice having been indicated by Clarence King, Prof. G. F. Wright, and others), there was a greater uniformity than now of the climate ; but yet, as shown by the distribution of animal life, there was a decided change from a purely arctic to a sub-arctic climate, from Greenland southward. At present, the arctic or circumpolar fauna is restricted FAUNA OF THE BANKS. 337 to a district north of the yearly isothermal line of 32°, which thus includes the Arctic-American Archipelago, northern Greenland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and the coast of Siberia. This is a true circtimpolar fauna, and can scarcely be said to be Asiatic, European, or American, though members of the group extend in di- minished numbers and size down on the Asiatic coast,, to Japan, as we are informed by Dr. W. Stimpson and by P. P. Carpenter in the Report of the British Associ- ation for 1856 ; on the European coast as far as the Mediterranean Sea, and on the eastern American coast as far as New Jersey, where the polar currents give, at great depths, the necessary amount of cold for their ex- istence. South of this circumpolar belt is a sub-arctic zone of life corresponding to the yearly isothermal of 40°. This line starts from near Cape Breton in North America, and includes Iceland, the Hebrides, the Faroe Islands, Finmark, and northern Norway. On the American coast this fauna is characterized by a small number of species not yet recorded as found in the cir- cumpolar district, which only occur southward in the Acadian district in diminished numbers and impoverished in size. This Syrtensian fauna bears the same relations to that of the Acadian district as that of Finmark (judg- ing from the data furnished us in the papers of Professor Sars) does to that of the Baltic, North, and Scottish Seas, the boreal or Celtic fauna of Forbes, and which is the European representative of the Acadian fauna. We have shown* that this fauna is limited to Hudson's Bay, the coast of Labrador, and the northern coast of New- * Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Dec, 1863. See also the Pr-oc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Jan. 1866, p. 276. 338 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. foundland. Southward it follows the line of floating ice, which partially excludes Anticosti, but includes both the Grand Banks and those shoals lying to the southwest- ward along the track of the polar current, which on the coast of New England flows between the coast and the inner edge of the Gulf Stream ; along this line lie the Banks, off Nova Scotia, and Maine, and Massachusetts, together with the St. George's Banks and the Nantucket Shoals. Its influence is likewise felt as far south as the shoals lying off the coast of New Jersey. This current would even seem to impinge slightly upon the north side of Cape Hatteras, where Redfield supposes its final influence to have been felt. Returning again to the shores of the British colonies, we find this Shoal or Syrtensian fauna most curiously interwedged with the Acadian or New England fauna. This is owing, with- out doubt, to the overlapping of the Gulf Stream upon the great polar current. Thus, while the mouth of the Bay of Fundy is properly a Syrtensian outlier, the head of the bay, the coast of New Brunswick, the western side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the mouth of the river St. Lawrence on its southern side, and a small isolated area on the southern coast of Newfoundland, sheltered from the polar current sweeping by Cape Race, and on which a small branch of the Gulf Stream may possibly impinge, are outlying areas inhabited by species most characteristic of the coast of New England north of Cape Cod, constituting a fauna termed by Professor Dana the Nova Scotian Fauna, and by Llltken, the Aca- dian Fauna. Thus between Greenland and Cape Cod there are two distinct faunae : the Acadian, with outliers situated north of 'its normal limits, due to the influence FAUNA OF THE BANKS. 339 of the Gulf Stream, or, perhaps, to the absence of the polar current ; and the Arctic (Syrtensian or Labrador fauna), peopling the coast of Labrador and Newfound- land, sending outliers far southwards, due to the influ- ence of the polar current. Having shown how these three faunae are limited at the present day, it remains to notice how this distribu- tion differed in Quaternary times. The arctic or polar current must have sent a branch through the present course of the St. Lawrence River into Lake Champlain, in a general southwestern direction. This current was evidently a continuation of the present Belle Isle cur- rent, which even now pushes the cold waters of the Strait far up beyond the island of Anticosti beneath the fresh waters of the St. Lawrence River. It has been noticed by Dr. Dawson, f who has satisfactorily shown the effects of this powerful St. Lawrence current, that the post-tertiary fauna of the St. Lawrence, as it has been studied by him at Montreal, Riviere du Loup, and Quebec, was in all its features purely Syrtensian, and identical with that of the colder portions of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and especially the coast of Labrador. The clay beds of Canada synchronize and agree in their general features very nearly with those of Maine, as has been already observed by Dr. Dawson. All the beds to the eastward of the Saco River afford a Labra- dor fauna. About Portland and on the Saco River we are, however, on the limits of the post-tertiary Acadian ■f- Address of Principal Dawson before the Natural History Society of Mon- treal, May, 1864, published in the Canadian Naturalist, where he shows that the general southwest striation of the valley was "from the ocean toward the inte- rior against the slope of the St. Lawrence valley." (p. 9.) 340 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. fauna. Certain common Syrtensian and purely arctic forms there dwindle in size and diminish very sensibly in numbers, and a few arctic species are replaced by Aca- dian forms. At Point Shirley we have good evidence of the begin- ning of the Virginian fauna, where Venus mercenaria and Buccimtm plicosum abound. This must have been the northern limits of the fauna so well developed, as noticed by Desor, in the beds of Nantucket, where the temperature of the sea could have scarcely differed from that of the present period. The same may be said of the post-tertiary fauna of South Carolina, and, from what little we know, of that of Florida, where the heated Gulf Stream evidently preserved the same conditions as now, only more checked in its northern limits than at present by impinging more directly on a coast lined with floating ice, as that of Maine must have been in post- tertiary times. At such a time the increased degree of moisture must have produced a much greater rainfall, the fogs must have been of greater extent, and the snow line must have ap- proached much nearer the sea, than at present, on the eastern coast of America, south of lat. 60°, and glaciers of great extent must have surrounded the mountains of New England. The land fauna and flora of New Eng- land must have been that of Labrador. The Greenland seal {Phoca \Pagophihis^ grcenlandud), the Beluga ver- montana, and among plants the Potentilla tridentata and Arenaria groenlandica (both of which are now found in the colder parts of the coast of Maine) must have been the characteristic species. Remnants of such a flora and fauna we now behold on our alpine summits. OUR ALPINE REMNANTS OF THE LABRADOR FAUNA. 34I On the top of Mount Washington, the last five hundred feet exhibit a purely sub-arctic or Labrador vegetation. We can scarcely call it arctic, for the dwarf spruces and firs are of the same size as in the more unprotected places in Labrador. The same species of weasel which abounds in Labrador we have seen on the summit of Mount Washington. The insect fauna we must believe is an outlier of the Labrador sub-arctic assemblage of insects, though with certain features of its own. While some Diptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera are identical, cer- tain species, such as Chionobas seinidea, Argynnis mon- ti7ttis Scudder, differ slightly from any yet found in Lab- rador, though they may yet be found farther north, or may prove to be local species, remnants of a sub-arctic fauna which peopled the surface of New England, living between the coast and the snow line in the interior. As the line of perpetual snow retreated up the mountain sides, the more hardy species followed, while many others doubtless died in the great changes of climate and topography which ushered in the historic period. As there are aerial or alpine outliers, relics of this ancient sub-arctic fauna and flora, so we must consider the pres- ent abyssal forms, and outliers of the Labrador marine fauna, — such as inhabited the Banks of Nova Scotia and northern New" England, and the cold waters of the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, — as the remnants of the Syrtensian fauna, which during the glacial period must have been spread very uniforml)' over this area. The arctic sea-birds even now breed upon the islands in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, as they do on the coast of Labrador. I am told by fishermen that the Puffin, Mormon arctzca, used to breed on Mount Desert. 342 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. The Alca impennis was probably a common bird, as it was once on the shores of Scandinavia and Scotland ; there are rumors extant among our oldest fishermen of its having been seen years ago, but within the recollec- tion of men now living, as I am informed by Professor A. E. Verrill ; and its bones have occurred in the kitch- en-middings of the coast of Nova Scotia and of Massa- chusetts at Ipswich, It is known by Rev. Mr. Wilson, a missionary in Newfoundland, to have been common less than forty years ago about the Fogo Islands, on the northeastern shore of Newfoundland, as I have been in- formed by Mr. G. A. Boardman of Calais, Maine. These birds represent the sub-arctic avi-fauna of New England during the later period of the drift, and owe their extinction possibly to the slow changes of the climate, which must have been gradually ameliorating for two centuries past in the north temperate zone, but more especially to their destruction by man. All the facts cited above must at least tend to disprove any theory of a former tertiary or post-tertiary continental connection between Europe and America. The fauna and flora of Labrador during the glacial period were too distinct, the oceanic currents could not have allowed any interchange of forms, and the great depth of the sea in Baffin's Bay would have prevented such migrations as Forbes supposed to have taken place from Europe. The geological history of the American continent, as laid down so clearly by Professor Dana in the Proceed- ings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for 1856, proves that the different formations were, during paleozoic, mesozoic, and tertiary times, built around the granitic laurentian nucleus of British THE AMERICAN GLACIAL FAUNA UNLIKE THE EUROPEAN. 343 America, and gradually proceeded southward. All the tertiary rocks form narrow strips of land along the coast. No well-informed geologist can believe that the tertiary strata formed continuous sea-bottoms, — that, for instance, the miocene beds of Spitzbergen were continuous with those of Disco Island in Greenland, or that the Green- land beds are a part of the miocene strata of the Southern States. Equally unfounded on general geological prin- ciples seems the theory of a tertiary Atlantis, advanced some years ago, especially by Heer and others, though first proposed by Forbes, to account for the distribution of life in the Azores and the islands lying off the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the fauna as we go southward from the arctic zone becomes more and more distinct, audit is probable that such distinctions obtained from the earliest palaeozoic times. The Silurian fauna of Europe is nearly as distinct from that of North America as the tertiary fauna of England and France is from that of Virginia, as in the latter ease insisted on by Sir Charles Lyell in the Quarterly Journal of the Geo- logical Society for 1845. During glacial times, the cave-bear, lion, hyena, an aurochs were associated in Europe with the musk-ox reindeer, and polar bear. It cannot be said that th glacial fauna of America was derived by immigration from Europe, for not a single feature peculiarly Euro- pean in its type is found in our post-tertiary beds. On the other hand, the glacial fauna of northern Europe was essentially Arctic-European or " palaearctic." Be- cause the musk-ox is found fossil in the turbaries of France and gravels of Germany, it need not be inferred that the European fauna of that period borrowed an 344 '^^HE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. American feature. We would rather suppose that the former range of the musk-ox, a circumpolar species, was Arctic-European as well as American. In considering the origin of the flora of Labrador, though not possessing a special knowledge of the botany, we would on general principles venture to dissent from the view of Dr. Hooker, that the flora of northeastern Arctic America is essentially Scandinavian in its origin. The flora of Labrador, so far as we were enabled to observe, follows closely the laws of distribution of the land and sea animals ; and any theory that separates the origin of the two assemblages cannot be in accordance with the general laws of the distribution of life, be it plant or animal, over the surface of the globe. The fauna of Australasia is no less peculiar than its flora ; the flora of Brazil is characterized by its peculiar tropical American forms, just as the fauna is circumscribed by pecuHar features. So we must believe that the origin of the Arctic- European and Arctic- American and Arctic- Asiatic floras and faunas was distinct from the outset, and that they have never borrowed, by extensive inter-conti- nental migrations, each other's peculiar characteristics. As we have observed in regard to the animals, there are a very large proportion of arctic plants spread over the whole arctic zone, which cannot be said to be American any more than European or Asiatic, but simply circum- polar. On the other hand, there is a small percentage of which the reverse is true, and this is paralleled among the animals. Sir J. D. Hooker, in his elaborate essay on the Dis- tribution of Arctic Plants in the Linnean Transactions for 1 86 1, accounts for the greater richness of the flora of DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 345 Lapland over that of other arctic regions by the blend- ing of warm and cold currents of air and water, and its great diversity of mountains and lowlands ; while on the broad plains of Siberia and the level plateau of Labrador there is the greatest uniformity of climate, and hence a corresponding paucity of plants. The same climatic conditions determine the distribu- tion of marine life. As we go from Norway to Green- land the number of species lessens greatly. Dr. Llitken, in his admirable View of the Echinoderms of Green- land, shows that the fauna is essentially Arctic-American rather than European. It is so with the other radiates, and the articulate and molluscan fauna, and the fish fauna would seem to follow the same law. Dr. Hooker cites fifty-seven species of plants which do not cross from Greenland to America. This is par- alleled by the apparent restriction of a few species of marine invertebrates to the high polar seas, such as the Leda truncata and Pecte7t grcEulandictiSy \k\o\x^\x\ ^2.- cial times they abounded in northeastern America. Among the most purely Arctic-American plants are the Potentilla tridentata, which is abundant in Green- land and which we have collected in profusion in Lab- rador, Maine, and on the White Mountains ; also the Areiiaria grcenlandica, which is more thoroughly arctic, preferring the coldest spots on the outer islands of the coast of Labrador, and the alpine summit of Mount Washington, and which has even been detected on Cape Elizabeth, Me. These two plants— which Dr. Hooker acknowledges have never occurred elsewhere on the globe within the historic period — he supposes were originally from Scan- 346 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. dinavia, though they have never been found in Europe. By this mode of reasoning we might just as well imagine the clam, Mya arenaria, to have been derived originally from Europe, or the bison to have been derived from the aurochs of Europe, The presence of such charac- teristic Arctic-American forms in Greenland must de- stroy our confidence in the supposed identity of the Greenland flora with that of Lapland, for there are strong grounds for regarding the flora of Greenland as arctic and circumpolar simply, rather than European- Arctic, and that on either side the flora becomes more strongly either American or European, as we go west- ward or eastward of Greenland.* When, following the line of the yearly isothermal of 32°, we go to the southward on either side of the At- lantic, we find warm and cold currents of air and water intermingling, and thus producing much greater diver- sity of climate than in Greenland. While the Gulf Stream abuts directly upon Scandinavia, some of its effects are felt in Newfoundland and Labrador. Both lands are continental, and shade into temperate regions. There is a very perfect correspondence in the geology and distribution of the formations, and hence, as Hooker observes, there are a large number (230) of plants, common to Labrador and Scandinavia, which do not occur in Greenland. This is parallelled very exactly in the distribution of animal life. In the seas of Labrador and Newfoundland are found forms derived from the more temperate seas of New England, as on the coast of * In a paper by Eug. Warming in Engler's Jahrbiicher, x. i88g, on the flora of Greenland, the author concludes that Greenland is not a European province but has nearer relations to America. {Nature, May 30, i88g. p. 117.) DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 347 Norway many forms occur which are derived from the British seas, and are even found as far south as the Mediterranean. These serve greatly to swell the lists. In fact the facies of the flora of Labrador is sub-arctic and by no means purely arctic, as is that of Greenland. Explained in this way the flora of Greenland seems to us no more anomalous than its colder climate and re- moteness from sub-arctic lands, isolated as it ever has been by deep seas and powerful oceanic currents of dif- ferent temperatures, which, we must believe, served from very early times as barriers against the comming- ling of more temperate forms of life with purely circum- polar species. There is, in our view, no reason to believe that the glacial period, as some writers have suggested, has shifted from the eastern to the western hemisphere, or vice versa ; for the same causes which brought on the cold period were evidently common to the arctic and sub-arctic regions throughout their whole extent, though governed greatly by the present distribution of the iso- thermal lines. That the drift deposits were laid down contemporaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, seems proved by such facts as this : that Leda arctica {L. port- landicct), more than any other shell characteristic of the drift deposits of the northern portions of America and Europe, has become alike extinct both in Scandinavia and its equivalent, Labrador, Canada, and New Eng- land. The break in the glacial beds — which by Sars^ (in which he closely follows D'Archiac) are divided into an * Om de i Norge forekommende fossile Dyrelevninger fra Quartaerperioden, etc.; af M. Sars, Christiania, 1S65. 348 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. earlier Quaternary or '' glaciar' formation, from wliich few fossils have been taken, and those purely arctic in character, and the more recent beds, " post-glacial," resting upon them, containing a great influx of boreal or sub-arctic and some Lusitanico-Mediterranean species — does not seem so distinctly marked in northeastern America as in Europe. In southern England the able researches of Mr. Searles V. Wood, Jun., enable this writer to " arrive at the conclusion that the widespread bowlder clay of England is wholly distinct from the older, but partially developed drift of the Cromer coast. That conclusion was arrived at by the minute examina- tion of more than eight thousand square miles of the eastern portion of England, and the grounds for it were submitted to geologists in a detailed map of the drift beds over the whole of that area, with copious sections. It was thus that I acquired the opinion which induces me to deny, as I do, ' that we have yet any evidence of any general submergence at the incoming of the glacial period, far less of repeated oscillations of submergence and emergence.' . . . Now although I have endeavored to show that on the east coast of England four oscilla- tions of climate have occurred since the incidence of the glacial period, viz. : first, the extreme cold of the Cromer drift when the country except a part of Norfolk was land ; second, the ameliorated climate of the sand and gravel series, which overlies that drift unconformably, and partially underlies the bowlder clay ; third, the re- turn of cold with the extensive submergence which in- troduced the widespread formation of bowlder clay ; and fourth, the return to sand and gravel conditions, with the elevation and denudation of that clay and the THE BOWLDER CLAY. 349 introduction of the post-glacial series — yet the oscilla- tions of climate during the tertiary period begin as well as end with these." — The Reader, London, 1865, p. 466. Having the grand outlines of this formation thus mapped out for us, it remains for geologists in this coun- try to see how far the parallel can be carried out in America. There is as yet everything to be learned of the lowest and oldest bowlder clay of the coast of Maine ; to ascertain how far it is conformable with the brickyard clays of the uplands, and whether there is an overlying bed of sand such as the sheets of sand resting every- where on the upper bowlder clay. At present there have been revealed no signs of this lower bed of sand clay, and the lowest clay beds we are acquainted with seem to graduate into the rewashed, more inland, and more recent bowlder or brickyard clays. In adopting the term Qtcaternary Period, we would use it in the amended sense proposed by D'Archiac in 1848, in his " Histoire des Progres-de la Geologic." From his able review of all the prime characteristics so trenchantly dividing this period from the Pliocene Ter- tiary, we are led with that author to consider this period as rather equivalent to the Tertiary as a whole, than to either of its three subdivisions ; and rather as the begin- ning of a new epoch or period, than the close of the Tertiary. The distinctions, as shown by D'Archiac, ob- tain no less in the tropics than in the high latitudes. In tropical America the period is marked off from the Ter- tiary by the appearance of the great mammals, the Her- bivores characterizing the formation in America, and the great Carnivores the deposit of the Eastern hemisphere. About the Mediterranean the Tertiarv Period closed 3SO THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. with the upheaval or the Sub-Apennines of Italy, or Alps of Valais. Professor Dana, in his " Manual of Geology," states further important distinctions, such as the rise of land in the high latitudes which had not before taken place since Palaeozoic times, ushering in the period of great glaciers, and thus serving, over one half of the surface of the globe, to further separate this epoch from the Tertiary. Another feature of this period is the great uniformity of climate over broad, continental areas, and the wide distribution in space of certain species most characteristic of the Quaternary Formation, Such are the occurrence, on both hemispheres, of the musk-ox, the Siberian mam- moth (^E. primigenius), and, among marine mollusca, of Leda arctica Gray, Sars (^portlandica), which is now re- stricted to the circumpolar seas. Ge7teral Conclusions. — To account for all the facts which have been developed above, we must assume, — I. That the northern portion of North America, that is, the boreal and arctic regions, stood at a much higher level above the sea than now. We have given good evidence that it stood at least three hundred and sixty feet above that level in Labrador. It would be safe to assume that the coast line stood at an elevation not fall- ing short of six hundred feet. While this increase in the height of the land would not materially change the physiognomy of the continent north of the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, where the tableland rises abruptly from the ocean as in the arctic regions ; it would effect a great alteration in the distribution of dry land south of the parallel of 50° N. Should all the preseilt sea-bottom lying within the limits of the depth of one hundred THE LED A CLAY. 35 1 fathoms be thus raised, the Gulf of St. Lawrence would be represented by a river delta, one mouth in the Straits of Belle Isle, the other flowing out between Cape Bre- ton and Cape Ray. All the submarine plateaux, such as the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, and the banks ly- ing off the coast of Nova Scotia, Maine, and Cape Cod, would be elevated above the sea, and probably form broad plains. Thus the effects on the distribution of life would essentially differ from those of the region north of 50° N. Such a rise and enlarged area of land would, as has been stated by physicists, produce an ex- tension southward of an extreme arctic temperature. While the climate would be greatly low*ered, we still have added the proximity of the Gulf Stream, as evi- denced by the temperate rather than arctic fauna of the glacial beds of New York and Nantucket, and the more tropical assemblage of South Carolina. Such a blending of hot and cold currents of air and water must have pro- duced even more fogs and a much greater rainfall than now, to feed the enormous glaciers which moved into the sea from off the principal water-sheds. II. Leda Clay. — There was a gradual change of level in the sea. At the close of the glacial period the snow line gradually receded from the coast, and the glaciers retreated to the mountains. During the slow and gen- tle submergence of the land ushering in this epoch, the crude moraine matter was sorted into beds of regularly stratified clays one hundred to three hundred feet in thickness. The lowest beds consequently are the most ancient, as is also evidenced by the greater prevalence of arctic forms. During this time the sea was filled with floating ice, as at present on the Labrador coast, and the 352 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. great polar or Labrador current exerted its full power. The temperature being so even throughout the northern hemispheres of the globe, there was a great uniformity in the distribution of life, and certain species enjoyed a wide distribution where now they are restricted to com- paratively narrow areas. Toward the close of this period the Greenland seal, the walrus, and the Vermont whale {Behiga Vermontana), flourished. The Age of great Mammals dated from this early period. An arctic fauna and flora inhabited the coast between the sea and the low snow line, and the flora and fauna which are now found only on our alpine heights, or in cold, isolated spots on the coast of Maine and the northern lakes, then peopled the surface of New England and Canada. All the biological features of this epoch partook of an inter- mixture of the boreal and arctic faunas and floras that are now more distinctly circumscribed into narrower areas. ,' We^ have no evidence of an intercontinental commu- nication with Europe during this period. Then, as now, there was a local facies imprinted on those animals whose remains have survived, exhibiting the same faunal distinctions, and even more strongly marked than now. The close of this period was signalized by a great amelioration of climate, by broad areas of marine clays finely laminated, and having more sand and loam inter- mixed than in the lowest and oldest beds. This was the transition from a period of broad estuaries, and, at a late stage, of shallow seas, to the next epoch of a secular emergence. It ushered in the — III. Period of raised Beaches (Saxicava Sands). This necessarily implies a great denudation of the glacial clays THE TERRACE EPOCH. 353 The rolled, sea-worn bowlders, shingle and sand, com- posing the mass of the ancient osars and beach deposits, now found at all heights from the sea-level to those of five hundred or six hundred feet, are derived from the resorting of the moraines. We thus find that the high- est beaches are the oldest, and the most recent, those just above the ocean level. The temperature of the sea did not differ greatly from that of the present day. Dur- ing the epoch the present distribution of the faunae now inhabiting the temperate and arctic zones was estab- lished, and since then but little change has taken place. The fresh-water shells found about the Niagara River and other deposits in Canada, were, so far as we know, introduced at this time. Those shells found in beach deposits on the St. Lawrence River, from four hundred to five hundred feet above the present level of the river, show that but lij:tle change has taken place in the climatic relations of the land or in the distribution of the animals depending on such relations. It is .evident that the Acadian fauna, once restricted to the regions south of the Saco River, during this epoch crept up the coast of Maine, extended itself along the western shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and prevailed in the St. Lawrence River, and the broad estuary now represented by Lake Champlain. The close of this period witnessed the surface of New England covered by broad lakes and ponds, with vast rivers and extensive estuaries, with deep fiords cutting up the coast-line. Its scenic features must have resem- bled those of Labrador at the present day. IV. The Terrace Epoch. The estuaries and deep bays left beach deposits of sand and shingle, resulting 354 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. from the drainage of the slowly rising continent. All the terraces are unconformable to the marine sands underlying them, though the highest terraces farthest from the coast may have been forming while the more recent sea-beaches were being deposited by the action of the waves and tide. Thus the early part of the Lake period is synchronous with the latter part of the Beach period. So also the lower strata of the Leda clays were laid down during the deposition of the oldest beaches, causing a constant inosculation of these unconformable deposits, and thus the beginning of one epoch overlaps the close ofjthe previous one. CHAPTER XV. THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. While the zoology of the interior and western por- tions of the Labrador peninsula is undoubtedly like that of the Hudson's Bay district and the cooler portions of Canada, as well as northern Maine and New Hampshire, it presents quite different features on the treeless por- tions of the coast, and on the outer islands. There, the fauna, as a whole, is closely allied to that of southern Greenland, and is remarkably free from the " boreal " forms ranging throughout British America. Indeed the insects and moUusks are in many cases identical with those of Greenland, as are the climatic,"^ topographic, and general geological features of the coast. Did the mountains of Labrador rise above the snow line, where now they just reach its lower limits, and were the rain fall slightly greater, glaciers would undoubtedly exist, running down the fiords into the sea, as they do north of Hudson's Strait, and we should perhaps have a nearly perfect correspondence between the Atlantic slope of northern Labrador and that portion of Greenland lying between the 6oth and 70th parallels of latitude. On the outer islands, lining the coast for nearly forty or fifty miles deep, in the vicinity of Hopedale, the birds, * The mean annual temperature of Hopedale in lat. 55° 35' "is certainly not higher than 26° Fahr." Ball's Notes of a Naturalist in South America, p. 273. 355 356 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. insects, land shells and the vegetation, present an almost purely circumpolar character. Thus certain butterflies and moths first discovered in high latitutes are very abundant about Hopedale and southward, also occuring on the alpine summits of the White mountains and of the Rocky mountains, and certain of them even fre- quenting the Alps of Switzerland, the mountains of Scandinavia and the summits of the Altai mountains in northeastern Asia. It is this mingled circumpolar and boreal fauna which composed that assemblage of life-forms, which peopled New England and the extreme northern states, as well as Canada, during the glacial period, and which as the ice waned, migrating northward, was gradually driven to- wards the north pole, though still lingering on the alpine summits, and on the treeless barrens of Labrador, These bleak, bare tracts, including many thousand square miles of islands lining the Labrador coast, agree in their vege- tation and animal life with similar tracts and islands in latitudes 70° to 80° N. This is due to the cold Labra- dor current, and to the immense fields of floating ice,, nearly filling up the channels and friths between these islands throughout the entire short summer of six weeks, thus greatly reducing the temperature, while in Novem- ber the bays and inlets freeze up solid until the following 'Indeed the Labrador peninsula with its varied physi- cal features affords admirable examples of the influence of the environment on animal and plant life. The com- plete harmony which exists between the organisms, both terrestrial and marine, and their surroundings, is evidently the result of their adaption to the arctic or the subarctic THE WHITE BEAR. 357 nature of their habitats. The peninsula stands out in the Atlantic ocean, bounded on the north by the polar sea and lands, with their floating ice, glaciers, and frozen soil. Past the Atlantic shores of the peninsula sweeps the broad, deep, and powerful Labrador or polar current, bear- ing on its surface through the spring and summer months, and about Hudson's Strait, in certain years, throughout the autumn, a mass of floating ice about 100,000 square miles in extent. Hence the mean annual temperature is, on the coast, especially on the promontories and islands, as low as that of southern Greenland. In my first published remarks on the occurrence of the white bear in Labrador, where it is sometimes called the "water bear," in distinction from the black bear, which is very common on that coast, I then supposed that the polar bear was a straggler from Hudson's or Baffin's bays, rather by accident than otherwise, at rare in- tervals breeding so far south as Labrador. But on look- ing over the accounts of the early discoverers and navi- gators, as well as Cartwright's "Journal," I am led to materially alter my opinion and to suppose that the for- mer limits of this creature extended even possibly as far south as Casco bay, on the coast of Maine. Whether there are any notices of or references to the white bear in the records and sagas of the Norsemen who visited the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, we are unable to say. White bears were, however, seen by the first English navigator who discovered our shores, the intrepid Venetian, John Cabot, then sailing under an English flag. The following reference to white bears appears in an extract from an inscription on the map of Sebastian Cabot in Hakluyt's Voyages (iii. 27) : 358 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. " In the yeere of our Lord 1497 lohn Cabot, a Vene- tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll) discouered that which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24th of lune, about five of the clock early in the morning. This land he called Prima vista, that is to say, First scene, because as I sup- pose it was that point whereof they had the first sight from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land, he called the island of S. lohn vpon this occasion, as 1 thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of lohn the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to weare beast skinnes, and have them in as great estimation as we have our finest garments. In their warres they vse bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, wooden clubs and slings. The soil is barren in some places, andyieldeth litle fruit, but it is full of white beares, and stagges far greater than ours," This account shows quite conclusively that John Cabot's Prima Vista was some point of land in eastern or northern Newfoundland. The eminent geographer, Dr, J. G. Kohl, in his History of the Discovery of Maine, seems fully persuaded that the landfall of John Cabot was Labrador. But if the inscription and map are gen- uine, the description of the inhabitants of the island, both men and beasts, would better apply to those of the east- ern or southern Newfoundland. The human beings were more probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the Labrador coast the soil is "barren" in all places, while the " stagges far greater than ours" may have been the moose, which does not inhabit the Labrador coast. Whether the "white beares" were the polar bears or a pale variety of the barren-ground bear of Sir John Richard- THE WHITE BEAR. 359 son is somewhat uncertain. We should have unhesitat- ingly referred the creature to the polar bear, were it not that in Parmenius' account of Newfoundland, published in 1583, it is said : " Bears also appear about the fishers' stages of the countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they seeme to be white, as I coniectured by their skinnes, and somewhat lesse then ours." (Hakluyt.) The next explorer of this coast was Cortereal who, in 1500, landed on the Newfoundland coast, at or probably near Cape Race. In an old Portuguese map of about the year 1520 is a long Latin inscription, thus translated by Kohl, a part of which we copy : " This country was first discovered by Caspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, and he brought from there wild and barbarous men and white bears. There are to be found in it plenty of animals, birds and fish." The land from which Cortereal broup-ht the white bears was evidently the same as that in which he kidnapped fifty-seven of the aborigines. These were Indians and not Eskimo, and must have been the inhabi- tants either of Newfoundland or of Nova Scotia, for a per- son who saw them in the streets of Lisbon described them " as tall, well-built, and admirably fit for labor." That, however, they were the aborigines of Newfoundland, perhaps Bethuks, seems proved by the fact that a num- ber of white bears were also captured and sent to Spain with them. From these facts it seems reasonable to infer that the white or polar bear was a resident on the eastern coast of Newfoundland. The next navigator to explore these seas was Jacques Cartier, who arrived May loth, 1534, on the eastern coast of Newfoundland. To this observing seaman we owe our first accounts of the great auk or " penguin" on 360 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. the Island of Birds, now Funk or Fogo Island, on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland ; also of the Bird rocks of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. While harboring at what is now Funk Island, Cartier, after describing the great auks, tells us that he saw a white bear. In his own language, done into quaint English by Hakluyt : " And albeit the sayd Island be 14 leagues from the maineland, notwithstanding beares come swimming thither to eat of the sayd birds : and our men found one there as great as any cow, and as white as any swan, who in their presence leapt into the sea, and upon Whitsun-monday (following our voyage towards the land) we met her by the way, swimming toward land as swiftly as we could saile. So soone as we saw her, we pursued her with our boats, and by maine strength tooke her, whose flesh was as goode to be eaten as the flesh of a calfe two yeres olde." From this graphic and circumstantial account we feel sure that this was the great white or polar bear {U^^sms maritiinus) ; that it reached its full size, was not uncom- mon on the mainland (John Cabot says the land was " fufl" of them), and that it bred there, as those men- tioned by Parmenius in 1583 were probably young ones. The white bear is still occasionally seen on this coast, as Rev. Mr. Harvey states :"^ "The seal hunters occasion- ally encounter the white or polar bear on the ice off the coast, and sometimes it has been known to land." Now, if in these early times of Cabot and Cartier the eastern coast of Newfoundland was the habitat and breeding place of the polar bear, it is not unlikely that * Hatton and Harvey's Newfoundland, Boston, 1883, p. 193. THE WHITE BEAR. 361 it occasionally might have visited, as we know the walrus did, the coast of Nova Scotia and of Maine. Our supposition is based on the following facts : In an ancient map of " New France," by the Italian Jacomo di Gastaldi, in about the year 1550, republished by Kohl, and which we present, though of reduced size, what we should consider as veritable white bears are depicted as swimming in the ocean far from the coast of what must have been Nova Scotia, and near to but west of Sable Island or " Isola della rena," In the map the bears are placed to the southward of "Terra de Nvrvmbega," which evidently comprised Nova Scotia and Eastern Maine. Sable Island is an enlarged portion of a broad band, intended to represent the banks of Newfoundland and La Have. That the animals represented are bears admits of little doubt ; of the four figures the lowermost one is a seal ; it is drawn without ears, while the three other figures have large, drooping ears, like those of a bear. At any rate, if the locality was put in at haphazard by the map-drawer, why should white bears be also represented, as they seem to be in the ocean off Isola de Demoni. The figures of the black bear, as w^ell as of the rabbit and of the abo- rigines were all drawn, and it seems not unreasonable to infer that white bears were actually seen and reported to the south and west of Newfoundland. That the white bear may have visited the coast of Maine, near Portland, is further proved by the probable discovery by Prof. E. S. Morse of a white bear's tooth in the shell heaps of Casco Bay. Speaking of the bones of the bears found in a shell heap on Goose Island, Casco Bay, Maine, the late Pro- 362 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST fessor Wyman remarked in the American Naturalist, 1.575. January, 1868 : "The bones of the bear though much less numerous, were similarly broken up, and in two instances had been carbonized by contact with the fire. Among the speci- mens collected by Mr. Morse in his first visit to Crouch's PARTE INCOGNITA New France by tl)e Italian 3acomo di Gaflaldi in about tl?c ygur 1.^.^0 cove was the last molar from the lower jaw. The crown was somewhat worn, but the ridges were not all effaced ; it was of small size, measuring 0.55 inch in length and and 0.46 in breadth. The average size of eight speci- mens of the same molar in the black bear was : Length, 0.60 inch ; breadth, 0.47, while that of two specimens from the polar bear was, length, 0.54 inch ; breadth^ 0.45. The tooth from the shell heaps, therefore, as re- THE WHITE BEAR. 363 gards size, more closely resembles the last-mentioned species, as it does also in the shape of the crown — but it must be unsafe from a single specimen of the molar in question to attempt to identify them. The former exist- ence of the polar bear on the coast of Maine is rendered quite probable by the fact that the tusk of a walrus has actually been found at Gardiner." That the white bear formerly was an inhabitant of Newfoundland seems probable from the facts we have brought together, and it is to be hoped that the antiqua- rians and naturalists of Newfoundland will investigate the shell heaps, should such be found, of that island for further facts bearing on this subject. We will now turn our attention to the former presence of the white bear on the Labrador coast, where the set- tlers still call it the "water bear." We find only in Cart- wright's Journal reference to this creature, but th-is is suf- ficient to show that it bred on and permanently inhabited this coast from Belle Isle, or Chateau -Bay, northward. A white bear was killed in 1 769 at Pitt's harbor, Chateau Bay. There is a " White Bear Sound" on Cartwright's map just north of Cape Charles, near Battle Island. Cartwright's house was to the northward of Cape Charles^ in an arm of Sandwich Bay. In 1770 Cartwright saw the track of two large white bears, and the Eskimo killed one the same year near his house. In April, 1772, the tracks of three white bears were seen. In April, 1776, a white bear and cubs were seen near Huntington Island, and in the following May another was observed. White bears were also seen up the rivers leading into Sandwich Bay, and on pp. 410-1 1 Cartwright describes the habits of the white bear in Labrador, statingjthat the young .364 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. ^re born in March, the parent bringing forth usually one at a time, sometimes two. While on the coast of Labrador in the summers of i860 and 1864, we gathered what facts we could as to the occurrence of this animal, publishing them in the Pro- ceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History (Vol. X, 1866, 270), from which we take the following, extract : " At Square island, a locality situated between Belle Isle and Domino Harbor, two cubs were captured and -taken to St. Johns, Newfoundland. At Domino Har- bor the skin of a bear killed during the preceding spring (1863) was obtained by one of our party. An intelli- gent hunter told me that the white bear was not unfre- quently seen at Stag Bay, near Roger's Harbor, which is situated a little more than fifty miles south of Hope- dale. One was killed there during the preceding winter (1863), and in the autumn their tracks were abundant. They were very shy, and could not be seen in the day- time. Further south they are much rarer. The last polar bear said to have been seen in the Strait of Belle Isle was shot fifteen years ago (1849), ^^ the settlement of Salmon Bay." While the entire peninsula was during the glacial period mantled in ice, and as cold, or nearly so, as Greenland is at present, the more exposed parts of the coast north of Belle Isle are still arctic, or at least sub- arctic. On the other hand the main land, for the most part consisting of Laurentian gneiss and schists, has probably from Archaean times been dry land, forming an important portion of the continental nucleus of North America. Its scanty soil is now over a large proportion of its surface probably frozen throughout the year ; the DISTRIBUTION OF INDIANS AND ESKIMOS. 365. Barren Grounds extend as far south as perhaps lat. 58°,. and spread still southward on the higher elevated por- tions of the plateau, which are bare of trees, so that the northern third of the peninsula is practically arctic, the animal and plant life being essentially arctic. But southward, including the sheltered valleys of the north- ern or Atlantic coast and of the elevated interior, with the St. Lawrence region, the climatic features and flora and fauna are like those of the western and southern shores of Hudson's Bay and the northern shores of the St. Lawrence. It thus forms a portion of the Boreal or Canadian Province of temperate North America. It will thus be seen that the conditions of existence, and the adjustment of the plants and animals to their habitats in Labrador, are those primarily depending on the temperature both of the ocean and of the air ; and the more we know of the distribution of life in this region, the more delicate appears to be the balance maintained between the organisms and their environ- ment. This is also seen in the relative distribution of the Indians and Eskimos. The former inhabit the boreal, wooded portions ; the latter the arctic, bare, tree- less, arctic portions of the coast and of the Barren Grounds, when the latter shade into the barren east and west coast of the northern extremity of the peninsula. The best" example of a purely arctic animal which still breeds on the coast is the white bear. It is an in- teresting fact that at Fort George, Hudson's Bay, both the black and white bear are known to breed. The white bear mates about the middle of April, and " the young, from one to three in number, are born in holes under rocks lined with brush, grass, and moss, to- 366 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. wards the end of October. At time of birth they are the size of a large rat, white in color, helpless, and with closed eyes. They are suckled for five months, the male assisting in rearing them." * With the white bear is still associated the walrus, which was formerly as abundant on this coast, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Magdalen Islands and certain parts of Nova Scotia, as it now is in the polar regions. The Britons and Basques, as well as the English, went to the Gulf of St. Lawrence after morses, during the years 1591-93. How abundant they were is stated in " A relation of the first voyage and discoverie of the Isle Ramea, made by for Monsieur de La Court Pre Rauillon, and Grand Pre, with the ship called the Bonaventure, to kill and make Traine oil of the beast called the Morses with great teeth, which we have perfourmed by Gods helpe this yeere 1591." (Hakluyt iii- 235-) " The coast stretcheth three leagues to the west from Lisle Blanch or the white Isle, vnto the entrance of a riuer, where we slewe and killed to the number of fif- teene hundred Morses or Sea oxen, accounting small and great, when at full sea you may come on shoare with boates, and within are two or three fathoms water." ''The 14 [June] we came to the two Islands of Birds, some 23 leagues fro Menego ; where there were such abundance of Birds, as is almost incredible to report. And vpon the lesse of these Islands of Birds, we saw great store of Morsses or sea Oxen, which were a sleepe * Miles Spencer, Annual Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada. New Series, iii. Part 2, 1878-88, p. 76. THE WALRUS. 367 vpon the rockes ; but when we approched nere vnto them with our boate; they cast themselues into the sea and persued vs with such furie as that we were glad to flee from them." " The three Islands of birds are sandy red, but with the multitude of birds vpon them they looke white. The birds sit there as thicke as stones lie in a paued street. The greatest of the Islands is about a mile in compasse. The second is a little lesse. The third is a very little one, like a small rocke. At the second of these three lay on the shore in the Sunshine about thirty or forty sea-oxen or morses ; which when our boat came nere them, pres- ently made into the sea, and swam after the boat." (The voyage of Mr. Charles Leigh and diuers others to Cape Briton and the Isle of Ramea, 1597. Hakluyt iii. 242.) Parkman* also tells us that the year after the battle of Ivry, St. Malo sent out a fleet of small craft in quest of this new prize. Hind, speaking, of Seven Islands Bay, in his work on Labrador, says : " In the spring and at the approach of winter it is visited by myriads of ducks, geese, and swans ; it was formerly a favorite haunt of the walrus, which, although not now seen even in the Gulf itself, was once common as far up the great river St. Lawrence, as the mouth of Saugenay, and from this animal the ' Pointe aux Vaches,' about a mile below Tadousac, takes its name. Not improbably the 'fishes like horses' which the Indians described as frequenting the Chi-sche- dec, and which Lescarbot calls hippopotami, were these large animals." * Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 209. 368 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. The bones of the wahus were in late years still to be found on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, its former great abundance there having been commented on by Cartier and Charlevoix. According to tradition, it also inhabited some of the harbors of Cape Breton ; and I have been informed by a Maine fisherman, that on an islet near Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, the bones of an enormous seal-like creature are to be found in the sand near the shore, fifteen to twenty feet above the sea. The last one seen or heard of in the Gulf, so far as I could ascertain, was killed at St. Augustine, Labrador, about the year 1S40. One was seen at Square Island in 1849^ and two shortly before that, and another was killed at the same place about the year 1855. In 1864 I saw^ the head of a young walrus, which was found floating dead in the drift ice north of Belle Isle, having been killed apparently by a harpoon. Mr. Stearns states that two were shot in 1880 and 1881 at Fox Harbor, St. Lewis Sound, off shore a little way. The following lists, with the remarks appended, will give in a methodical way what little is really known of the zoology of the Labrador coast, beginning with the animals of the lowest classes and ascending to the high- est. The lists are printed rather for the benefit of the scientific than the general reader. It may be mentioned that a few species of sponges were collected, but not identified. CCELENTERATES. (Polyps, Hydroids, etc.) Metridium marginatMm Edw. & H. From Indian Harbor southward, below low-tide. Urticina crassicornis Ehr. From Square Island southward ; i-io f. POLYPS AND HYDROIDS. 369 Edwardsia sipunculoides Stimp. Henley Harbor ; 4 f. Hydractinia polyclina Agass. Salmon Bay, Strait of Belle Isle. Coryne mirabilis Agass. Belles Amours, Clava niulticornis Pallas. Salmon Bay. TJmiaria thuja Fleming. Mingan Islands, Labrador. Halecium halecifiMfn Johnst. Caribou Island in eight fathoms, gravelly bottom, where its branches supported the nests of Ceraptis rubricornis Stimps. Frequent in thirty fathoms ; Chateau Bay, on a sandy bottom. Halecmm muricatuni Johnst. Off Caribou Island, in from thirty to fifty fathoms. Square Island in thirty fathoms. Cotulina polyzo7iias (Linn.). Caribou Island. Cotulma tricuspidata (Alder). Strait of Belle Isle irr forty fathoms upon Diphasia rosacea. Amphitrocha rugosa (Linn.). Square Island, 30 f. Sertularia filicula Ell. and Sol. Sertularia falcata Linn. Mingan Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence. Sertularia argentea Ell. and Sol. Caribou Island. Sertularia cupressina Linn. Sertularia abietina Linn. Mingan Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Labrador. Diphasia rosacea (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Dynamena pufnila Lamx. Strait of Belle Isle, be- tween tide-marks. Lafcea dumosa (Johnst.). Cateau Harbor, Long Isl- and ; 1 5 f Laomedea ainphora Agass. Square Island. Clytia vohibilis (Alder.). Henley Harbor, 20 to 30 f. Oceania languida A. Agass. Caribou Island, 8 f. 370 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Campanulm'ia verticillata Johnst. Henley Harbor, 20 f. Lucernaria quadricornis Miill. Caribou Island, 10 f. Managua auricula (Fabr.). Trachynema digitale A. Agass. Strawberry Har- bor, 15 f. Cyanea arctica Per. et Lesson. Strait of Belle Isle. Aurelia flavidula P^r. et Lesson. Strait of Belle Isle, and in retired bays. Idyia roseola Agass. Cape Webuc (Harrison) to Salmon Bay in the Strait of Belle Isle. Pleurobrachia rhododactyla Agass. Little Mecatina Island. Mertensia ovtiin Morch. ECHINODERMS. Astrophyton eucnemis M tiller and Troschel. Strait of Belle Isle, 18 to 80 f. Ophiacantha spinulosa Miill. and Trosch. Strait of Belle Isle, 40 f. Amphiura sundevalli M. and T. Cateau Bay, Long Island, 15 f. Ophiopholis aculeata Miiller. Whole coast 2-50 f. Ophioglypha Sarsii (Lutken). Cateau Bay, Long Island, 15 f. Ophioglypha nodosa Lyman. Salmon Bay to Square Island, low-water to 30 f. Ophioglypha robusta (Ayres). L'Anse-au-Loup to Square Island, 2-10 f. (Stearns). Crossaster papposa (Linn.). Salmon Bay, Square Isl and, 1 5-30 f . STARFISH. 371 Solaster endeca (Linn.) Forbes. Long Island, Cateau Bay, i5f. Cribella sanguinolenta (Miill.). Salmon Bay, Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f., Square Island (Stearns). Asterias groenlandicus Steenstr. Caribou Island and Square Island, 15 f. Asterias vulgaris Stimps. Whole coast. Asterias polar is (Mull et Trosch.). Caribou Island, Square Island and Hopedale. Large specimens, measur- ing 20 inches across, frequently occurred in pools at low- water mark. The color in life was a light greenish hue, mottled with reddish brown. Lepasterias littoralis (Stimps.). Near Square Island, .1-5 f. (Stearns). StrongylocentrotMS drobachiensis Agass. Whole coast. Echinarachnius parina Gray. Strait of Belle Isle. Lophothuria Fabricii'SfQxxSSS.. Esquimaux Bay, 15 f. Pentacta calcigera Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle. Pentacta frondosa Jaeger. Strait of Belle Isle. Chirodota l(^ve Grube. Whole coast. Ettpyrgus scaber Liitken. Salmon Bay, 10 f., to Long Island, 15 f. Myriotrochus Rinkii Steenstr. Sandwich Bay to Domino, 7-30 f. POLYZOANS. Tubulipora serpens (Linn.). Square Island, 30 f. ; Henley Harbor. Tubulipora patina Johnst. Domino Harbor, 7 f. Tubulipora divisa Stimps. Henley Harbor, 4 f. Tubulipora kispida Johnst. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Tubulipora palmata Wood. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 372 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Tubulipora expansa (Packard). Strait of Belle Isle. Tubulip07'-a atlantica Johnst. Strait of Belle Isle,. 50 f. ; Square Island, 30 f. Discoporella verrucaria (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle,, 50 f. Hippothoa catenttlaric Jameson. Hippothoa borealis D'Orb. Strait of Belle Isle and Cateau Harbor. Hippothoa expansa Dawson. Strait of Belle Isle. Lepralia annulata O. Fabr. Strait of Belle Isle ; also in Cateau Harboi, Long Island, 15 f. Lepralia ciliata Johnst. Whole coast. Lepralia (n. sp.). Allied to L. trispinosa Johnst. ;; very abundant. Lepralia per tusa Thomps. Cateau Harbor, 15 f. Lepralia producta Pack. Lepralia trispinosa Johnst. Lepralia Belli Dawson. Strait of Belle Isle. Lepralia labiata Stimps. Lepralia lineata Hassell. Smittia globifera (Pack.). Electra pilosa ( Lin n . ) . Membranipora lineata (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle,. 10-50 f. Membranipora tmicornis var. americana D'Orb. Membranipora solida Pack. Beania admiranda Pack. Crisiaeburnea{\Jv(\Xi.^. Hopedale, 10 f. ; Henley Har- bor, 4 f. Bugulopsis Peachii (Busk.). Cellularia ternata (Solander). Strait of Belle Isle> 50 f. MOLLUSCS. 373 Scrupocellaria americana Pack. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. ; Belles Amours, 8 f. ; Square Island, 10-30 f. Acamarchis plumosa Busk. Thomas Bay, 15 f. Caber e a Hooker i Busk. Flustra borealis (Pack.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Flustra truncata Linn. F. membranacea Linn. Flustra papyrea Pall, digitata (Pack.). Chateau Bay, 30 f. Bugula murrayana Busk. Whole coast. Bugula murrayana var. fruticosa Pack. Cellepora pumicosa Ellis. Celleporaria surcularis Pack. Can. Nat. p. 410. E'^chara lobata Lamx. ? Whole coast, io--5of. E.elegantula\yOx\>. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Porella elegantula D'Orb. var. papposa (Pack.). Chateau Bay. Leieschara subgracilis (D'Orb.) {Myriozoum subgracile D'Orb.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. . Brachiopods. Hypothyris psittacea King. Frequent on hard and sandy bottoms along the whole coast in from eight to fifty fathoms. MOLLUSCS. * LaMELLIBRANCH I ATA. Anomia ephippium Linn. Caribou Island, 8 f. ; Square Island, 30 f. Anomia aculeata GmeHn. Strait of Belle Isle, 10-50 f . * This list has been perfected by incorporating the species found by Mr. W. A. Stearns, and recorded by Miss Katharine I. Bush in her " Catalogue of MoUusca," etc., of Labrador. 374 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Astarte Banksii Leach. Whole coast in deep water. Astarte compressa (Linn.). Abundant on the whole coast in from lo to 50 f. Astarte arctica (Gray). Henley Harbor to Square Island, 2-151 (Stearns). Astarte elliptica (Brown). Henley Harbor, 5-15 L (Stearns.) Astarte striata Leach. Hopedale, 10 f. ' Cardium czliatum Fabr. Square Island, 30 f ; Sal- mon Bay, 10 f. Carduun Hayesii St\v[\\)S. Whole coast, 10-30 f. Pec ten tenuico status Mighl. Strait of Belle Isle. Pecten islandicus Miill. Whole coast, 10-50 f. Limatula smIcuIus, Leach. Several were dredged in 1 5-50 f- Nuc2ila tenuis Turton. Common on the whole coast. Nucula expansa Reeve. Chateau Bay, 50 f. Yoldia myalis (Couth). L'Anse-au-Loup, 15 f. Yoldia sapotilla Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 10-15 f. Leda buccata Stimps. Long Island, 15 f. ; Henley Harbor, 20 f. Leda Jacksoni Gould. Henley Harbor, 10-15 f. (Stearns.) Leda minuta (Fabr.). Whole coast, 15-50 f. Crenella glandula (Totten). Caribou Island, 5 f.; Square Island, 30 f. Modiolaria corrugata Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Modiolaria nigra (Gray). L'Anse-au-Loup, 10 f.. (Stearns.) Modiolaria discors (IJinn.^. Near Square Island, 1-4 f. (Stearns.) Modiolaria Icevigata Gray. MOLLUSCS. 375 Modiolaria faba (Fabr.). Henley Harbor, 4 f. ModioLaria discrepans Miill. Strait of Belle Isle ; Square Island, 30 f. Mytilus 7nodwlus Linn, Strait of Belle Isle. Mytilus edulis Linn. Whole coast. Alasmodonta arcuata Barnes ? I was told that a fresh- water mussel was common in Salmon River. Pisidium SteenbucJiii (Moll.). Square Island and Strawberry Harbor. Cryptodon obesus Verrill. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f., and whole coast. Axinopsis orbictdata Sars. Henley Harbor, 10-15 f. (Stearns.) Venericardia borealis (Conr.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.; Long Island, 15 f.; Chateau Bay, 50 f. Cardiuni pinnulaHi'm Conr. It did not occur north of the Strait of Belle Isle. Serripes groenlandictts Vi&c^. Whole coast, 10-50 f. Gemma Totteni Stimps. Indian Harbor, low- water. Tapes fiuctuosa Sowb. Henley Harbor, 20 f.; Square Island, 30 f. Mactra solidissima Chemn. Mouth of Esquimaux River ; Strait of Belle Isle. Mactra polynema Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle. Mesodesma Jauresii Joannis. Strait of Belle Isle. Macoma fragilis {^dihx. fusca Gould). Whole coast. Macoma sabulosa Stimps. Whole coast. Solen ensis Linn. Strait of Belle Isle. Thracia Conradi Couth. Strait of Belle Isle. Thracia myopsis Beck. Salmon Bay, 10 f. ; Long Island, 15 f. Periploma papyracea (Say.), Chateau Bay, 15 £ . 370 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Kennerlia glacialis (Leach). Strait of Belle Isle, 1 5 f.; Henley Harbor, 20 f.; Square Island, 30 f. Lyonsia arenosa (Moll.). Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.; Long Island, 15 f. Cyrtodaria siliqua Daudin. Strait of Belle Isle, 15- 50 f. Mya truncata Linn. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f; Square Island, 30 f. Mya arena7'-ia Linn. Whole coast. Saxicava rugosa Linn. Whole coast, 10-50 f.' Gasteropods. Clione limacina Phipps. Whole coast. Limacina helicina Phipps. Off Cape Harrison. Proctoporia f sp. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Eolis sp. Henley Harbor, 4 f. Dendronotus arbor escens Fabr. Henley Harbor. Cylichna alba Loven. Caribou Island, J 0-15 f.; Chateau Bay, 50 f.; Sloop Harbor, 7 f. Bulla per tenuis Migh. Belles Amours, 8 f. Bulla occulta Migh. Coryphella diversa Couth. L'Anse-au-Loup. (Stearns.) Tonicella marmorea (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, low- water to 50 f., and northward. Trachyderfyion album (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. T. rubr^im. (Linn.). Whole coast north to Square Island. (Stearns.) AcmcBa testudinalis Miill. Low-water to 15 f.; whole coast. Acmcea rtibella (Fabr.). Square Island, 30 f.; Straw- berry Harbor, 20 f. MOLLUSCS. 377 Lepeta ccsca (Miill.). Henley Harbor. (Stearns.) Puncturella noachina (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 10-50 f.; Square Island, 30 f. Scissurella crispata Flem. Strait of Belle Isle. Adeorbis coshdata Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle. MachcETOplax varicosa (Mighels). Square Island, 10- 30 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. MachceroplaxobscuraiQowtXi?). L'Anse-au-Loup, 15 f. Marga7nta cijierea Gould. Caribou Island, 7 f,; Long Island, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f. Margarita argejitata Gould. Near Square Island. (Stearns.) Margarita grosnlandica (Gm.). Strait of Belle Isle, 15-20 f. Margarita helicina Moll. Strait of Belle Isle. Margarita campanulata Morse. Strait of Belle Isle. Littorinella minuta (Totten). Strait of Belle Isle ; Fox Harbor. (Stearns.) Cingula castanea Moll. Strait of Belle Isle ; near Square Island, 1-4 f. Velutina haliotoides Miill. Whole coast. Lacuna vincta Turt. Square Island, 30 f. Litto7'ina vestita Gould. Not uncommon along the whole coast. Littori7ia palliata Gould. Strait of Belle Isle, with varieties as in Maine. Littorina littorea (Linn.). (Stearns.) .Scalaria groenlandica Perry. Turritella erosa Couth. Chateau Bay, Long Island, Turritella reticulata Mighl. Salmon Bay, 15 f. ; Chateau Bay, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f.; Hopedale, 10 f. 378 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Turritellopsis acicula (Stimps.). Strait of Belle Isle,. 50 f. Aporrhais occidentalis Beck. Salmon Bay to Hope- dale, 6-50 f. Menestho albula Moll. Strait of Belle Isle, 2-15 f. Velutina Icevigata (Linn.). Henley Harbor, 3-8 f.;; Square Island, 1-4 f. (Stearns.) Lamellaria perspicua Loven. 1 5 f. Natica heros Say. Salmon Bay, Strait of Belle Isle. Natica clausa Sowb. Whole coast, 15 f. Lunatia gi^cenlandica (Moll.). Chateau Bay, 15 f. Bela scalm'-is {VioW.'). Square Island, 15-30 f.; Dump- lin Harbor, 41. Bela rosea Sars. Forteau Bay, 20 f. (Stearns.) Bela mitrula \^ONkw. With the preceding. (Stearns.) Bela iiicisula Verrill. Forteau Bay to Square Isl- and, 2--20 f. (Stearns.) Bela nobilis (Moller). Whole Coast. Bela woodiana Moll. Whole Coast. Bela exarata (Moll). W^hole coast. Bela decussata (Couth.). Salmon Bay, 10-15 f. ; Square Island, 30 f. Bela pleurotomaria (Couth.). Square Island, 30 f.;, Sandwich Bay, 4 f. Bela py rami dalis Stimps. Square Island, 30 f. Bela cancellata Mighl. Square Island, 30 f. Bela violacea Stimps. Square Island, 30 f. Bela borealis (Rve.). Square Island, 30 f.; Sandwich Bay 4 f. Buccinum donovani QfX2.y . Henley Harbor, low-water to 15 f. (Stearns.) Buccinum totteni Stimps. Henley Harbor, 8-15 f. (Stearns.) MOLLUSCS.. 379- Buccinum ciliatum (Fabr.). Henley Harbor, 3-8 f. (Stearns.) Buccinum undatum Linn. Whole coast. Bticcinum tenue Gray. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Tritonofiisus C7'etaceus (Reeve). Strait of Belle Isle to Square Island, 7-30 f. Sipho lividus (Morch). Henley Harbor to Square Island, 1-8 f. (Stearns.) Fusus syrtensis Pack. Square Island, 30 f. Fusus tornatus Gould. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Trichotropis boi'ealis Brod. and Sovvb. Whole coast, 10-50 f. Admete couthouyi (Jay). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.. (Square Island, 1-4 f. Stearns.) Trophon clathratus (Linn.). L'Anse-au-Loup, 10— 15 f.; Henley Harbor, 3-15 f. Trophon scalar if or me Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle,. 50 f.; Chateau Bay, 50 f.; Henley Harbor, 20 f. Astyris rosacea (Gould). L'Anse-au-Loup, 8 f.; Henley Harbor, 3-8 f. (Stearns.) Ischmia {Pupa^ Hoppii Beck. Strawberry Harbor. Zoogeiietes harpa (Say). Caribou Island. Conulus {Helix) Fabricii Beck et M oiler. Straw- berry Harbor. Hyalina electrina (Say). Belles Amours. Vitrina angeliccE Beck et Moller. Strawberry Harbor, Limax agrestis Linn. Strawberry Harbor and at Square Island. Cephalopods. Ommastrephes illecebrosus Les. L'Anse-au-Loup,, i5f.; and Fox Harbor. (Stearns.) 380 the zoology of the labrador coast. Worms. Syrinx ? sp. Salmon Bay, 8 f. Phascolion strombi Theel. {Phascolosoma hamulatum Pack.) Salmon bay, 8 f. Gordius lacustris Fabr.? Fauna Gronl. Caribou Is. Pontobdella sp. Henley Harbor, 4 f. Pontobdella f livida Pack. Belles Amours, 8 f. Cerebratidus {Meckelid) olivacea Rathke. Salmon 3ay 10 f., to Henley Harbor, 20 f. Cerebratulus cylindricus Pack. Belles Amours, 8 f. Lumbrzcus terrestrzsU^nn.} Square Is. and Hopedale. Spirorbis vitretis (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, 40- ,50 f. ; Strawberry Harbor, 15 f. Spirorbis sinistrorsiLS Montagu. Henley Harbor, 4 f. Spirorbis lucidus Morch. (Spirorbis porrectus Miill.). Whole coast, 11-30 f. Spirorbis cancellatus (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, 40 f. Spirorbis granulatus (yinW.). Whole coast, 10-40 f. Spirorbis spirillum (Linn.). Whole coast. Vermilia serrula Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. Amphitrite cirrata Miill. Cateau Harbor ; Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, 8 f. Amphitrite f s^). Ampharete Grubei Malmgren. Henley Harbor, 4 f. Pectinaria granulata ( Li nn. ). Cistenides granulatus Linn, non Johnst. Whole coast, low-water to 50 f. Pr axilla Mulleri Malmg. Chateau Bay, 30-40 f. Nicomache lumbricalis Malmg. Salmon Bay, 8 f. SpiochcBtopterus typicus Sars. Chateau Bay, 30-40 f. Arenicola marina (Linn.). {Arenicola piscatorum Lamk.) CRUSTACEANS. 38r Trophonia aspera (Stimps.). {Siphonostomum as- perurn Stimps.) Salmon Bay, 8 f. Trophonia plumosa (Miill.). Salmon Bay, lo f. Cirj^atulus cirratus (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle. Heteronereis arctica Oersted ? Strait of Belle Isle. Nephthys lon^isetosa Oersted. Belles Amours, 5 f. Nephthys ccsca Oersted. Whole coast, 5-30 f. Eteone cylindrica Oersted. Belles Amours, 5 f. Phyllodoce groenlandica Oersted. Salmon Bay, 8 f.; Square Island, 15-20 f. Nothria conchy lega Malmgren. Salmon Bay, 15 f.; Chateau Bay, 30 f. ; Gateau Harbor, 15 f. Nereis pelagica {\J\y\Xi^. Whole coast, 10-30 f. Nereis denticulatci Stimps. Salmon Bay, between tide-marks. Pholoe minuta Oersted. Belles Amours, 8 f. Harmothoe imbricata Linn. Whole coast, 4-15 f. Lepidonotus squamatus (Linn.). Whole coast, low- water to 20 f. Crustaceans.* Nymphon grossipes Fabr. Salmon Bay and Square Island; 1 5-30 f. Coronida dicideina (Linn.). Taken quite frequently from the skin of whales caught in the Gulf of St. Law- rence. Bajanus crenatus Brug. Whole coast. Balanus balanoides Linn. Whole Coast, Balanus porcatus Da Costa. Whole coast. * Compare also " List by Prof. S. J. Smith of Crustacea from Port Burwell, collected by Dr. R. Bell in 18S4." Report of Progress of Geological and Nat- ural History Survey and Museum of Canada, 1882-83-84., Appendix iv. 57 DD. (Port Burwell is an inlet on the Ungava side of Cape Chidley), 382 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. LerncEa branchialis Linn. Daphnia sp. Found abundantly in all the fresh-water pools. Cypridina excisa Stimps. Branckinecta paludosa (Miill.). Found abundantly at " Indian Tickle," on the north shore of Invuctoke Inlet, in a pool of fresh water. Nebalia bipes Fabr. Henley Harbor, 4-8 f. Bopyi'us mysidum Pack. y^ga sp. One specimen was taken from the under side of a cod in the Strait of Belle Isle. Tanais fikim Stimps. Caribou Island, 8 f. Praniza cerina Stimps. Chateau Bay, Long Island, 15 f- _ JcEra nivalis Ys^xoy^x. Indian Harbor, Sandwich Bay. IdotcEa marmorata Pack. Sloop Harbor, Kyuetar buck Bay, 7 f. Caprella septentrionalis Kroyer. Whole coast, 4-30 f. Hyperia medusaruin Bate. Found with numerous young in the stomach-cavity of Cyanea ardica, at Dom ino Harbor. Dulichia porreda {Jide Boeck). Cerapus rubriforniis Stimps. Inhabits flexible tubes in Haleduin haledna. Eight fathoms, sand, Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle. Ainphithoe maculata Stimps. Henley Harbor, 8 f. Gaminarus loc7ista (Linn.) Leach. Gaminarus dentatus Kroyer. Square Island, 15-30 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.; Chateau Bay, 20-30 f. Parampkitoe panopla Kroyer. Calliope Icsviuscula Bate. Henley Harbor, 4 f.; Stag Bay, 15 f. CRUSTACEANS. 383 Amphitonohis Edwardsii Bate. Square Island, 30 f. Amphito7iotus cataphractus Stimps. Henley Harbor, 4f. Atyhis vulgaris Bate. Henley Harbor, 4 f.; Square Island, 15 f.; at Stag- Bay, 15 f. Atylus {ParampJiitoe) inermis (Kroyer). Henley Harbor, 10-20 f. Atylus {Paramphztoe) bispinosus Beck. Mojwciilodes nubilahis Pack. Caribou Island, 8 f.; Henley Harbor, 4 f. Ampeltsca Gaimai'di. Chateau Bay, 30 f. ; Cateau Harbor, 15 f. Ampeltsca pelagica (Stimps). Chateau Bay, 30 f.; Stag Bay, 10 f.; Caribou Island, 8 1; Long Island, 15 f.; Strawberry Harbor, 14 f. Ampelisca Eschrichtii Kroyer. Caribou Islatid, 14 f. Haploops tubiccla Kroyer. Cateau Harbor, 15 f. Pontoporeia femorata Kroyer. Belles Amours, Strait of Belle Isle, 5-8 f. Anoiiyx ampttlla (Phipps). Dumplin Harbor, Sand- wich Bay, 4 f, Aiionyx lageiia Kroyer. Sloop Harbor, 8 f. Anonyx product a, 15 f., sand. Lysianassa appe^idicztlata Kroyer. Henley Harbor, Strait of Belle Isle, 40 f. Alauna Goodsiri Bell. Belles Amours, 6 f.; Thomas Bay, 15 f.; Square Island, 15-30!.; Henley Harbor, 8 f.; Cateau Bay, Long Island, 15 f. Mysis oculata Fabr. Abundant along the whole coast. The young go in schools, and the sea-trout consume great numbers of them. 384 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Pandalus annulicornis Leach. Henley Harbor ; Sloop Harbor, 6 f. ; Hopedale, 10 f. Hippolyte aculeata (Fabr.) Kroyer. Caribou Island^ 14 f.; Square Island, 15-30 f.; Domino Harbor, 7 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 10 f. Hippolyte Polaris {^•dihme) Kroyer. Square Island,. 15-30 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 10 f. Hippolyte PJiippsii Kroyer. Domino Harbor, 7 f. Hippolyte turgida Kroyer. Belles Amours, 10 f. Hippolyte macilenta Kroyer. Square Island, 15-30 f.. Hippolyte Sowerbyi Leach. Square Island, 15-30 f. Hippolyte Gaimardi M. Edwards. Common on the whole coast. Caribou Island, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f.; Henley Harbor and Sloop Harbor, 8 f .; Hopedale, lof. Hippolyte Fabricii Kroyer. Domino Harbor, 7 f. Argis lar Owen. Square Island, 30 f. Sabinea septemcariitata Sabine. Thomas Bay, 15 f. Crangoii boreas (Phipps). Caribou Island, 8 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 10 f.; Square Island, 30 f.; Henley Har- bor, 4-10 f. Crangon vulgaris Fabr. Caribou Island. Homarus americanus M. Edw. Henley Harbor ; rare. This seems to be the northern limits of the lobster. Eupagtirus pubescens Stimps. Abundant on the whole coast from low-water mark to fifty fathoms. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.; Hopedale, 10 f. Eupagitrus Kroyeri Stimps. Found with preceding. Hyas coarctata Leach. Henley Harbor, 30 f. Hyas araiiea (Linn.). Abundant along the whole coast, 5-50 f. Chioncecetes opilio (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle^ 10-50 f.; Chateau Bay, 30-50 f. SPIDERS. 385 Cancer borealis Stimps. Not uncommon at Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, but it did not occur to us northward. I was informed that it was found in Hamil- ton Inlet, where the temperature of the water must be higher than on the coast. LIST OF THE SPIDERS, MYRIOPODS, AND INSECTS OF LABRADOR. A list of all the known species of terrestrial Arthro- pods of the Labrador coast may prove convenient as a starting-point for future investigations. Hence I have, besides enumerating the species of other groups, revised the lists of Lepidoptera — Mr. Scudder kindly contribut- the list of butterflies. For changes in the names of the Tortricidee I am indebted to Prof. C. H. Fernald's ex- cellent catalogue 0/ the Tortricidse of the United States; Prof. Fernald has also revised the list of Pyralidae. Arachnida. The spiders which I collected at various points on the coast were sent to Prof. T. Thorell, of Upsala, for iden- tification and description. Out of ten species collected^ seven were new to science. Prof. Thorell's paper was published in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, xvii,, April 21, 1875. Epeira patagiata (Clerck). Square Island, Straw- berry Harbor. Epeira Packardii Thor. Square Island. Tetrag7iatha extensa (Linn.). Square Island. Linyphia Emertonii Thor. Square Island, and near Dumplin Harbor. 386 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Clubiona frigidula Thor. Square Island. Gnaphosa brumalis Thor. Strawberry Harbor. Lycosa groenlandica Thor. Strawberry Ei arbor. Lycosa furcifera Thor. Square Island, and near Dumplin Harbor. Lycosa fuscula Thor. Strawberry Harbor. Lycosa labradorensis Thor. Strawberry Harbor and Square Island. Xysticus labradorensis Keys. K. K. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien., 479, 1887. Ungava Bay (Turner). Myriopoda. Julus sp. Square Island. Insects. Orthoptera. CaloptenMs. A Pezzotettix-like species, with short wings. Square Island. Odoiiata. Diplax S'p. y wQdiX rubicMndula. Caribou Island. Drag- on-flies were very rare on the coast, and I saw none north of the Strait of Belle Isle. y^schna sp. Caribou Island. Perhaps another species (identified by Dr. P. R. Uhler) also occurred, and an yEschna-like form was observed at Tub Island. Hemiptera. Teratocoris sp. Delt&cephalus debilis Uhler. Hopedale. A few other species of Cercopidse were seen at Caribou Island. BEETLES. 387 Trigonotylus ruficornis Fallen. Hopedale. Corixa sp. Platyptera.- Pteronarcys regalis. Okkak. Hopedale. Plectoptera. Potamanthus marginatus Zett. This boreal European May-fly, occurring in Lapland, we have found in abun- dance in southern Labrador. Perla sp. Belles Amours. Chloroperla sp. A small greenish species was observed at Strawberry Harbor. Trichoptera. Desmataulius planifrons Kol. Okkak. Lininophilus subpunctulatus Zett. This Lapland cad- dis-fly is the most abundant species in Labrador, and what are probably its cases are common in the pools of fresh water. Three or four other species also occurred, but have not' been identified. No gQxvmxiQ Neuroptera or Mecoptera (Panorpidse) occurred. COLEOPTERA. Lepyrus colon (Linn.). Cape Chidley (R. Bell). Pissodesf sp, Hopedale. Coccinella lacustris Lee. Okkak. Lephira sp. Caribou Island. Criocephalus obsoletus Randall. Okkak. Ar^aleus nit ens Lee. Near Cape Harrison. Telephorus fraxini Say. Hopedale. Podabrus Icsvicollis Kir by. Hopedale. 388 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Podabrtts mandibularis Kirby. Caribou Island. Sericosomus incongruus Lee, Square Island. Eanus vagus Lee. Square Island, E. pictus (Cand.) Horn. {E. 7naciilipennis Lee.) Caribou Island to Square Island, CryptohypntLs bicolor Germ. Belles Amours, Straw- berry Harbor and Indian Harbor. Byrrluis americanus Lee. Caribou Island. B. Kirbyi Lee. {B. picipes). Caribou Island. Atomaria. Not determined. Caribou Island. Ips sanguinolenhis Oliv. Caribou Island. Bledius. Not determined. Qucdius sublimbatus Mokl. Blanc Sablon (R. Bell).. Tachyporus n. sp. Hopedale. Creophilus villosus Gray. Caribou Island. Agathidhtm obsoletum Lee. Square Island. Silpha Lapponica Linn. Caribou Island to Hopedale. Philhydrus bifidus Lee. Caribou Island. Gy rimes picipes AuhQl Square Island. G. mimitus Linn. Square Island. G. affinis Aube ? Square Island. Colymbetes picipes Kirby. Caribou Island and Straw- berry Harbor. C. binotatus Harris (probably). C. sculpttlis Harris. Caribou Island, Square Island, Hopedale, C. nov. sp. Square Island. Agabus parallelus Lee, Square Island. A. longiilus Lee.? Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). A. ambigicus Lee. {A. infuscatus Aube), Caribou Island, A. subfasciatus Lee, Caribou Island. BEETLES. 389 A. semipimctatus (Kirby). Caribou Island. A. liBvidorsus Lee. Caribou Island. A. punctulaius Aube. Caribou Island. A. discolor Lee. Indian Harbor. Hydroporics caiascopium Say. Square Island and Dumplin Harbor. H. tenebrosus Lee. Caribou Island. H. pubertdus Lee. Sloop Harbor and Dumplin Harbor. H. longicor7iis. Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). H. perplexus Shp. Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). Trechus inicans Lee. Belles Amours. Patrobus tenuis Lee. Square Island. P. hyperborezis Dejean. Belles Amours, Strait of Belle Isle ; Cape Chidley (R. Bell). Harpalus herbivagus Say., vdiX.proximus Lee. Square Island. A mar a obiusa Lee. Amara, near A. melanogastrica Esch., perhaps A. hrunni. A. pennis Dej. Caribou Island. Amara, "no name." Strawberry Harbor, Square Island, and Hopedale. A. similis Lee. {Stereocerzis siniilis Kirby). Caribou Island. A. hceniatopus Kirby. Sloop Harbor, Hopedale, Okkak (S. Weiz). Pterostichus adstricttts Esch., var. orinomum Kirby. Mecatina ; Gulf St. Lawrence. Pterostichtis hudsonictis Lee. Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). Pt.y species not determined. Hopedale, Tinker Isl- and, off Cape Harrison (Cape Webuc). 390 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Pt. luczottii Dej. Blanc Sablon (R. Bell). Platynus simtatus Dej. Belles Amours, Strait of Belle Isle. Calathus ingratus Dej. Whole coast. Carabus chamissonis Fischer. Domino Harbor and Okkak. Nebria Sahlbergii Fischer. Sloop Harbor, Cape Chidley (R. Bell). Notiophilus Sibiricus Motsch. Domino Harbor,, Square Island, DiPTERA. Scatina estotilandica Rondani, Archiv, etc. Canestrini iii., fasc. i, 35, Labrador. Osten Sacken adds : Mr. Rondani, in the same place, mentions Scatophaga dia- dema Wiedemann (Montevideo) as having been re- ceived from Labrador. Helophilus glacialis Loew. Stett. Ent. Zeit. vii., 121. Helophilus groenlandictis (O. Fabr.). Dolichopzis stenhammariX^XX. Sloop Harbor, July 19. Therioplectes fiavipes Wied. Therioplectes septentrionalis Loew. Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges Wien., 1858, 593. Tipula tessellata Loew. Cent, iv., 4. Tipula septentrionalis Loew. Cent, iv., 3. Micromyia leucorum. Prof. C. W. Woodworth writes me that on examining the collection of Diptera which I made in Labrador, and which is now in the Cambridge Museum, he detected the rare European Cecidomyid Micromyia leucorum, " belonging to a genus hitherto unrecorded for North America." The collection consists mostly of muscids, with some interesting Empidse. MOTHS. 391 Amalopsis hyperborea O. Sacken. Monogr. iv., 269. Dicranomyia halter ata O. Sacken. Monog. iv., 71. LEPIDOPTERA. TineidcE. Glyphipteryx sp. Caribou Island. Tinea fuscipunctella Haw. ( = CEcophora frigidella Pack.). Caribou and Square Islands. CEcophora sp. Hopedale, Incurvaria labradorella Clem. Caribou Island. Or nix boreasella Clem. Caribou Island. Tinea spilotella Tengstrom. Caribou Island, Square Island, " Okkak, June." Christoph. Gelechia continuella Zell. Moeschl. ( = trimaculella Pack.). Strawberry Harbor. Gelechia labradorica Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Gelechia brumella Clem. Caribou Island. Tortricidce. Grapholitha nebulosana Pack. Strawberry Harbor. Phoxopteris plagosana (Clem.). Caribou Island and Square Island. Phoxopteris tineana Hiibn. (Pandemis leucophale- rata Pack.). Hopedale. Sericoris- bipartitana (Clem.). Caribou Island. Pcedisca solicita^ia (Walk.) (Halonota packardiana Clem.). Caribou Island. Sericoris ttirfosana H. S. Sericoris glaciana yio^'=>Q\\\. Whole coast; common. Penthina ctipreana (Htibn.). Penthina murina Pack. Caribou Island. 392 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Pentliina septentrionana Curtis. Sloop and Straw- berry Harbors. (Polar regions, Curtis.) Penthina interinistana (Clem.). (P. tessellana Pack.). Caribou Island to Hopedale. Penthina frigidana Pack. Conchy lis deutschiana Zetterstedt (Lozopera ? fusco- strigana Clem. ; C. chalcana Pack.). Sciaphila osseana Scopoli (Ablabia pratana Hiibn.) Sciaphila Tnoeschleriana (Wrcke). Sciaphila niveosana Pack. Moravian Stations, Au- gust. PyralidcE. Crambus unistriatellus Pack. Caribou Island. Cr ambus argillaceellus Pack. Square Island. Crambus trichostoin2is Christoph. Moravian, Stations. Crambus labradorensis Christoph. " Okkak, July." Crambus albellus Clem. Mouth of Esquimaux River, Aug. 3. Crambus iitornatelhts CX&m.. Caribou Island, July 15. Scopai^ia centuriella Sv. {Pempelia fusca Harv. Miidorea f frigidella Pack.). Eiidorea f albisinuatella Pack. Okkak. Pyrausta borealis Pack. Square Island. Pyrausta ephippialis Zettst. Pyrausta t or v a lis Moeschl. PhlyctcBHia inquinatalis Zell. (Scopula glacialis Pack.). Hopedale. PhalcBnidcE. Ettpithecia htteata Pack. Caribou Island, July. Eupithecia gelidata Moeschl. ?v4oravian Stations. Glaucopteryx ccesiata (S. V.). Whole coast. MOTHS. 393 Glaucopteryx polata (Dupon.). Whole coast. Glaucopteryx phocataria (Moeschl,). Moravian Sta- tions. Epirrita dilutata (Borkh.). Moravian Stations. Petrophora truncata (Hufn.). Wtiole coast. PetropJiora prunata (Linn.). Whole coast. Petrophora populata (Linn.). Whole coast. Petrophora suspectata (Moeschl.). Moravian Stations. Ochyria mu?titaria Htibn., and var. labradorensis Pack. Caribou Island. Ochyria abrasaria H. Sch. Caribou Island. Rhetiinaptera hcgtibrata Stand. Whole coast. Rheinnaptera hastata (Linn.). Whole coast. Rheumaptera disceptaria (F. R.). Moravian Stations. Triphosa diibitaria (Linn.). Caribou Island. Semiothisa dispuncta (Walk.). (Sex-maculata Pack.). Square Island. Anaitis sororaria Hiibn. Moravian Stations. Aspilates gilvaria S. V. Moravian Stations. Acidalia sentinaria Hiibn. Moravian Stations. Acidalia frigidaria Moeschl. Moravian Stations. NoctuidcB. Brephos parthemas {\J[nn^. Moravian Stations. Phtsia 2L-aureum Boisd. Moravian Stations. Plusia par ills Htibn. Moravian Stations. Plusia divergens Fabr Moravian Stations. Anarta fimesia (Thunberg). Moravian Stations. Anarta melanopa (Thun.). Moravian Stations. Anarta melaletica (Thun.). Moravian Stations. Whole coast. 394 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Anarta vidua Christoph. Moravian Stations. Ana7'ta cordigera (Thun.). Moravian Stations. Anarta algida Lef. Moravian Stations. Anarta lapponica (Thun.). Moravian Stations. Anarta schonherri TLttt. Moravian Stations. Anarta zetterstedtii Stand. Moravian Stations. Hadena exults Lef. Moravian Stations. Hadena exornata Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Pachnobia carnea Thun. Moravian Stations. Whole coast. Pachnobia okakensis. Packard. Okkak. Mamestra arctica Boisd. Whole coast. Dianthoecia subdita Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Diartthoecia phoca Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Noctua rava H. Sch. (umbratus Pack.). Moravian Stations. A gratis septentrionalis Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Agrotis fusca Boisd. Moravian Stations. Agrotis Wockei Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Agrotis speciosa Hiibn. Moravian Stations. Agrotis comparata Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Aprotis dissona Moeschl. Moravian Stations. Agrotis conflua Tr. Moravian Stations. Agrotis littoralis Pack. Caribou Island. Leucania rufostrigata Pack. Caribou Island. Lip ar idee. Laria Rossii (Curtis). Whole coast. ArctiidcB. Arctia Quenselii Paykull. Whole coast. Platarctia borealis (Moeschler). Moravian Stations. Euprepia caja (Linn.). Whole coast. BUTTERFLIES. 395 HepialidcB. Hepialus labradoriensis Pack. Caribou Island. Hepzalus kyperboreusyioQschXQX. Moravian Stations- * Rhopalocera. Brenthis chariclea (Schneid.). This is the Argynnis boisduvalii of the previous list. A detailed description of the species, drawn up exclusively from American material, will be found in the Proc. Bost. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. xvii., p. 297, where most of the other species are described. Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, and from Square Island northward. July 14— August 3. Abundant. Brenthis triclaris (Hiibn.) = Argynnis triclaris of the previous list. Caribou Island to Hopedale, July 14— August 3. Brenthis polaris (Boisd.) = Argynnis polaris of the former list. From Square Island northward. July 14 — August 3. Brenthis frigga (Thunb.) = Argynnis frigga of the former list. Okkak. (Rev. S. Weiz.) Eugonia j-album (Boisd.-Lec.) = Grapta interroga- tionis of the previous list. Okkak. (Rev. S. Weiz.) CEneis jutta Htlbn. = Chionobas jutta of previous list. Square Island, July 14; Hopedale, August 3. * A revised list of the butterflies obtained in Labrador by Dr. A. S. Packard, by Samuel H. Scudder. (The list was prepared for use in the present work. The species have been arranged in the descending order by the author.) In 1866 I published a list of Dr. Packard's collections in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xi. The present list is merely a rede- termination of the same material, in the light of larger collections since seen.^ The same order as before is followed. The specimens are mostly in my collec- tion and in that of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.— S. H. S. 396 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. CEneis bore (Esp.) = Chionobas bore of former list. Hopedale, Aug. 3. CEneis oeno (Boisd.) = Chionobas oeno of former list. Strawberry Harbor ; Hopedale, August 3. Agriades aquilo (Boisd.) = Lycsena aquilo of former list. Sloop Harbor, July 19 ; Henley Harbor, August 15; Hopedale, Aug. 3. Pieris frigida Scudd. I have not re-examined this. Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, July 14-30. Eurymus labradorensis (Scudd.). This is the Colzas J>alcBno, as well as the C . labradorensis of the previous list. The specimen referred to the former being of the same species as the latter. I will not here venture on a discussion as to the validity of the specific name retained here, but as the species was described and figured suffi- ciently for determination, and is the common form in south-eastern Labrador, it is easily identifiable. Caribou Island to Hopedale, July 14 — August 3. [We add the following extract from W. H. Edwards, Can. Ent. xxi. 67. Chionobas semidea Say '' also flies within the Arctic circle, as far north as Cumberland Island, and in Labrador."] TuNicATES (Ascidians). Didemnium roseum Sars. Hopedale, 10 f. Ascidia callosa Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 40-50 f. Glandida glutinans M oiler. Henley Harbor, 6 f Cynthia pyr if ormis Rathke. Strait of Belle Isle. Cynthia monoceros Moll. (C condylomata Pack.). Caribou Island, 8 f. Cynthia echinata (Linn.). Chateau Bay, 50 f. FISHES. 19T Cynthia carnea Ag. (C. placenta Pack.). Strait of Belle Isle, 40 f.; Henley Harbor, 10-20 f.; Cateau Harbor, 15 f. Pelonaia areiiifera Stirnps. Strait of Belle Isle, 15 t. Boltenia bolteni (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle. Fishes. Somniosus microcephalus (Block). '* Sleeper shark." Not rare all along the coast. (Stearns.) Scomber vernalis Mitch. A few mackerel are taken In August in Salmon Bay and Red Bay. The Strait of Belle Isle is evidently the northern limit of this genus. ^ Pygosteus Ctwieri Brevoorti. {Gastej^ostezis Cuvieri Girard; Gasterosteus biaculeatus Auct. in part). A large number of specimens from a tidal fresh-water spring, near Salmon River, Strait of Belle Isle. " Ammodytes dubius Reinhardt. Four specimens from Sloop Harbor, collected in July. They differ from the A. antericanus of our coast in having a much longer body. This species is probably the American one con- sidered by some authors as the A. tobianus. (Putnam.) Sebastes norvegicus Cuv. Young specimens were dredo:ed in fifteen fathoms. Gynnnacanthus patris (Storer). Three specimens from Henley Harbor, collected in July. Cottus scorpioides Fabr. Sculpin. (Stearns.) Cottus grcenlandtcus Cuv. and Val. Northern sculpin. (Stearns.) Gymnacanthtts pistilliger (Pallas). (Stearns.) Hippoglossoides platessoides Fabr. Arctic dab. Com- mon in harbors. (Stearns.) 398 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Pleuronectes aniericanus Walb. Flounder. Whole southern coast. (Stearns.) Cyclopterus lumpus Linn. Strait of Belle Isle. GadiLs arenosMs Mitchill. Eight specimens from Sloop Harbor, collected in July. From a careful com- parison I am satisfied that these specimens are the same species as the common cod of New England, the Gadus and Morrkua americana of authors, and which Prof. Gill considers as identical with the Gadus arenosus of Mitchill. Prof. Gill also has considered specimens of the cod from Labrador, which he had examined, as iden- tical with our common species. (Putnam.) It happened that our vessel touched at the different harbors from Mecatina Island in the St. Lawrence Gulf to Hopedale, a distance of over six hundred miles, at times when the cod was successively making its first ap- pearance. Thus at Gore Island, near Little Mecatina Island, we found the cod was just beginning to be taken by the fishermen. June i6. A few were seined July 6th, at Square Island, on the Atlantic coast. July 12th they were evidently breeding, as the females were full of spawn, their livers poor, with little oil in them, and the fish were generally in poor condition. At Tub Island Harbor, which is situated on the south side of Hamilton Inlet, the fishery had not begun July 17th. Three days later a few were seined at Sloop Harbor, on the north side of Hamilton or Invuctoke Inlet, while at Strawberry Harbor, about fifty miles to the northward, they were caught in abundance on the 25th of July. The season was so cold and stormy, owing to the presence of the drift ice in an unusual quantity, and for a much longer period than for many years previous, that the fishery FISHES. 399 ^as almost a failure, scarcely half as many fish having been taken as during the preceding year. It was the same with the salmon and the capelin. The " rock cod," or duffy, as it is termed by the fisher- men, which they consider less valuable than the deep water cod, swarms about the boats when the fisherman are seining the capelin, and are seen snapping them up. G adzis ogac ^\ch2ixdiSon. Greenland codfish. (Stearns.) Merlucius vulgaris Fleming ? I was told by a fisher- man that he had taken but one hake during a period of forty summers spent on this coast. He had never seen a haddock on this coast. Both of these species are abundant at the mouth of the St. Lawrence in Bay Chaleur. Brosmius fiavescens Lesueur ? A "cusk" was caught in eighty fathoms in the Strait of Belle Isle. The speci- men is in the Collection of the Lyceum of Natural His- tory, Williams College. Salmo salar Linn. Owing to the .great lowering of the climate by the drift ice, the salmon fishery was al- most a failure this season. The fishery had just begun at Henley Harbor, opposite Belle Isle, on the 28th of June, 1864. At Square Island they were not netted be- fore the 1 2th of July ; here they disappear usually about the 15th of August. July 23d they had not appeared at this point. At Thomas Bay, near Cape Harrison, they appeared on the 2 2d of July. At this place the salmon was said to disappear about the 20th of August. At Groswater Bay, (Hamilton Inlet), only two hundred tierces were taken during the whole season, when usually five times that number are caught. The salmon remains upon the coast at the mouth of 400 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Streams about a month, during the Labrador mid-summer, which corresponds in temperature to that of the middle of May in New England. At Hopedale the salmon is quite rare, and I was in- formed that it was not common north of this point. It seems to be a rare species in Greenland, thus showing the close correspondence of the climate of the Labrador coast in latitude 57° to that of the southern coast of Greenland. One young specimen from a tidal stream at Belles A'mours, Strait of Belle Isle, was collected June 28th. Salmo immaculatus H. R. Storer. Three specimens from near Hopedale were collected July 29th. These specimens are unquestionably referable to the .S. immacu- latus of Storer, and are distinct from the 6". trutta of Europe, with which species Perley and others have con- founded them. They differ from 6". trutta by having larger scales, and being without spots, as their name in- dicates. (Putnam.) Salmo sp f Two specimens from the Island of Ponds, near Domino Harbor, collected in July. This species, which, from its rather imperfect condition, I have not been able to recognize, appears to be closely aUied to the kS. t7'utta of Europe, being spotted as in that species, but of somewhat different shape, especially of the head. There are also specimens from Greenland belonging to ihis species in the collection of this Society, collected by the Williams College expedition to Greenland and Lab- rador in i860. (Putnam.) Salmo hudsonicus Suckley. Three specimens from a tidal pond of brackish water on Square Island were col- lected July 15th. These specimens are identical with FISHES. 401 those mentioned by Dr. H. R. Storer as S. fontmalis, which Dr. Suckley referred to his 6". hudso7iicus ; but from a comparison of the Hmited number of specimens, I am yet in doubt whether the Labrador brook trout differs specifically from the S. fontinalis of New Eng- land. (Putnam.) Mallottis villosMs Cuv. The capelin, capelina of the Portuguese fisherman (Parkhurst, 1578), was very late in making its appearance on the coast this season, owing to the great quantity of ice, which likewise detained the cod. At Square Island, the 12th of July was the earliest date of their appearance in great numbers. July 4th, the young, about one inch in length, vvere seen swim- ming in the water, their bodies very transparent, so as to enable the vertebrae and ribs to be distinctly seen, and provided with very plainly marked heterocercal tails, in the upper and larger fork of which the vertebral column terminated. The capelin spawns on pebbly shores near the waters edge, and I was informed by two fishermen who had each observed the act, that during the spawning of the female, two males swim close to her and press her be- tween them, being enabled by the large and prominent ridge on the sides of the body to retain the female in this position between, and a little below them, so that as the eggs are pressed out the}^ are fecundated by both males. This probably accounts for the much greater proportion of males to the other sex, as in a boat- load of these fish it was often difficult to find a single female. A very close observer, the late Capt. Nathaniel E. Atwood, who fished as far north as Groswater Bay as female. 402 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. early as 1819, tells us in his autobigraphy :* " When the capelin came on the coast the first that arrived were males. You can tell the male from the female by ex- ternal signs, so as to distinguish the sexes perfectly well. When the males had been on the coast about a week, then came a mixture of females. They look very much like a smelt, and are soft and full of spawn. We did not use them for food. On an average about one-tenth of the capelin were females. When they had deposited their spawn the males deposited their milt and made the whole water white. Then the females went off. vSoon after the fishing slacked off, and we used to say they were capelin sick." According to information received from intelligent fishermen, the capelin remains upon the coast the year round, but in winter retires to deep water. Is it not probable that the cod has the same habit of going from deep water in-shore and to elevated " banks," for the pur- pose of spawning during the spring and summer ; and in the winter of retiring, to depths inaccessible to the fish- erman ? Should the cod be found to present local vari- eties at intervals along the Atlantic coast, as seems prob- ably the case, it would be a natural inference that it did not migrate for hundreds of miles northward, following the coming of spring from Massachusetts to Hudson's Bay. It is abundant in Massachusetts Bay and on the coast of Maine during the same time in summer that it abounds on the Labrador coast and in Greenland. All the facts observed by us tend to prove that the cod does not migrate extensively, as commonly supposed. * U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The Fishery Industries of the United States. Section IV. Fishermen, 1887. p. 151. THE HERRING FISHERY. 403 Clupea harejigzis, Linn. The herring fishery begins 111 the Strait of Belle Isle during the middle of August, after the cod fishery is over. The fact elicited from several intelligent fishermen, that the herring does not spawn abundantly upon the coast of Northern Labrador, iliat is, above the Mingan Islands, but visits the coast in schools after the breeding season is over, while it breeds abundantly on the coast of New Brunswick, at Bay Cha- leur, the Magdalen Islands, and on the southern coast of Newfoundland, affords excellent data for limiting the southern boundary of the Arctic fish fauna on tbe eastern Atlantic coast. This line agrees with what we have de- fined'^ as the southern limits of the " Syrtensian Fauna," which as an assemblage peoples the coast of Labrador, and extends around the northern shore of the continent into Hudson's Bay; and southward, follows the line of floating ice, thus partially excluding Anticosti, embracing the Banks of Newfoundland, the banks lying off Nova Scotia and New England, such as Jeffries and St. George's Banks, and more faintly indicated on those banks of New Jersey which are swept by the southern extension of the Labrador or Polar current. An outlier of it is also found at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. On the southern shores of Newfoundland, which are partially protected from the Polar current sweeping by to the eastward, upon which the Gulf Stream slightly impinges, though with a much diminished force, the herring breeds, as here the species is surrounded by physical and climatic conditions very precisely corre- sponding to those of Nova Scotia and Maine, thus con- * Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Dec, 1863. 404 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. stituting an outlying area isolated from, and yet belong- ing to the Acadian district or fauna. Therefore it ap- pears that the line of floating ice, which extends down the coast of Labrador as far as the Mingan Islands, is the northward limit of the haddock and mackerel, while the herring, a member of the Acadian fauna, does not breed in any comparative abundance north of this point. The distribution of Radiates, Mollusca, Articulates, and Fishes thus agrees very closely on the northeastern shores of the continent. One person at Henley Harbor takes upon the average eight hundred quintals during the short summer season, and cures them there. A few herring were seined at Square Island on July 6. I find in a lecture on the Herring Fishery by M. A. Warren, Esq., who owns one of the largest fishing estab- lishments on the coast of Labrador, some observations on the herring as observed in Labrador and Newfound- land, which are here quoted, as the article is not likely to fall into the hands of American naturalists. "The female herring in Newfoundland come near the shore in moderate weather, and deposit their spawn, generally at night, in from 3 to 5 fathoms of water. The males follow and shed their milt over it." . . . "It is impossible, without seeing it, to form any idea of the prodigious abundance of the ova of the herring yearly deposited in Fortune Bay, and other of the favorite spawning-beds of the herring. The water will at times be seen white with milt for many acres." ..." From personal observation, and from all the information I can obtain, I believe there are several schules of herring that come in on different portions of our coast to spawn. It BATRACHIANS. 4^5 is certain there are several varieties of the common her- ring differing in size, shape, and solidity of flesh. In Fortune Bay the spawn is deposited in the months of March and April ; in St. George's Bay, in the month of May, and a fortnight later on St. Barbe's. My impres- sion is that on the southern shore of the Labrador coast the spawn is deposited in June, or early in July. During the months of August and September the Labrador ■coast from Mecatina to Bear Island is visited by vast shoals of large fat herring, which have in them neither roe nor milt. I consider these herring, by their size and appearance, to be of the same species or the same shoal as those which spawned in St. George's Bay, in May or in June, on the Labrador coast, and which pass on in September and October to the Arctic waters, or more probably to the depth of the ocean. " Of iate years herring-seines have been much used on the Labrador coast, almost entirely superseding the use of nets, to the manifest injury of the fishing population. These immense seines, most of them more than one hundred and twenty fathoms long, often enclose over three thousand barrels of herring. During the first two to three years over one hundred and fifty seines were used on the coast by Nova Scotia fishermen." Batrachia. Rana septentrionalis Baird. Okkak. Frogs wete heard and seen at Stag Bay, Domino Harbor, Lewis Bay, Henley Harbor, and on the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Bufo americana Lee. Salmon Bay. 406 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Plethodon glutinosa Baird ? A salamander of a dark slate color, with a paler dorsal stripe was observed at Belles Amours. Birds. list of the birds of labrador, including ungava, east main, moose, and gulf districts of the hud- son bay company, together with the island of anticosti* The scope of country intended to be embraced with- in the above heading is bounded on the north by Hud- son Strait, extending from east to west ; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean ; on the south by the Gulf of St. Lawrence to where the parallel of 50 degrees north lati- tude strikes the land, then west to the intersection of the 82d degree of east longitude. The western boundary is the 82d degree of west longitude north to Hudson Strait. The period during which my own observations were made extends from June 15, 1882, to October 3, 1884. The principal scene of my investigations was in the vicinity of Fort Chimo, situated about 27 miles up the Koksoak River, flowing into Ungava Bay, which is an immense pocket towards the eastern portion of the south side of Hudson Strait. At this place I remained from August 6, 1882, to September 4, 1884. The southern portions of the country are entirely sub- arctic in character, while the northern portions are stnctly arctic. The topography of the region is so diversified that * By Lucien M. Turner. Reprinted by the author's permission from the Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, 1885, pp. 233-254. Revised and brought down to 1891, by J. A. Allen. BIRDS. 407 even a scanty description is impracticable in this connec- tion. The climate is scarcely less diverse, the range of the thermometer at Fort Chimo being, for the period men- tioned above, 86^ degrees for the maximum, and just 50 degrees below zero for the minimum, giving a range of 136.5 degrees for that period. Winter begins (zero of temperature) about the ist of November and continues to the last of April. Snow falls every month in the year, and the lowest temperature of each month in the year is never above the freezing point. The warmest night showed only 54 degrees. Snow remains from the last of September to the end of May ; snow-shoes have been used as late as the 19th of May. Rain seldom falls before the nth of May, and rarely after the middle of October. The bird-life is abundant in individuals if not in species.- Some of the birds which most certainly occur within the territory, yet of which no satisfactory evidence of actual occurrence has been recorded, are with one or two exceptions omitted for obvious reasons. Triiiga mari- tzma, for instance, certainly occurs somewhere along the coast, but has not been detected and recorded ; the same with species of Fulix. Reference is made to the following authorities, and extracts made without comment or responsibility for their assertions : Audubon, J. J. Birds of America; seven volumes, published from 1840 to 1844. Nuttall. Manual of Ornithology, rd edition, 1840. Verrill, A. E. Notes on the Natural History of Anticosti, summer of 1861. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. ix., pp. 132 to 150, inclusive. 408 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Coues, E. Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador, summer of i860. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil- adelphia, August, 186 1, pp. 215 to 257, inclusive. Stearns, W. A. Notes on the Natural History of Labrador (v/ith few additions on authority of Coues), i88o-'8i-'82, pp. iii to 138. inclusive, of the Proceedings of the United States Na- tional Museum, 1883. Brewster, William. Notes on the Birds observed during a summer cruise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xxii., pp. 364 to 412, inclusive, October 3, 1883. Richardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. ii. Kumlien, L. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 15. Contributions to the Natural History of Arctic Amer- ica, made in connection with the Howgate Polar Expedition, i877-'78. Washington, 1879, PP- 69 to 105. [The following, mostly issued since the publication of Mr. Turner's paper, are of interest as bearing upon the bird-fauna of Labrador : Stearns, W. A. Bird-life in Labrador, American Field, April 26-Oct. II, 1890. A series of twenty-five articles, giving at length the author's observations on the birds of Labrador. Merriam, Dr. C. Hart. List of birds ascertained to occur within ten miles of Point de Monts, Province of Quebec, Canada, based chiefly upon the notes of Napoleon A. Comeau, Bull. Nutt. Orn, Club, vol. vii., 1882, pp. 233-242; vol. viii., 1883, p. 244; The Auk, vol. i., 1884, p. 295 ; ii., 1885, p. 113. Palmer, William. Notes on the birds observed during the cruise of the United States Fish Commission Schooner "Gr;im- pus" in the summer of 1887. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. xiii., 1890, pp. 249-265. See also a review of Mr. Turner's List in "The Auk," vol. ii., p. 368, and Mr. Turner's reply thereto (" Auk," iii., p. 140). BIRDS. 409 The nomenclature here adopted is that of the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. In Mr. Turner's list, as originally published, the names adopted, were, in the main, those of Ridgway's " Nomenclature of North American Birds," forming "Bulletin 21" of the U. S. National Museum. In the present reprint, aside from the revision of the nomen- clature to bring it into conformity with the system now almost universally adopted, the only changes are the addition of a few titles to the list of authorities cited, the numbering of the species consecutively instead of in conformity with the Ridgway " Nomenclature," and the addition of critical remarks on a few species attributed to Labrador on doubtful evidence. An asterisk (*) prefixed to a name indicates that the species is resident throughout the year. A dagger (f) similarly placed indicates breeding. J. A. Allen.] 1. Turdus mustelinus (Gmel.). Wood Thrush. Stearns, p. 116, asserts that he heard this species in Southern Labrador. [Labrador is quite beyond the normal range of this species, which is found only spar- ingly in Northern New England. Mr. Stearns omits the species from his later "Bird Life in Labrador," cited above.] 2. Turdus fuse esc ens (Steph.). Wilson's Thrush. Audubon, vol. iii., p. 27, saw young July 20, 1833. Brewster, p. 368, saw a pair July 24, 1881, on Anti- costi. [This species can reach Labrador only as a straggler, being of rare occurrence even in- Northern New England.] 4IO Tlib: ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. f 3. Ttcrdus alicicB Baird. Gray-cheeked Thrush. Rare in Ungava. Common in southeastern and^ southern portions. Breeds wherever found in summer. Nest and eggs procured at Fort Chimo, June 28, 1884. 4. Turdus ttstulatus swaznsoni (Caban.). OHve- backed Thrush. Brewster, p. 369, obtained an adult female at Fox Bay, Anticosti, July 11, 1881. Verrill reports it very common (p. 137) on Anticosti. Specimens were obtained June 13 and in July, i860, at Rupert House, by Drexler. 5. T^trdiLS aonalaschkce pallasii (Caban.). Hermit Thrush. Brewster, p. 369, found it an abundant species at Anticosti and on the south shore of Labrador. Verrill, p. 137, found it common at the same place. ■f 6. Mertda migratoiHa (Linn.). American Robin. Abundant throughout the country. Breeding plenti- fully at Fort Chimo, Ungava. 7. Saxicola cEiianthe (Linn.). Stone Chat. Coues, p. 218, obtained, August 25, i860, at Henley Harbor, Labrador, a single individual of this bird. f 8.' Regulus calendula (\-Aww^. Ruby-crowned King- let. Common in southern portions. Audubon, vol. ii., p.' 168, found them June 27, 1833, and saw the young of the year a month later. Coues obtained a specimen August 6, at Rigolet, vide p. 219. Stearns shot a single specimen at Old Fort Island^ October 11, 1881, vide "p. 116. f 9. Regulus satrapa'LAc\\X.. Golden-crowned Kinglet, BIRDS. 41 r: Audubon, vol. ii., p. 165, found them feeding their young in August. 10. Parus atricapillus Uixwi. Black-capped Chickadee. I am informed by credible persons, long resident in the country, that two species of chickadees occur at Northwest River, at the head of Hamilton Inlet. Verrill, p. 138, reports it very common on Anticosti. *f II. Parus kudsonicus VoYSt. Hudsonian Chick- adee. Abundant everywhere in the wooded tracts. Young of the year were obtained July 19, 1882, at Davis Inlet, and in early August at Fort Chimo. Audubon, vol. ii., p. 155, states that they found a nest in Labrador. 12. Sitta canadensis \Jvi\xi. Red-bellied Nuthatch. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 179, states that he saw one in Labrador which had probably been driven there by a storm. Verrill, p. 138, reports it as common on Anticosti. 13. Troglodytes hy emails Vieill. Winter Wren. Audubon, vol. ii. , p. 129, found this species in South- ern Labrador, July 20, 1833. Verrill, p. 138, states that he observed a small wren at Southwest Point, Anticosti, in July, which he thought was this species. f 14. Motdcilla alba Linn, White Wagtail. Four individuals of this species were seen by Alex. Brown and James Lyall (of the Hudson Bay Company), August 29, 1883, ^t Hunting Bay, 4 miles south of Fort Chimo. These persons described the bird accurately, and declared they were the two parents and two young 412 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRAIJQR COAST. of the year. I must add that I place the fullest reliance in their assertion. f 15. Ant hus pensilv aniens (Lath.). American Tit- lark. Abundant throughout the territory. Nests and eggs obtained at Fort Chimo, where it breeds plentifully. 16. Mniotilta varia (Linn.). Black-and-white Creeper. A specimen was obtained at Moose Factory, May 13, i860, and also on the 31st of that month, by C. Drexler. Brewster, p. 369, obtained a specimen at Fox Bay, Anticosti, July 11, 1881. 17. Helmmthophila peregrina (Wils.). Tennessee Warbler. Obtained by Drexler, at Fort George, in June and July, i860. Brewster, p. 370, obtained a specimen near Fox Bay, Anticosti, July 11, 1881. 18. Compsothlypis americana (Linn.). Blue Yellow- backed Warbler. Brewster, p. 370, saw a male at Fox Bay, Anticosti, July ri, 1881. 19. Dendroica tigrina (Gmel.). Cape May Warbler. Specimen obtained by Drexler, May 28, i860, at Moose Factory. 20. Dendroica (sstiva (Gmel.). Summer Yellow Bird. Specimen obtained by Drexler, July 12, i860, at Fort George. Brewster, p. 370, reports it as abundant on Anti- 'Costi. BIRDS. 415 t2i. Dendrouacoronatai}Jxxxxi>^. Yellow-rump War^ Audubon, vol. ii., p. 24. found them plentiful in Lab- rador, with young scarcely able to fly. Drexler obtained specimens, July 21, .i860, at Moose Factory. _, ^ , „ t 22. Dendroica maculosa (Gmel). Black-and-yellow Warbler. Drexler obtained a specimen at Moose Factory, May 28, i860. . , Audubon, vol. ii., p. 66, reports it common, with eggs and nest in beginning of July, 1833. Brewster p. 371, found it abundant on Anticosti. 23. Dendroica ccErulesceiis (Gmel.). Black-throated Blue Warbler. Audubon, vol. ii., p. 63, states he found a deadone in Labrador. [This species is erroneously entered in Mr. Turner's list as " Dendroica ccEvulea (Wils.). Cerulean Warbler."] , ^ ^^. 24. Dendroica castanea (Wils.). Bay-breasted War- bler. Drexler obtained a specimen at Moose Factory, June 2, i860. . . Three individuals were seen at Black Island, Hamil- ton Inlet, by me July 9, 1882. Two were shot, but lost in the thick undergrowth ; one of the birds was actually in my hand, but escaped. t25. Dendroica striata (Forst). Black-poll War- bler. . Abundant throughout the wooded .portions ot the region. Breeds plentifully at Fort Chimo, where seven nests and eggs were obtained in 1884 by me. 414 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 26. Dendroica blackburnice (Gmel). Blackburnian "Warbler. Audubon, vol. ii, p. 48, saw several in Labrador. 27. Dendroica virens (Gmel.). Black-throated Green Warbler. Brewster, p. 371, saw two or three on Anticosti. f 28. Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea (Ridgw.). Red-poll Warbler. A specimen was obtained by Drexler at Moose Fac- tory in July, i860. Audubon, vol. ii., p. 55, found them plentiful in Labra- dor. Young seen in August. f 29. Seiurus atirocapillus (Linn.). Golden-crowned Thrush. Stearns, p. 116, records this species as breeding in Southern Labrador. Brewster, p. 371, saw a pair at Ellis Bay, Anticosti, July 21. Verrill, p. 137, obtained specimens at Anticosti, July 15, 1861. f 30. Seiurus noveboracensis (Gmel.). Small-billed Water Thrush. Several individuals, young of the year among them, were procured by me at Davis Inlet in August, 1884. A specimen was procured at Moose Factory, May 26, i860, by Drexler. 31. Geothlypis trichas (Linn.). Maryland Yellow- throat. Common in southern portions of Labrador. Stearns, p. 116, reports it from Natashquan. Brewster, p. 371, found it at Fox Bay, Anticosti July II. BIRDS. 415 f 32, Sylvaiiia ptisilla (Wils.). Black-capped Yel- low Warbler. Audubon, vol. ii., p. 21, records it as breeding in Lab- rador, and a nest obtained. Brewster, p. 371, records it from Anticosti. t 33. Sylvania canadensis (Linn.). Canadian Warb- ler. Audubon, vol. ii, p. 15, reports it as breeding in Lab- rador. f 34. Setophaga ruticilla (Linn.). American Red- ^start Verrill, p. 137, records it as breeding on Anticosti, with young ones just able to fly, July 18, 1861. A specimen was obtained by James McKenzie at Rupert House, September 3, i860. Brewster, p. 372, records it from Ellis and Fox Bays, Anticosti, and from Mingan, on the south shore of Lab- rador. 35. Vireo olivacetis (Linn.). Red-eyed Vireo. Verrill, p. 138, reports it as common on Anticosti. 36. Vireo philadelp hints (Cass.). Philadelphia Vireo. Individual obtained from Moose Factory, June 2, i860, by Drexler. 37. Vireo noveboracensis (Gmel.). White-eyed Vireo. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 148, states that a few were seen in Labrador. [Audubon was probably mistaken, Labrador being beyond the known range of this species,] * f 38. Laimis dorealis Yie'iW. Great Northern Shrike. Not common at Fort Chimo. Breeds there. Young, unable to fly more than a few rods, were taken by the hand at that place, June 30, 1884. Said to be common 4l6 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. in the more southern portions, and there known as the " Silky Jay." 39. Ampelis cedrorttm (Vieill.). Cedar Wax-wing. Specimen obtained August 26, i860, by Drexler, at Moose Factory. f 40. Petrochelidon lunifrons (Say). Cliff Swallow. Verrill, p. 137, reports it breeding in large numbers, July 15, 1861, on Anticosti. f 41. Chelidon erythrogaster (Bodd.). Barn Swal- low. Breeds at Northwest River, at the head of Hamilton Inlet. f 42. Tachycineta bicolor (Vieill). White-bellied Swallow. Common at "Big" Island, in the Koksoak River, near Fort Chimo, where it breeds abundantly. Abundant throughout the northern portions. Brewster, p. 372, saw two at Anticosti, June 9. f 43. Clivicola riparia (Linn.). Bank Swallow. Audubon, vol. i., p. 189, states that it rarely begins to breed before June, and lays only once. Said to be plen- tiful on south shore of Labrador. Verrill, p. 138, reports it plentiful on Anticosti. '^' f 44. Pinicola emicleator (Linn.). Pi-ne Grosbeak. Abundant in summer only, at Fort Chimo ; breeds there ; nest and eggs obtained. Plentiful in southern districts among the timbered tracts. Resident south of the " Height of Land." This bird is known as the " M(.[)e." 45. Carpodacus purpureus (Gm.). Purple Finch. Kumlien, p. 75, obtained one on shipboard off Resolu- tion Island. BIRDS. 417 Drexler obtained it at Moose Factory, May 28, i860. Occurs plentifully in southern portions. * t 46. Loxia Leucuptera Gmel. White-winged Cross- bill. Abundant at Fort Chimo in winter, rare during other winters. None observed in summer. Birds of the year arQ taken in early winter. Breeds in central portions and resident there. 47. Acanthis ho7-nemanm (YioVo.). Mealy Redpoll. Very abundant in winter. Not occurring in summer from May 15 to September i of each year. * + 48. AcantJiis Jiorne77ianni exilipes (Coues), White-rumped Redpoll. Abundant and resident. Breeds plentifully at Fort Chimo, where nests and eggs were obtained. * f 49. Acanthis linaria (Linn.). Common Redpoll. Abundant and resident. Breeds plentifully at Fort Chimo, where nests and eggs were obtained. 50. Acanthis linaria rostrata (Coues). Greater Red- poll. Rather common in winter. None to be seen from May 15 to September i of each year. 51. Spinus tristis (Linn.). American Goldfinch. Kumlien, p. 76, caught an adult male on shipboard off Cape Mugford, August 22, 1877. Occurs in southern portions of Labrador. A bird called " Goldfinch" was described accurately, and asserted to occur occasionally at Fort Chimo, but I did not succeed in finding it. 52. Spin7Ls pinus (Wils.). Pine Goldfinch. Recorded by Audubon, vol. iii., p. 126, as common. Brewster, p. 373, saw a flock, July 24, on Anticosti. 4l8 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. * t 53- Plectrophe7tax nivalis (Linn.). Snow Bunting. Abundant at Fort Chimo. Breeds on the islands in Ungava Bay and occasionally on the mainland. Resident in the southern portions of Labrador. f 54 Calcaj'ius lapponicus (Linn.). Lapland Long- spur. Abundant at Fort Chimo. Breeds near the mouth of the Koksoak River and on the larger islands in Ungava Bay. f 55. Ammodraimts sandwichensis savanna (Wils.). Savannah Sparrow. Common throughout the region. Breeds at the mouth of the Koksoak River and at Davis Inlet. •f 56. Zonotrichia leitcophrys (Forst.). White- crowned Sparrow. Very plentiful throughout the country. Breeds abundantly at Fort Chimo. f 57. Zonotrichia albicollis (Gmel.). White-throated Sparrow. Reported by Stearns, p. 117, as common and breed- inof in Southern Labrador. Audubon, vol iii., p. 154, states that this species is common, and that he saw young late in July. Drexler obtained this species at Moose Factory, May 31, i860. Verrill, p. 138, reports this species as by far the most common singing bird at Anticosti. f 58. Spizella monticola (Gmel.). Tree Sparrow. Common throughout the entire country. Breeds plen- tifully at Fort Chimo, where eggs and nests were taken. t 59- Junco hyemalis (Linn.). Black Snowbird. Not observed in the Ungava district. Common in the eastern and southern portions of Labrador. Breeds BIRDS. 419 at Davis Inlet and Rigolet. Known as the " Stone Chat " on the east coast. f 60. Melospiza lincolni (Aud.). Lincoln's Finch. Rare at Fort Chimo ; a male obtained June 10, 1883. Common in southern portions, Audubon, vol. iii., p. 117, found young July 4, 1833. Drexler procured specimens at Moose Factory, May .22i, i860. 61. Melospiza georgiana (Lath.). Swamp Sparrow. Audubon, vol. iii., p. iii, states it to be abundant in Labrador. Brewster, p. 375, found it plentiful on Anticosti. f 62. Passerella iliaca (Merrem). Fox-colored Spar- row. Common in southern portions. Young obtained at Rigolet late in June and early July, 1882. 63. Pipilo erythrophthalinus (Linn.). Chewink ; Towhee. Audubon, vol. iii., p. 168, states that, it occurs north- ward to Labrador. [Doubtless an error.] f 64. Scolecophagus carolinus (Miill.). Rusty Black- bird. Common. Breeds at Fort Chimo, where young just from the nest were obtained, July 10, 1884. * f 65. Corvus corax principalis Ridgw. American Raven. Abundant throughout the region. Breeds at Fort Chimo; nearly fledged young seen in nest May 18. 66, Corvus americanus Aud. Common Crow. Rare and only found in southern portions. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 89, states few were to be seen in Labrador. 420 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Coues, p. 226, saw one flying. Stearns, p. 117, reports it from Eskimo River. Verrill, p. 138, records it as very common on Anti- costi. Not known to breed in Labrador. * f 67. Perisoreus canadensis (Linn,). Canada Jay. Plentiful in interior of southern and westen portions. Breeds and resident wherever found. * f 68. Perisoreus canadensis nigricapillus (Ridgw.). Coastwise and interior especially abundant. Resident. and breeds at Fort Chimo. f 69. Otocoris alpestris (Linn.). Shore Lark. Common. Breeds at the mouth of the Koksoak River and at Rigolet. f 70. Tyrannus tyrannus (Linn.). Kingbird ; Bee Martin. Audubon, vol. i., p. 207, found it breeding in Labrador. 71. Contopus borealis (Swains.). Olive-sided Fly- catcher. Audubon, vol. i., 215, records it from the coast of Labrador. f 72. Contoptts rickardsoni (Sw2i\ns.^. Western Wood Pewee. Audubon, vol. i., p. 220, states that he found it breed- ing in Labrador. [This was erroneously entered in Mr. Turner's list as '' Sayornis phcebe (Lath.). Phoebe Bird."] 73. Contopus virens (Linn.). Wood Pewee. Audubon, vol. i., p. 233, records it [probably erro- neously] from Labrador. 74. Empidonax Jiaviventris Baird. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Brewster, p. 380, reports it common at Ellis Bay^ Anticosti. BIRDS. 421 •f 75o Bmpzdonax minimus Baird. Least Flycatcher, • Audubon, vol. i., p. 237, found it nesting in Labrador. Obtained by Drexler at Moose Factory, May 30, i860. 76. Trochilus colubris Uinn. Ruby-throated Hum- ming-bird. A single individual, male, was seen within 4 feet of me July 17, 1882, on the hill-top (825 feet elevation) back of the station at Davis Inlet. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 195, states that few were seen in Labrador. J J. Chordeiles virginiamis (Gmel.). Nighthawk. Stearns, p. 117, records it from Natashquan. Obtained by Drexler in August, i860, at Moose Factory. ■^ f 78. Dryobates villosus leucomelas i^odidi?). Hairy Woodpecker. Resident in southern portions of Labrador ; probably ■does not occur north of the " Height of Land." * f 79. Dryobates pztbf,scens (Linn.).. Downy Wood- pecker. Common and resident in southern portions ; probably does not range north of 56°. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 249, reports it from Texas to Labrador. Brewster, p. 381, found it breeding at Fox Bay, Anti- costi, July ri. * f 80. Picoides arciiczcs (Swains.). Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker. Common and resident throughout tiic wooded por- tions. ■^ f 81. Picoides americayius Brehm. Banded-backed Three-toed Woodpecker. 422 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Common and resident throughout the wooded por- tions. f 82. Colaptes auratus (Linn.). Yellow-shafted Flicker. An accidental straggler was procured from the main- land near Akpatok Island, Hudson Strait, in October, 1882. Reported to be a common summer visitor to- Northwest River. f Z-^. Ceryle alcyon (Linn.). Belted Kingfisher. Asummer visitor to Northwest River, where it breeds. Drexler obtained a specimen. May 26, i860, at Moose Factory. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 208, records that he has met with it from Texas to Labrador. 84. Coccyzus americamts (Linn.). Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 296, states that even in Labrador he has met with a few of them [ — a statement requiring confirmation]. 85. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus (Wils.). Black-billed Cuckoo. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 301, states that they saw a few in clumps of low trees a few miles from the shore of the gulf. (The text evidently refers to Labrador.) ^^ ? f 86. Asio accipitrinus (Pall.). Short-eared Owl. Common in summer only at Fort Chimo. Specimens obtained there and at Davis Inlet. A very light-colored individual was seen, July 18, 1882, at Davis Inlet. Downy young individual was obtained at Fort Chimo. Plentiful on the east shore of Hudson Bay. Not known to winter in the Ungava district. 87. Scotiaptex cinerea (Gmel). Great Gray Owk BIRDS. 423 Specimen (No. 32306 5 ) in the Smithsonian Institu- tion collection was obtained by James McKenzie at Moose Factory. No record from other parts of the country. 88. Nyctala acadica (Gmel.). Saw-whet Owl. Specimen (No. 32301) in Smithsonian Institution was obtained at Moose Factory by James McKenzie. * f 89. Bubo virginiamis saturatus Ridgw. ^ Dusky Horned Owl. Not rare at Fort Chimo. Resident. Downy young obtained June 20, 1884. * f 90. Nyctea nydea (Linn.). Snowy Owl. Common throughout the country. Breeds at Fort Chimo. * t 91. Surnia tclicla caparoch (Mlill.). American Hawk Owl. Rare at Fort Chimo. Eggs obtained June 8, 1884, and downy young nearly ready to leave the nest were taken June 20. * f 92. Falco isla7}dus Briinn. White Gyrfalcon. Common at Fort Chimo and east coast of Labrador. Resident. in northern portions, breeds at Fort Chimo. f 93. Falco rusticolus Linn. Iceland Gyrfalcon. Winter specimens only obtained at Fort Chimo. Not known to breed in the Ungava district. * f 94. Falco 7^tcstzcohis obsolehcs {Gme\.^. Labrador Gyrfalcon. Abundant at Fort Chimo. Eggs obtained May 24. Young and adult specimens of this bird procured. Very rare in winter at Fort Chimo. f 95. Falco peregi'inus anatum (Bon.). American Peregrine Falcon ; Duck Hawk. Abundant at Fort Chimo. Eggs, downy young, and 424 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. adults taken there. Does not pass the winter in the Unofava district. f 96. Falco columbarius Linn. Pigeon Hawk. Audubon, vol, i., p. 89, states that eggs and nest were found about June i. Coues, p. 216, met with it on two occasions; one at Groswater Bay on August 5, and on the 25th of August ■'' Henley Harbor. 97. Falco sparverius Linn. Sparrow Hawk. Coues, p. 216, saw a single individual in Labrador. f 98. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis {Q:vc\.). American Osprey ; Fish Hawk. Mr. John Ford assured me that the Fish Hawk breeds, four or five pairs of them, about 4 miles above the station of the Hudson Bay Company on Northwest River. Nuctall, page 81, reports it from Labrador. Brewster, p. 382. records that few were seen at Anti- costi. 99. Circus hudsonius (Linn.). Marsh Hawk. Audubon, vol. i., p. 105, saw it in Labrador. 100. Accipite7' velox (Wils.). Sharp-shinned Hawk. Richardson, vol. ii., p. 44, states that one was killed near Moose Factory and deposited by the Hudson Bay Company in the museum of London. Verrill, p. 137, reports having seen this species near Salmon River, July 3, 1861. * f 10 1. Accipiter atricapillus (Wils.). American Goshawk. Resident in Ungava district. Winter specimen ob- tained in early December, 1882. Breeds at the " Chapel " BIRDS. 425 near Fort Chimo. Specimen obtained from Rigolet. Known as " Partridge Hawk." 102. Bttteo latissimus (Wils.). Broad-winged Hawk. Specimen (No. 33209 3 ) in Smithsonian Institution ^collected by James McKenziein 1862 at Moose Factory. f 103. Arckibuteo lagopzis sancti-johannis (Gmel.). American Rough-legged Hawk. Both light and dark phases, with their eggs, young, and adults, collected at Fort Chimo. Apparently more abundant on eastern and northern shores than on the southern portions of Labrador. Downy young were also obtained, of the black phase, July 17, 1882, at Davis Inlet. Termed " Squalling Hawk" by the planters. f 104. AqiLila chrysaetos (Linn.). Golden Eagle. Specimens procured in Ungava district. Breeds in the northeastern portions among the hills. A pair also breed at the " Forks" in the Ungava district. The Eagles are termed "Grepe" by the planters, and is a word derived from some of the earlier Scandinavian settlers on the coast who apply the term Grepe to a Vulture. f 105. Halicsetus leucocephalus (\J\x^w?). Bald Eagle; Gray Eagle. Nuttall, p. 75, records it as breeding and rearing its young in all the intermediate space from Nova Scotia or Labrador to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 106. Ectopistes migratorius (Linn.). Passenger Pigeon. Specimen obtained August 16, i860, by C. Drexler, at Moose Factory. Verrill, p. 138, saw a single individual at Heath 426 THE ZOOLOGY OF THIi LABRADOR COAST. Point, Anticosti, and was informed that they are very rare there. * f 107. Dendragapiis caiiadensis (Linn.). Canada. Grouse ; Spruce Partridge. Abundant throughout the wooded tracts. Resident. Eggs, downy young, and adults procured at Fort Chimo. * f 108. Bonasa timbellus togata (Linn.). Ruffed Grouse.. Occurs rarely at the head of Hamilton Inlet, but only on the south side ; lather common at Paradise River, flowing into Sandwich Bay, and abundantly in the val- leys to the southward, where birch grows plentifully.. These birds are known as " French Hens." Audubon, vol. iv., p. 80, reports it as common from Maryland to Labrador. * f 109. Lagopus lagopus (Linn.). Willow Ptarmi- gan. Exceedingly abundant throughout the country. Breeds by thousands at Fort Chimo, where eggs, adults^, and young in all stages were procured. * t 110. Lagopus rupestris {^\i\.^. Rock Ptarmigan. Plentiful everywhere on the treeless areas. Eggs^ young in all stages, and adults were procured from vari- ous places. III. Ardea herodias Linn. Great Blue Heron. An individual was seen by Mr. John Saunders (of the Hudson ,Bay Company) to fly from the creek which is the outlet of Whitefish Lake, near Fort Chimo, in the summer of 1880. A specimen was obtained at Moose Factory by James McKenzie, August 29, i860. Verrill, p. 138, states that a large Heron, which ap- BIRDS. 427- peared to be of this species, was seen at Ellis Bay, Anti- costi. f 112. Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.). American. Bittern. According to Coues, p. 227, a wing of a Bittern was seen in the possession of a native at Rigolet (?). Drexler found it breeding at Moose Factory, and ob- tained specimens August 29, 186-. Verrill, p. 138, records it as common at Anticosti. A. young one, just able to fly, was caught August 4. f 113. HcBmatopus palliatus Temm. American- Oystercatcher. Audubon, vol. v., p. 237, found several breeding in Labrador. f 114. Arenaria interpres (Linn.). Turnstone. Occasional at Ungava Bay. A young bird of the year was obtained there in the middle of September, 1882,- and an adult at Davis Inlet. Not rare on the east coast. 115. Charadrius squatai'-ola (Linn.). Black-bellied, Plover. Stearns, p. 118, reports it plentiful in South Labrador.. Not observed in the Ungava district. Not breeding. 116. Charadrius dominictis Mtill. American Golden Plover. Occurs, in fall only, at the mouth of the Koksoak. Common in the southern and western portions near the coast. Not known to breed there. f 1 1 7. y^gialitis semipalmata Bonap. Semipal- mated Plover. Occurs abundantly throughout the coast region. Eggs, downy young, and adults obtained from Ungava^ 428 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. and downy young with their parents obtained from Davis Inlet. Known as " Beach Bird " in Labrador. 1 1 8. Philohela minor (Gmel.). American Wood- cock. Several persons assured me that they had killed wood- cocks on the eastern portions of the Labrador shore. f 119. Gallinago delicata (Ord.). Wilson's Snipe. I heard and saw a male making the peculiar noise with its wings, in early June, over a swamp to the north of Davidson's Lake, a few miles from Fort Chimo. Specimens were procured, June 15, i860, by Drexler, at Rupert House. Coues, p. 229, met with a single specimen. 120. Macrorhamphiis griseus (Gmel.). Red-breasted Snipe ; Gray Snipe. Rare at Fort Chimo. Common in southern and western portions. Specimens obtained at Fort Chimo and Davis Inlet. 121. Tringa camthts Linn. Knot ; Robin Snipe. Audubon, vol. v., p. 256, states that it ranges along the coast from Texas to Labrador, but does not record having met with it in the latter country. Coues, p. 229, obtained at Henley Harbor a few spe- cimens in immature plumage. 122. Tringa maritima Briinn. Purple Sandpiper. Although I can find no record of the occurrence of this species in Labrador, yet it abounds on the Atlantic coasts to the north and south of Labrador in spring and fall. f 123. Tringa maculata YieiW. Pectoral Sandpiper. Common almost everywhere on the coast. Specimens BIRDS. 42gt procured by Coues, p. 230; Stearns, p. 119, and by my- self. 124. Tringa fuscicollis Vieill. Bonaparte's Sand- piper. Excessively abundant at the mouth of the Koksoak River in July, August, and September ; also on the eastern shore of Labrador. Not known to breed in the country. f 125. Tringa ininutilla Vieill. Least Sandpiper. Not common at Ungava. I have reason to believe that occasional pairs breed at the mouth of the Koksoak River. Audubon, vol. v., p. 282, states that he found nest and eggs, July 20, 1883, in Labrador. Coues, p. 232, observed it to be plentiful in Labrador. Brewster, p. 386, observed a few daily on the beach at Anticosti. Stearns, p. 119, records it common in spring and fall, and breeds in summer. f 126. Ereunetes pitsillus (Linn.). Semipalmated Sandpiper. Occurs sparingly at the mouth of the Koksoak River, and from its actions indicated breeding. Audubon, vol. v., p, 278, states he found them dis- persed in pairs and having nests early in June in Lab- rador. Stearns, p. 119, reports this species as common in spring and fall. 127. Calidris arenaria {yXxvci^. Sanderling. Three individuals were seen at the mouth of the Kok- soak River associated with Triitga fuscicollis. Two of these were obtained. 430 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Audubon, vol. v., p. 288, states he saw young in Lab- rador early in August, 1833, moving southward. 128. Limosa Ji(^niastica{\J\x\x\.^. Hudsonian Godwit. Rare. Drexler obtained a specimen near Rupert House, July 30, i860. Stearns, p. 119, obtained a single individual at Old Fort Island. f 129, Totanus inelanoleucus (Gmel.). Greater Yel- low-legs ; Tell-tale. Not common in Ungava district. Specimens obtained at the mouth of the Koksoak River and only in the fall. Audubon, vol. v., p. 319, states he found this species breeding in June in Labrador. 130. Totanus flavipes (Gmel). Yellow-legs. A single individual was seen October 8 about 50 miles above Fort Chimo, on the Koksoak River, flying from a bar. Audubon, vol. v., p. 313, states he found few of these birds in Labrador. f 131. Tolafuis solitariits (Wils.). Solitary Sand- piper. A single individual was obtained near Fort Chimo in July. Its actions indicated breeding. 132. Tryiigites sith'-iificollis (Vieill). Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Coues, p. 235, obtained a single individual August 20, i860. f 133. Actitis maculaiHa (Linn.). Spotted Sand- piper. Common at Fort Chimo, where downy young and adults were procured. Audubon, vol. v., p. 303, states he found it breeding BIRDS. 431 in Labrador, July 17, 1833, and obtained fully-fledged young July 29. 134. Numenius longirostris Wils. Long-billed Cur- lew. Most diligent inquiry failed to satisfy me that this species occurs on the north, east, or southern portions of Labrador. Coues apparently satisfied himself, from inquiry, that the bird does occur there, vide p. 235. 135. JVumenius hudsonzcus l^diXh. Hudsonian Curlew. I saw three individuals of this species in September, 1882, at the mouth of the Koksoak. Coues, p. 235, procured a few individuals. 136. NumeniMs borealis (Forst.). Eskimo Curlew. Several large flocks were seen September 4, 1884, fly- ing over the mouth of the Koksoak River. Plentiful in the fall in the southern portions and as far north as Davis Inlet ; they do not halt above this latter place while on their way southward. f 137. Crymophilus fulicarius {\j\x\Vi^. Red Phala- ,rope. Abundant on the Labrador coast north of Davis Inlet. Common in Hudson Strait. Rare in Ungava Bay, where a specimen was obtained. Breeds sparingly in Hudson Strait. f 138. Phalai^opus lobatus (Linn.). Northern Phala- rope. Breeds on the islets in Ungava Bay. Common on northern portions of the Labrador coast. 139. Rallus vwginianus Linn. Virginian Rail. A single specimen was taken in Hamilton Inlet a few years ago and submitted to M. Fortesque, Esq. (of the 432 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Hudson Bay Company), who identified it beyond ques- tion. 140. Porzana Carolina (Linn.). Sora Rail. Obtained by Drexler, August 26, i860, at Moose Factory. 141. Fulica americana Gmel. American Coot. A specimen was shot on a lake near Nain several years ago. Several persons who saw the stuffed bird described this species beyond possibility of doubt. 142. Olor colitmbianus (Ord). Whistling Swan. An occasional straggler over the southern portions only of Labrador. The Eskimo of the western side and northern end of the region apply the name Koogzhook to this bird, and is exactly the same name as is given to it by the Eskimo of Norton Sound, Alaska. 143. Chen hyperborea nivalis (Forst.). Greater Snow Goose. Occasionally a straggler is seen in the western portions and along the western end of Hudson Strait. Eskimo from the eastern shore of Hudson Bay reported it to be very plentiful during the migration. Those people ap- ply the term Kangok to this species, and what is rare among the names of birds is, that the same term is ap- plied to this species by the Eskimo of Norton Sound, Alaska. f 144. Branta canadensis (Linn.). Canada Goose. Common throughout the territory. Breeds along Hudson Strait near the mouth of St. George's River, where eggs, young, and adults, were procured. Breeds plentifully on Anticosti, according to Verrill, P- 139- 145. Branta bernicla (Linn.). Brant. BIRDS. 433 Seen in spring only at Fort Chimo. Not known to breed in the region. Audubon, vol. vi., p. 205, states that it breeds from J^abrador northward. 146. Anas boschas (Linn.). Mallard. Rare at Fort Chimo. Common on eastern and more plentiful on southeast coast. Specimens obtained from Davis Inlet and at the mouth of the Koksoak River; known in Labrador as Mallard and Green Head. f 147. Anas obscura (Gm^\.^. Black Mallard. Not common in Hudson Strait. Doubtless breeds there, as a female obtained in July had the abdomen bare and no quills in the wings. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 246, found eggs and young Jul)r Verrill, p. 139, states that it breeds abundantly on An- ticosti. f 148. Ajtas strepera (Linn.). Gadwall. Not observed in Hudson Strait. Verrill, p. 139. states that few specimens were seen on Anticosti, and a half-grown young one was caught near the middle of July. 149. Anas americana (Gmel). Baldpate. Mr. John Ford assures me that the Widgeon is com- mon in Hamilton Inlet and on the southeast shore of Labrador. 150. Anas discors {LavlW?). Blue-winged Teal. Brewster, p. 389, records that fishermen report its oc- currence at Anticosti. \^\. Anas crecca {Lav^w^. English Teal. Coues, p. 238, obtained a male in Labrador, July 23, i860. 434 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 152. Anas carolinensis {Qfvc\€[.). Green-winged Teal. Fully-fledged young females were obtained at Fort Chimo late in July. Coues, p. 238, saw it in a collection at Rigolet. 153. Dajila acuta {L,\r\r\.). Pintail. A single (young of the year) female was taken at the mouth of the Koksoak River. An adult was procured at Davis Inlet. It is very doubtful that this species breeds in the Ungava district. 154. Aix sponsa (Linn.). Wood Duck ; Summer Duck. Stearns, p. 120, reports it not rare in the interior of Labrador. 155. Aythya ajueincana (Eyt.). Redhead. Stearns, p. 120, reports it as common, and saw an in- dividual, September 20, in Baie des Roches. 156. Glattcionetta islandica (Gmel.). Barrow's Golden-eye. Obtained specimens from Davis Inlet. Plentiful in the fall on the Labrador coast. 157. Glaucionetta clangula americana (Bp.). Ameri- can Golden-eye. Specimens were obtained from Ungava Bay, where it is abundant in fall, as it is also on the Labrador coast. 158. Histrionicus histrionic2ts (Linn.). Harlequin Duck. Abundant in Hudson Strait. Specimens from Un- o-ava Bay, where this duck certainly breeds. Plentiful on the eastern coast of Labrador. f 159. Clangula hyemalis (Linn.). Long-tailed Duck ; Old Squaw. Abundant in the proper season along the entire coast. * BIRDS. 435 Eggs, downy young, and adults were procured at Fort Chi mo. 1 60 Camptolaimus labradorius (Gmel.). Labrador Duck. Formerly abundant. Now supposed to be extinct. * f 161. Somateria mollissima borealis Brehm. Common Eider. Abundant in Hudson Strait. Eggs, young of the year, and adults procured in Ungava Bay, Plentiful on •eastern and southern coasts, '^' f 162. Somateria dresseri Sharpe. American Eider. Common on south shore of Labrador. * f 163. Somateria spectabilis (Linn.). King Eider. Abundant on Atlantic coast of Labrador, where it is Teported to breed. Nest and eggs were found by N. A. Comeau near Mingan {vide Canadian Naturalist and Sportsman, vol. i., No. 7, p. 51, July 15, 1881), Not known to enter Hudson Strait. 164. Oidemia americana Sw. & Rich. American Scoter. Obtained at the mouth of the Koksoak River. Abun- dant in Hudson Strait and eastern shore of Labrador, where it is reported to breed sparingly. f 165. Oidemia deglandi Bonap. American Velvet Scoter. Obtained from the eastern shore of Labrador. Com- mon along all the coast. The CE.fusca of Audubon, vol. vi., p. 333, doubtless refers to this species, and he reports it as common. I^esting and young able to swim from June i to July 28. f 166. Oidemia per spicillat a (Linn.). Surf Duck. 436 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Rare in Hudson Strait. Abundant on tlie eastern coast of Labrador, where it breeds sparingly. 167. Merganser americanus (Cass.). American Shel- drake. Stearns, p. 121, reports he has seen one individual of this species near Fort Island. This is probably the " Pie bird" that I heard of on the Labrador coast. * f 168. Merganser serrator (Linn.). Red-breasted Sheldrake. Abundant throughout the country. Breeds. Downy young, unfledged young, and adults were procured at Uneava and Davis Inlet. Known as " Shell bird" on the Labrador coast. 169. Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.). Hooded Shel- drake. Stearns, p. 121, records it as rather rare, but occa- sional in Southern Labrador. f 170. Phalacrocorax carbo (\ax\x\.^. Common Cor- morant. Not observed in Hudson Strait. Plentiful, and breed- insf alonpf the eastern and southern coasts. f 171. Phalacrocorax dilophus (Svv. & Rich.). Double-crested Cormorant. Plentiful, and breeding along the eastern and southern coasts. Not observed in Hudson Strait. f 172. Sttla bassana (Linn.). Gannet. Abundant and breeding on southeast and southern shores of Labrador. 173. Gavia alba {QfMWW^. Ivory Gull. Audubon, vol. vii., p. 150, records it from south shore of Labrador. Not known to enter Hudson Strait. * f 174. Rissa tridactyla (Linn.). Kittiwake Gull. BIRDS. 437 Breeds plentifully on the northern portions of the Atlantic coast of Labrador. Brewster, p. 398, found young on Anticosti. Occurs but rarely in Hudson Strait. One individual was seen over 100 miles up the Koksoak River, October 13, 1883. Verrill, p. 141, reports them breeding in immense numbers on the eastern and northern shores of Anticosti. f 175. Larus glaucus Briinn. Glaucous Gull; Bur- gomaster. Not rare in Hudson Strait. Not known to breed there. Breeds plentifully on the eastern and southern coasts of Labrador. 176. Lartis leucopterus Faber. White-winged Gull. Audubon, vol. vii., p. 159, states that few were seen in Labrador. f 177. Larus marinus Linn. Great Black-backed Gull. Not observed in Hudson Strait. Audubon, vol. vii., p. 174, reports, it common and breeding on Labrador coast. Coues, p. 244, obtained young, a few days old, at Sloop Harbor, June 4, i860. Brewster, p. 395, found young of few days old on Anticosti. Known as the " Saddler " or "Saddle-back" on the coast. f 1 78. Larus argentatus smithsonianus Coues. Amer- can Herring Gull. Excessively abundant in Hudson Strait, where eggs, young, and adults were obtained. Common on the Atlantic coast of Labrador. f 1 79, Larus delawarensis Ord. Ring-billed Gull. 438 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Coues, p. 246, obtained three young of the year at Henley Harbor, August 21, i860. 180. Lar Its Philadelphia (Ord.). Bonaparte's Gull. Coues, p. 247, saw immature birds. Stearns, p. 122, reports it to be abundant in fall on the southern coast. Not known to breed in any part of Labrador. 181. Xema sabinei {^dh?). Sabine's Gull. A single male was obtained in the middle of July,. 1884, near the mouth of George's River, flowing into the eastern side of Un^ava Bay. 182. Sterna tschegTava Lepch. Caspian Tern. An individual was obtained by James McKenzie at Moose Factory. f 183. Sterna hirundo Linn. Common Tern. Audubon, vol. vii., p. 100, reports it breeding in Lab- rador. f 184. Sterna paradise a Briinn. Arctic Tern. Breeds plentifully on islets in Ungava Bay ; young of the year and adults and eggs were procured there. Abundant on the other coasts of the country. Known as the " Rittick" at Ungava ; an Orkney Isle word. 185. Sterna antillaruni (Less.). Least Tern. Audubon, vol. vii., p. 119, reports it abundant and breeding on western (southern) shore of Labrador. 186. Megalestris skua {^xm\Xi^. Skua Gull. A single individual was seen near the vessel, sitting in the water off the north side of the Strait of Belle Isle^ June 22, 1882. 187. Stercorarius pomarinus (Temm.). Pomarine Jaeger. One was shot by Coues, p. 243. BIRDS. 439 1 88. Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.). Parasitic Jaeger. Coues, p. 243, records having seen this species in Lab- rador. Not known to enter Hudson Strait. 189. Stei'corarius longicaudits Vieill. Long- tailed Jaeger. A single individual was obtained in Ungava Bay in the early part of July. Several were seen. Brewster, p. 395, saw a single individual July 20, near Mingan Har- bor. f 190. Ful77ia7ms glacialis (Linn.). Fulmar Petrel. Not observed in Hudson Strait. Excessively abun- dant fiom Cape Chidley to Strait of Belle Isle. Thou- sands were seen in July near the former locality. 191. Piiffintis kuJilii (Boie). Cinereous Shearwater. Kumlein, p. 102, reports it common from Belle Isle to Grinnell Bay. [This species is regarded as doubtfully North Ameri- can. No American specimen is known to be extant.] 192. Puffi^ius major Faber. Greater Shearwater. Kumlein, p. 102,, reports it from Belle Isle to Resolu- ion Island. 193. Puffi7tiis stricklandi Ridgw. Sooty Shearwater. Coues, p. 243, states that he saw, on August 19, i860, few of this species with individuals of P. major. 194. Pi'-vcellaria pelagica Linn. Stormy Petrel; Mother Carey's Chicken. One obtained (middle of July, 1882) 20 miles up the Koksoak River. Another was seen 70 miles up that river, October 9, 1882. 195. Oceanites oceanicus (Kuhl.). Wilson's Petrel. 440 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Atlantic coast of Labrador ; observed mostly in spring and fall, then plentiful. 196. CyntochoT-ea Icucoi^rhoa (Vieill.). Leach's Petrel. Atlantic coast of Labrador ; observed mostly in spring and fall, then abundant. 197. Colymbtts auritus (Linn.). Horned Grebe. A singfle Grebe was seen in a tide cool at the mouth of the Koksoak River, September 15. 1882. I will not un- dertake to assert what species it was, as it appeared to be a bird of the year. Stearns, p. 132, reports Podiceps holbolli as " not rare in spring and fall. Occasionally breeds." The individual seen by me may have been of this species, * f 198. Uinnator imber (Gunn.). Loon. Occurs in Hudson Strait, east and south shores of Labrador. Specimens procured from Davis Inlet and Rigolet. 199. Urinator arcticus (Linn.). Black-throated Diver. Stearns, p. 122, records that two specimens were pro- cured off the Labrador coast by one of the French priests at Bersimis. One in 1880. f 200. Urinator lumme (Gunn.). Red-throated Diver. Very plentiful throughout the county. Eggs, downy young, and adults were procured at Ungava. Known in Labrador as " Waby." 201. Plait ties iinpennis (Linn.). Great Auk. Supposed to have formerly occurred on the Labrador coast. Undoubtedly extinct now. f 202. Alca tarda Linn. Razor-billed Auk. BIRDS. 441 Not observed in Hudson Strait. Abundant on east- ern and southern shores, where it breeds plentifully. f 203. Fratercula arctica (Linn.). Common Puffin. Plentiful on eastern and southern coast of Labrador, where it breeds. Not known to enter Hudson Strait. * f 204. Alle alle (Linn.). Sea Dove ; Dovekie. Common in Hudson Strait. Winter (December 19, 1882) specimen taken 100 miles up the Koksoak River. Occurs in myriads along the eastern shore of Labrador. Known as the " Bullbird." Breeds plentifully in certain localities not visited by me. ^ f 205. Cepphtts grylle (Linn.). Black Guillemot. Common in Hudson Strait, east and south shores of Labrador. Breeds wherever found in summer. * f 206. Cepphus mandtii (Licht.). Mandt's Guille- mot. Occurs in Hudson Strait occasionally only, according to my own observation. Plentiful on the eastern coast of Labrador. Specimens procured at Fort George by Drexler, July 17, 1861. Breeds wherever found in sum- mer. Known as " Pigeon" or " Sea Pigeon " on the eastern coast. ^ f 207. Uria troile (Linn.). Common Guillemot. Plentiful on eastern and southern coast of Labrador. Not observed in Hudson Strait. ■^ f 208. Uria lomvia (Briinn.), Briinnich's Guille- mot. Obtained only from Hudson Strait, where it breeds. Abundant on eastern and southern coasts. Besides these species the following was collected by Dr. Robert Bell, and recorded by him in the Report of the Canadian Geological Survey for 1882-83-84. ^42 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Procellaria tenuirostris Aud. Slender-billed Fulmar- Port Burvvell, 28tb- September. Mammals. Vesper tilio subulatus Say. Little Brown Bat. Natash- quan. (Stearns.) Lepus americanus Erxl. (Stearns.) Erethizon dorsahim (Linn.). Near Hopedale. Fiber zibet hicus Cuv. Henley Harbor. Castor canadensis Kuhl. Rapidly becoming extinct on the coast. Sciuropterus volucella (Pallas). Specimens found at St. Augustine. (Stearns.) Sciurus hndsoniiis Pallas. "Common in the woods, along the southern coast. (Stearns.) Arctomys monax (Linn.). ' " Common at Mingan^ growing scarce towards Bonne Esperance." (Stearns.) Zapus Jiudsonicus (Zimmermann). Not rare on the dry tops of many of the islands along the southern coast. (Stearns.) Hesperomys leucopus (Rafinesque). Not rare.. (Stearns.) Arvicola sp. (Stearns). Balcenopiera. The Fin-back is frequently seen upon the coast, Balcena mysticetus Linn. The Hump-backeJ Whale is commonly seen. This species shows its tail and the pale underside of the body when it "breaches"; the Fin-back does not show its tail. Physeter macrocephalus Linn. For many years the fishermen on the coast have noticed a school of nine MAMMALS. 44S> sperm whales passing up and down the coast. Latel}^ the number has been reduced to five, one of which, prob- ably, was seen off Domino Harbor, in a large school of •* Finners" and "Hump-backs." Sibbaldius borealis (Fischer). A Sulphur-bottom Whale was towed ashore at Old Fort Island in 1878 or 1879. (Stearns.) Monodon monoceros Linn. While the Narwhal is abundant, going in schools, in Hudson's Strait, it had not been seen at the Moravian settlements since at least 1830. Delphinapterus catodon (Linn.). The White Whale is not uncommonly seen passing in schools along the coast in the summer-time. Orca gladiator (Bonnaterre). The Killer, which was described to me as having the head much shorter and blunter, and with longer teeth than the Grampus, from which it is easily distinguished by its sharp, dorsal fin, five or six feet high, is commonly said, by the fishermen, to attack the Right and Finback Whales, " gouging out lumps of flesh." At Belles Amours, an individual was captured, from whose stomach five shoulders of the seal were taken. Globicephalus intei^medius (Harlan). The Black-fish, or Grampus, abounds on the whole coast. Grampus griseus (Cuvier). The Grampus occurs, along the coast as far as Belle Isle, and perhaps farther. (Stearns.) Odobcenus rosmarus (Malm.). Atlantic Walrus. Phoca vitulina Linn. Harbor Seal. Ascends the rivers into fresh water. 444 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Phoca foetida Fabr. In harbors in spring and autumn. (Stearns.) Of the Phoca hispida Erxl, no information could be ol)tained. Pagophilus groenlandicus Gray. (Phoca groenlandica auct.) This species is most abundant and extensively hunted by the sealers. The young soon after birth weigh 70-80 pounds, while the adult weighs 140-150 pounds. (Common in migrations all along the shores south of Belle Isle.) Erignat Jilts barbatus Gill. (Phoca barbata Fabr.). It is probably the species which is called by the sealers the " Square Flipper." It is very rare, and much the largest species known. The young weigh 140-150 pounds, while the adult will weigh 500-600 pounds. Cystophora cristata Nilsson. The Hooded Seal is not uncommonly, during the spring, killed in considerable numbers by the sealers. The young " pelt" weighs 70-80 pounds, while the old male or "dog hood," weighs 400 pounds. Raiigifer caribou Baird. Lives in summer on the hill- tops away from the woods. Ovibos moschatus Blainville. As the Labrador Es- kimo have a distinct name for the musk-ox, it is natur- ally inferred that it may have formerly inhabited the northwestern part of the peninsula, as it once occurred on the opposite coast of Hudson's Bay as far south as Churchill River. Ursus inaritimus Linn. White bear. Ursus am.eruanus Pallas. The black bear is abundant on the southern coast, where it leaves its winter quarters in May, but above Hopedale is very rarely seen. MAMMALS, 445' Procyon lotor Storr. Raccoon. Square Island. Lutra canadensis Sabine. Common along the whole coast. Mephitis mephitica (Shaw). Rarely seen on the southern coast. (Stearns.) Gulo luscus (Linn.). Wolverine. Generally distrib- uted along the coast. (Stearns.) Putorius vison (Schreber). The Mink is common along the coast. Putorius vulgaris (Erxl.). This and the Ermine are common everywhere. Putorius erminea (Linn.). Mustela americana Turton. The American Sable or Marten is common. Mustela pennaiiti Erxl. The Fisher is occasionally seen in Southern Labrador. (Stearns.) Vulpes fulv2ts Linn. The Red Fox occurred com- monly at Stagg Bay, with the following species of the silver and black fox. The former is not uncommon, the black very rare. _ „ . •, Vulpes lagopus Linn. The " Blue Fox is exceed- ingly rare about the mouth of Hamilton Inlet. An old huliter told me he had seen but three of them within a period of forty years. Their fur is shorter, and the tail shorter and more bushy than the " Patch Fox." On a high isolated rock much frequented by sea-birds, I no- ticed a Patch Fox with a murre's ^gg in its mouth. It is very tame and unsuspicious on the outer islands, where it lives evidently by robbing the nests of sea-birds. ^ It is the common statement of the hunters that the different varieties of this species are found in the same litter. .446 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Canis lupus Linn. The Gray Wolf is said by Stearns to be very rare. Lynx canadensis (Desm.). Ttie Lynx is common in winter. (Stearns.) Appendix to Chapter XV. Zoology. By an unfortunate oversight the end of the list of in- sects was left out of its proper place. le pidoptera — concluded. Eurymus nastes (Boisd.) = Colias nastes of former list. I have not re-examined specimens, as they are ap- parently no longer extant. Pamphila comma (Linn.) = Hesperia comma of my former list. The single specimen obtained v^^as not ex- amined by me in my study of the species of Pamphila (Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, ii., 341), and is the only specimen I have seen of P. comma from America. It belongs to the var. catena Stand, found in northern Scandinavia and Lapland, and exactly resembles the specimen of that variety figured by me in the memoir j-eferred to above Moschler has already noted that it is this variety which occurs in Labrador. Hesperia centaurece Ramb. hymenoptera. Urocerus flavicornis Fabr. Common on Caribou Island. Urocerus cyaneus Fabr. Hopedale. Euura OT-bitalis Norton. Var. a. b. Caribou Island. Nemattis Labradoris Norton. Caribou Island. Nematus malacus Norton. Caribou Island. Neniatus fallax Norton. Caribou Island. JVematus monela Norton. Caribou Island. JSlematus fulvipes Norton. Caribou Island. INSECTS. 447 Ne^nattts placentus Norton. Caribou Island. Aliantus ortgi7talis Norton. Caribou Island. Macrophya {Pachy protasis) omega Norton. Caribou Island. Tenthredo mellinus Norton. Caribou Island. Tenthredo cinctitibiis Norton. Caribou Island. Formica herculanea Linn. Whole coast. Formica san (guinea Latr. Strait of Belle Isle. Vespa macidata Linn. Southern coast, Mecatina ■Island. Vespa norvegica Fabr. Caribou Island. Bombus lacustris Cresson. Whole northern coast ; common. Bombus kir by elites Curtis. Sloop Harbor and Hope- dale. BombiLs frigidus Smith. Square Island and Hope- dale. Bombus 7tivalis Dahlb. Caribou Island and whole coast northward. ^Ichneumon la^'ice Curtis. Ross' Voyage. Fig. i. Okkak. "This species labelled /. erythrosomus by Holmgren seems to me to be the same as /. larics of Curtis, only differing in the color from our specimens from Green- land." (C. Aurivillius in letter.) Ichnetcmon nigrorufus. Fide Holmgren. Caribou Island. Ichneumon Packardii Holmgren MS. Hopedale. Cryptus Fabricii Schiocdte. Tub Island. Campoplex arcticus Curtis ? Caribou Island. *The Ichneumonidae were partially named by the late Mr. A. E. Holmgren ■of Sweden, the work having been interrupted by his death. Besides these about .twenty other species were collected, with two or three species of Chalcididae. CHAPTER XVI. THE BOTAN!^ OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Very little herbalizing has been done on the shores of this region and none at all in the interior. The earliest paper devoted especially to Labrador botany appears to be E. Meyer's De plantes labradoricis published at Leipzig in. 1830. The late Rev. Samuel Weiz, for many years missionary at Hopedale, kindly allowed us while at that station in 1864 to make a copy of his list of northern Labrador plants. As regards the botany of the St. Lawrence or Gulf Coast of Labrador we know more. The Rev. S. R. Butler, a missionary and succes- sor of the Rev. C. C. Carpenter at Caribou Island, near the mouth of Eskimo River, botanized several seasons on Caribou Island, at Forteau Bay and L'Ance Amour, and the results are given in his excellent list entitled "Labrador Plantes," published in the Canadian Natural- ist.'"' This list was added to by Mr. W. A. Stearns,f who collected at Harrington Harbor, Bale des Roches, Bonne Esp(Srence and Salmon Bay and at a point seven miles up the Eskimo River. Miss MacFarlane also afforded Mr. Butler " much valuable material." Reference may also be made to Sir John Richardson's list of plants col- *Vol. V. 1870. September No. f Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vi. No. 8. Aug. i. 1883. 448 NORTHERN LIMITS OF TREES. 449 lected on the Island of Anticosti and coast of Labrador in i860. While the plants of the Gulf coast are a mix- ture of arctic, subarctic and Alpine floras with that of the northern Canadian shores of the St. Lawrence River, those of northern Labrador are naturally more purely arctic. • The extreme northern point touched by an observer of plant life in Fort Chimo. In the introduction to his list of birds of Labrador * Mr. Turner thus refers to the vegetation :—" The limit of tiQes ceases only lo miles north of Fort Chimo. The principal trees are species of Abies, Larix, Betula, Populus, Alnus, Salix, and Juniperus. The moie common flowering plants are Anemone, Ranunculus, Draba, Viola, Arenaria, Stellaria, Lathyrus, Potentilla, Rubus, Ribes, Saxifraga, Epilo- bium, Heracleum, Taraxacum, Vaccinium, Kalmia, Rhododendron, Ledum, Pinguicula, Gentiana, Empe- trum, Habenaria, Iris, and Smilacina. Of sedo-es and grasses, J uncus, Scirpus, Eriophorum,'Carex, Poa, Ely- mus, and Aira are the more common." Dr. Robert Bell collected plants on the northern coasts, which were identified by Prof. Macoun, and are embraced in the list given beyond. Dr. Kochf thus writes regarding the forests and vege- tation at Nain, a point not far from the northern limit of trees : " The northernmost valleys in which firs grow open into Napartok Bay. North of Napartok Bay { (Napartok means fir) [more properly spruce] are found only dwarf willows and birches ; mosses and lichens form *Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. viii. Nos. 15, 16, 1885. f Deutsche Geographische Blatter, Bremen, 1884. if Napartok Bay is just south of the 58th parallel of latitude. 450 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. the principal covering of the ground. In the south, near the coast, the forests have been partly destroyed by reckless cutting, and the devastated character of the region about Hopedale is due in great part to the destruction of the forests on the valley sides by the Eskimo. As everything naturally grows slo\'\^y on ac- count of the short summer, the trunks of the firs are subjected to great tension, so that those which have lost their bark seem twisted like corkscrews. Hand in hand with this goes on a rapid new growth of the thickness of the trunk towards the top ; both causes render the wood useless for timber. On account of the short spring this country, like other arctic regions, has a flora numer- ically rich in individuals but poor in species, and it reminds one of the alps and the mountains of Norway. Of the plants, besides bilberries and cranberries, only a kind of cochlearia and cloudberry (in Eskimo Akbik) are useful, the latter being used by the Eskimo in attacks of scurvy, hence for that reason it is much valued and gathered. In consequence of this many places are named for it, for example Akbikse, Akbiktok, vis. places where Akbik grows. " Moreover the missionaries raise potatoes and cab- bages, but not only is the seed sown with much trouble —for the garden must be dug out of the snow in spring — but also during the summer they must be covered every night with mats on account of the nightly frosts." Of the mosses of Labrador what is known is probably comprised in a paper entitled Moosvegetation and Moos- beaude in Labrador, PLANTS. 451 CATALOGUE OF THE PLANTS REPORTED BY VARIOUS TRAVELLERS AND OTHERS AS GROWING ON THE COAST OF LABRADOR. Compiled by John Macoun, Naturalist of the De- partment OF Interior, Ottawa, Canada. ranunculace^. 7. Anemone parviflora Michx. Coast of Labrador (Torn and Gray, p. 12) ; common on the highlands of Forteau (W. E. Stearns) ; Hopedale (VVeiz). 20. Thalictrimt dioicum Linn, On Caribou Island {S. R. Butler) ; common on highlands along the mar- gins of streams, and in the interior at Forteau (W. E. Stearns). 22. Thalictmim Cormiti Linn. Coast of Labrador at Forteau (McGill Coll. Herb). 34. Ranunculus affinis R. Br. Hopedale (Weiz). 40. Ranunczdus pygmcBtcs Wahl. Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 44. Ranunculus nivalis Linn. From Labrador and Spitzbergen (Torr. and Gray, pasfe 21); Hopedale (Weiz). 54. Calthapalustris Linn. Strait of Belle Isle (J. Rich- ardson) ; Hopedale (Weiz). See R. Americanus (J. M.). 57. Coptis trifolia Salisb. Labrador and north to lat. 58° (Hooker); on hills, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 452 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. NYMPH^ACE.'E. 95. Nuphar advena Ait. Ponds, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). SARRACENIACE.^. 100. Sarracenia purpurea Linn. Not infrequent in bogs. (Hooker). PAPAVERACE^. 102. Papaver nudicaule Linn. Hopedale Islands,. Weiz. CRUCIFER^. Cardamine pratensis Linn. Wet, swampy meadows (Brunot) ; Hopedale (Weiz). See C. Cellidifolia. 143. Arabis alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador (Col- master) ; Forteau Bay, by the seashore (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 144. Arabis stricta Huds. Coast of Labrador (Col- master vide Pursh). This is very likely Arabis confinis, Watson. Hopedale Island (Weiz). 169. Draba alpina var. (?) corymbosa, Durand. Coast of Labrador (Abbe Brunot). 170. Draba stellata var. nivalis, Regd. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster vide Hooker). 175. Draba incana Linn. D. contorta Ehrh.; Weiz' List. D. glabella Richardson ; Weiz, List. Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz). Var. conftisa Poir. Nachvak, coast of Labrador (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 176. Draba arabisans Michx. Hopedale (Weiz). 177. Draba aurea Vahl. Hopedale (Weiz). PLANTS. 453 182. Cochlearia officinalis Linn. Coast of Labrador (Abbe Brunot); Hopedale (Weiz). 185. Cochlearia tridactylites Banks. Coast of Labra- dor (Sir Joseph Banks); Cape Charles (Abbe Brunot) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Seashore, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 197. Capsella bursa-pastoris Moench. Introduced. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). VIOLACE^. 240. Viola canina van sylveslris, Regel. V. Muhlen- bergii ? Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Isl- and (S, R. Butler). 229. Viola blanda Willd. Hopedale (Weiz). CARYOPHYLLACE^. 263, Silene acatdis Linn, Caribou Island (S. R. But- ler); Hopedale (Weiz). 264. Lychnis apetala Linn. Coast of Labrador (Judge Morrison). 266. Lychnis alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador (Judge Morrison); Ungava Bay (Barnston) ; Nach- vak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 281. Arenaria verna Linn. A. juniperina Pursh ; Weiz' List; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler); Cape Charles and Amour Bay (Abbe Brunot) ; Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 287. Arenaria Grcenlandica Spreng. Nain and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; summits of low hills at Baie des Roches, abundant (W. E. Stearns); Caribou Island (Butler). 454 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 288. Arenaria serpyllifolia Linn. Coast of Labra- dor. Introduced. (Abb6 Brunot.) 291. Arenaria peploides Linn. Honkenya peploides Ehrh.; Butler's List; Coast of Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 295. Stellaria borealis Bigel. Hopedale (Weiz). 298. Stellaria crassifolia Ehrh. Arenaria norvegica ? Weiz' List. Rather common in damp localities along the coast (W. E. Steams); Hopedale, Weiz. 300. Stellaria longipes Goldie. Var. minor, Hook.. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain (R. Bell). Var. Edwardsii Torr. and Or. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Miss Macfarline) Caribou Island ? (Butler.) 305. Stellaria humifusa Rottb. Arenaria Purshiana^ Seringe ; Weiz' List ; Nain, along the coast (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; seashore of Labrador (Pursh) ; Sea- beach, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 311. Cerastium alpinum Linn. Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Nain (R. Bell). Var. glabratum Hook. Hopedale (W^eiz) ; Nach> vak (R. Bell). 318. Sagina nodosa E. Meyer. Mingan Islands and Labrador Coast. (St. Cyr) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 321, Spergularia salina Presl. Brackish sands along the coast (Abbe Brunot). PORTULACACE^. ' 340. Montia fontana Linn. Coast of Labrador (Gmelin.) PLANTS. 455 LEGUMINOSE^. 499. AstragaliLS alpiniis Linn. A. Labradoricus. Hook.; Weiz' List. Caribou Island or Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell). 525. Oxytropis podocarpa Gray. Labrador and the Arctic regions, (Dr. Gray). 527. Oxytropis campestris L. Var. cserulea, Koch. Coast of Labrador, (Abbe Brunot) ; Ford's Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hill-sides near Forteau Light- house, (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 533. Hedysaruni boreale Woit. Hopedale (Weiz); Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler). 556. Lathyrzis maritiinus Bigel. Pisum maritimum, Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler.) 559. Lathyrus paluster Linn. Caribou Island and Forteau Bay, (S, R. Butler.) ROSACE.^. 571. Prunus Penitsylvanica Linn. Cerasus ?' Butler's List. Caribou Island. (S. R. Butler.) 588. Rubiis Chci'-MCBinorus Linn. Ford's Harbor (R, Bell) ; Straits of Belle Isle (St. Cyr.) ; Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 589. Rubus arcticus Linn. Peat bogs, coast of Lab- rador (Abbe Brunot) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Is- land (S. R. Butler). Var. grandiflorus Ledeb. Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Nain and Nachvak (R Bell). 592. Rubus triflorus, Rich. Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler). 45^ THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 605. Diyas octopetala\J\\vc\. D. tenella, Pursh ; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nachvak and Cape Chudley (R. Bell) ; Hill tops, Point Amour (S. R. Butler). 612. Geum rivale Linn. In springy places along the coast (W. E, Stearns). 613. Geum triflorum Pursh. Dry rocky ground (Judge Morrison). 618. Sibbaldia proczi'mbens\J\xi\\. Coast of Labrador (M'GiU Coll. Herb.); Hopedale (Weiz). 625. Potentilla Norvegica Linn. Forteau Bay and Caribou Island (S R. Butler) ; Nain (R. Bell). 637. Potentilla nivea Linn. Hopedale (Weiz). 641. Potentilla maculata Poir. P. Salisbmyensis Haenke ; Weiz' List. P. aurca Oeder; Weiz' List. P. crocea Haller ; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell); on hills at Amour (S R. Butler). 643. Potentilla emarginata Pursh. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster). 645. Potentilla palustris Scop, Comarum palustris Linn. ; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island. (S. R. Butler). 647. Potentilla fruticosa Linn. Coast of Labrador (Hooker). 648. Potentilla tridentata Solander. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 649. Potentilla Anserina Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 653. Alchemilla vulgaris Linn. South coast of Lab- rador near Amour (S. E. Butler); collected m several PLANTS. 457 localities along the coast (VV. E. Stearns); Hopedale (VVeiz). 656. Poteriimt Canadense Benth. & Hook. Sangui- .sorbii Canadensis, Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz); •common on dry sloping flats along the coast (VV. E. Stearns); Caribou Island (Butler). 674. Pirns Americana DC. Var. microcarpa, Torn ^ Gr. Caribou Island, (S. R. Butler). Not rare on the coast (W. E. Stearns); Hopedale (Weiz). 685. Avielanchier Canadensis Var. (?) oligocarpa, T. •& Gr. South coast of Labrador at Amourand Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). SAXIFRAGACE.^. 686. Saxifraga oppositifolia Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; -on rocks at Amour (S. R. Butler). 688. Saxifraga Aizoo7i Jacq. Coast of Labrador (Judge Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 690. Saxifraga ccsspitosa Linn. Var. Groenlandica, Wahl ; S, Groenlandica, Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Forteau Bay (S, R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 693. Saxifraga rivularis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador, (M'Gill Coll. Herb.) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). . 695. Saxifraga cernua Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Pursh). 698. Saxifraga nivalis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Cari- bou Island, (S. R. Butler). 702. Saxifraga hieracifolia Waldst. and Kit. Hope- dale (Weiz). 458 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 713. Saxifraga tricuspidata Retz. Coast of Labra- dor (McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 714. Saxifraga aizoides Linn. Southeast coast of Labrador (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (VVeiz) ; Nach- vak (R. Bell). 724. Mitella mida Linn. Cool damp places (Hooker). ']'i,']' Parnassia palustris Linn. Hopedale (VVeiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Hooker). 740. Parnassia Kotzebuei Cham, and Schlecht. Hope- dale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (M'Gill Coll. Herb.). 753. Ribes prostratiimYJW^x. R. glandulosum, Ait.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). CRASSULACEiE. 769. Sedum Rhodiola DC. Nain, Nachvak, and Ford's- Harbor (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). DROSERACE^. 771. Drosera rotundifolia Linn. Coast of Labrador (Hooker); Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). HALORAGE^. 781. Hippurus vulgaris Linn. Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). ONAGRACE/E. 786. Epilobium angtistifolittm Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Caribou Island, (S. R. Butler) ; Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell). 787. Epilobium latifolium Linn. Hopedale (Weiz); PLANTS. 459' Amour Bay, on the south coast, and Caribou Island (S, R. Butler). 789. Epilobium alpimim Linn. E. nutans, Lehm.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; South coast of Labra- dor (Abbe Brunot). 794. Epilobium palustre Linn. Var. lineare, Gray. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Judge Morri- son). UMBELLIFER^. 871. Archangelica atropurpurea Hoffm. Angelica Archangelica, Schrank ; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; On the south coast at Amour Bay and Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 872. Ai^changelica GmeliniTiO. Coast of Labrador, (McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Strait of Belle Isle (St. Cyr). . 864. Ligustictim Scoticuin Umn. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 883. Heracleum lanatum Michx. -Caribou Island, (S. R. Butler) ; Coast of Labrador (Hooker). CORNACE^. 885. Cornus Canadensis Linn. Caribou Island, and Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler) ; Nain (R. Bell) ; Hope- dale (Weiz), 896. Cornus Suecica Linn. Coast of Labrador (Abbe Brunot) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). CAPRIFOLIACEiE. 916. Viburnum pauciflortim Pylaie. Caribou Island. (S. R. Butler). 453 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 919. Linncsa borealis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Cari bou Island (S. R. Butler). 929. Lonicera ccerulea Linn. In bogs, frequent (Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). RUBIACE^. 941. Galium trzjidum Linn. (^G. Claytord Hook. ; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). COMPOSITE. 984. Solidago macrophylla Pursh. {S. thyrsoidea E. Meyer; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Is- land (S. R. Butler) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 986. Solidago Virgaured, van alpina Bigel. Hope- dale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell). 987. Solidago multiradiata Ait. Along the coast of Labrador (Judge Morrison). 1019. Aster Radula Ait., var. stricttts Gray. Cari- bou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Pursh). 1079. Erigero7i unifloi'-us Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 1092. Erigeron acris Linn. Coast of Labrador (Torr. and Gray); Hopedale (Weiz). 1098. Antennaria dioica Gaertn. Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 1099. Antennaria alpina Gsertn. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster); Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1 1 00. Antennaria Carpathica R. Br. Coast of La- A)rador (Dr. Gray). PLANTS. 461 1 106. Gnaphalium NorvegicuinQf\xxix\QX. {G. sylvati- ctim Linn.; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Torn and Gray). 1 1 10. Giiaphalium S2ipiu7i,in Vill. (6^. pusilluin Hgenke ; Weiz' List.) Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morri- son) ; Hopedale (Weiz). W] 2,' Achillea Millefolium Linn., var. nigrescens E. Meyer. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain (R. Bell) ; Cari- bou Island (S. R. Butler). 1 193. Artemisia borealis Pall, var. spithanioea Torr. and Gray. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 1 2 14. Petasites palmata Gray. Swamps, Labrador coast (Hooker) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 1 122. A.rnica alpina Murr. Coast of Labrador (Torr. and Gray) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz) ; Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 1242. Senecio Pseudo-Ar7ticah,QSS. Hopedale Islands (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Hooker).- 1244. Se7tecio frigidtcs 'LiGss. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Gray). 1237. Senecio aureus Linn., var. borealis, Torr. and Gray. Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 1286. Hieracium vulgatum Fries. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 1308. Taraxictim officinale Weber, var. alpimun, Koch. Not uncommon along the coast of Labrador (W. E. Stearns) ; rocky soil, Nachvak and Nain (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). ^62 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. CAMPANULACE^. 1 341. Campanula miifior a \Ax\x\.. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 1 344. Ca^npanula rohmdifolia L., var. a^'ctica Lange. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Middle Bay, Belles Amours, and L'Anse Amour (S. R. Butler) , common at Forteau Bay (W. E. Stearns). ERICACE^. 1352. Vaccinmm Pennsylvanicum, var. angustifolium Gray. Nain (Lundberg) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (Martin, S. R. Butler). 1356. Vaccinhcm tdiginosu7n Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; common on the coast at Nain, Ford's Harbor, and Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. But- ler). 1358. Vaccinium ccBspitostmi Michx. Hopedale (Weiz) ; on hill-sides at Belles Amours and on Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1364. Vaccinium Vitis-Idcsa Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1365. Vaccinium Oxy coccus \Axiw. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Islands (S. R. Butler). 1366. Vaccinium, macrocarpon Ait. By lakelets along the coast. (Abbe Brunot). 1367. Chiogenes hispidula Torn and Gray. On moss, along the coast (Hooker). 1369. Arciosiapkylos alpina S^irQng. {Arbutus alpina Linn.; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 1383. Andromeda polifolia Linn. Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). PLANTS. 1376. Cassandra calyculata Don. Borders of lakelets and swamps along the coast (Hooker); Square Island Harbor (B. P. Mann). 1378. Cassiope hypnoides Don. Andromeda hyp- noides Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain and Cape Chidley (R. Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison). 1 38 1. Cassiope tetragona T>on. Andromeda tetragona Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Lab- rador (Colmaster) ; abundant along the coast at Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1389. Bryantkus taxifolius Gidij . Andromeda cceru- lea Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Nain, Nachvak, and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 1393. Kalmiaangusti/oliaUiwn. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison). 1394. Kalmia glauca Ait. Hopedale (Weiz); Cari- bou Island (S. R. Butler) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison). 1395. Ledum palustre Uiwn. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell). 1396. Ledum latifolzum Ait. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1386. Loiseleurta procumbensT)e^SY. Azalea procum- bens Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 1402. Rhododendron Rhodora Don. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1405. Rhododendron Lapponicum Wahl. {Azalea 464 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. Lapponica, Weiz' List.) Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morri- son) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; on a hill-top at Belles Amours (S. R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 1409. Pyrola minor Linn. Cold woods, Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 14 10. Pyrola secunda, var. pitmila Gray. Cool boggy ground, Labrador (Storer) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 141 1. Pyrola chlorantha Swartz. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison). 1 41 3. Pyrola rotundifolia L., var. ptimila Hook. Hopedale (Weiz) ; quite common along the northern coast (R. Bell). 141 6. Aloneses tcnijlora Gray. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). DIAPENSIACE/E. 1424. Diapensia prommbens Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; common on hill-tops, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Nain and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). PLUMBAGINACEvE. 1426. Armeria vulgaris Willd. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain and Nach- vak (R. Bell). PRIMULACE^. 1427. Primula fariitosa Linn. Hopedale Islands (Weiz) ; Caribou Island and L'Anse Amour (S. R. Butler). 1428. Primula Mistassinica Michx. Bonne Esp^r- ance and neighboring islands, and at Forteau (S. R.. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). PLANTS. 465 2192. Primula Egaliksensis Hornem. Northern Labrador (Turner). 1 2 13. Trzentalts Americana Pursh.. Coast of Labra- dor (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). GENTIANACE.E. 1480. Gentiana Amarella L., var. acuta Hook. Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 1482. Gentiana propinqua Richards. On hillsides at Amour and lowlands at Bonne Esperance (W. A.. Stearns) ; more likely the preceding species (Macoun). 2194. Gentiana nivalis \J\wxi. Labrador, collected by Moravian missionaries (Gray) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 1500. Plenrogyne rotata Griseb. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Gray) ; on the flats at Caribou, and shores of Esquimaux River, and at Bonne Esperance (S. R. Butler). 1 50 1. Pletirogyne Carinthiaca Griseb., var. pusilla Gray. Coast of Labrador (Pursh). 1504. Halenia dejlexa Griseb. Forteau Bay (Miss Brodie) ; on the hillsides at L'Anse Amour and the low- lands at Bonne Esperance (W. E. Stearns) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1506. Menyantkes trifoliata'LmYi. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). BORRAGINACE.E. 1570. Mertensia maritima Don. Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 466 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. SCROPHULARIACE^. 1674. Veronica alpina Linn. Nain (Lundberg; Hopedale (Weiz). 1689. Castilleia pallida Kunth, var. septentrionalis Gray. (^Barlsia pallida 'Lmn.; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell). 1696. EtLphrasia officinalis \J\x\xi. Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). Var. Tatarica Benth. Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1697. Bartsia alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Ungava Bay (McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Nach- vak (R. Bell). 1 702. Pedictua7'is Grcenlandica Retz. Coast of Lab- rador (Dr. Morrison) ; Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 1704. Pedictdaris Lapponica Linn. Coast of Labra- dor (Colmaster) ; Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 1 706. Pedicularis euphrasioides Stephan. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 1 714. Pedicularis hirsuta Linn. Ford's Harbor and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 1 715. Pedicularis Jlamntea U[wn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Ford's Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell). 1 7 18. R hinanthus Cristagalli lAnn. Common along the whole Labrador coast (W. E. Stearns) ; Caribou Isl- and (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). PLANTS. 467 LENTIBULARIACEiE. 1737. Pinguicula vulgaris Linn. Ungava Bay (Mrs. Lizzie Crawford) ; L'Anse Amour Bay (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 1738. Pinguicula villosa Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Gray) ; Hopedale (Weiz). ' 1739. Pinguicula alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador (Steinhauer). PLANTAGINACE^. 1808. Plantago maritima Linn. Crevices of rocks, coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). POLYGONACE.^. 1869. Polygonu7n aviculare\Jvi\w. Hopedale (Weiz). 1892. Polygonum vivipartim\J\wxi. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 1902. Oxyria digyna Campdera {^Rumex digyna Pursh.; Weiz' List). Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Lab- rador (Dr. Morrison) ; Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R. Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1904. Rumex occidentalis Watson. Coast of Labra- dor (Storer) ; Bonne Esperance (J. A. Allen). 1867. Koenigia Islandica Linn. Hopedale (Weiz). SANTALACE^. 1930. Comandra livida Rich. Coast ' of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). BETULACE^. 1977. Betula papyrifera Michx. Coast of Labra- dor (Prof Sargent). 468 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 1979. Be tula pumila Linn. Coast of Labrador (Hooker). 198 1. Betitla glaizdulosayi'ichx. Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 1982. Be tula nana Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison). ^ 1986. Almis viridis DC. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). SALICACEyE. 2004. Salix adenophylla Hook. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison and Bebb). 2007. Salix arctica R. Br. Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison); Nachvak and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 2008. Salix argyrocarpa Anders. Ungava Bay (G» Barnston) ; Forteau Bay and Carrall Cove (Allen). 2010. Salix balsamif era VidiXX?iXX.. Chateau and Square Island (Allen). 2012, Salix Candida Willd. Forteau Bay (Allen). 2013. Salix chloT-ophylla Anders. Nain and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 2021. Salix glauca Linn. Damp places at Nachvak and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 2022. Salix herbacea Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr.. Morrison) ; Nain and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 2042. Salix reticulata Linn. Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R. Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison). 2050. Salix vestita Pursh. Coast of Labrador (Col- master) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 2051. Salix Uva-ursi Pursh. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Dead Islands (Allen). 2053. Populus tremuloides Michx. On dry slopes in the interior (Hooker). PLANTS. 4^9 EMPETRACE^. 2059. Empetrum nigrum Linn. (Curlew-berry). Ford's Harbor (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). CONIFERS. 2068. Juniperus communus, var. alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador (Hooker). 2082. Picea nigra Link. Not uncommon (Hooker). 2083. Picea alba Link. Not uncommon (Hooker). 2094. Larix Americana Michx. Swampy soil (Hooker). ORCHIDACE^. 22 21. Lister a cor data R. Br. Coast of Labrador (Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 2243. Habenaria hyperborea R. Br. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 2248. Habenaria obtusata Rich. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 2246. Habenaria dilatata Gray. Hopedale Islands (Weiz). IRIDACE^. 2270. Iris Hookeri Penny. (/. sibirica Weiz' List.) Hopedale Island (Weiz). LILIACE^. 2287. Streptopus amplexifolius Dc. Caribou Island (S R. Butler). 2288. Streptopus roseus Michx. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 2289. Smilicina stellata Desf. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 470 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 2293. Smilicina trifolia Desf. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 2294. Mazanthemum Canadense Desf. Caribou Isl- and (S. R. Butler). 2329. Tofieldia borealis Wahl. Ford's Harbor (R. Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 2341. Clintonia borealis Raf. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). JUNCACE^. 2367. y uncus triglumis Linn. Ungava Bay (G. Barn- ston). 2369. Juncus castaneiis Smith. Ungava Bay (G. Barnston). 2389. Luzula spadicea, van parviflora Meyer. Nain. and Nachvak (R. Bell). 2394. Luzula spicata Desv. Ungava Bay (G. Barn- ston) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 2396. Luzula arcttata Meyer. Ungava Bay (G. Barnston) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). TYPHACE^. 2./!ip\. Sparganium simplex Huds. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 2403. Sparganium hyperboreum Laest., var. Ameri- canum Beeby. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). NAIADACE^. 2424. Triglochin palustre Linn. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). PLANTS. 471 2425. Triglochin maritimtim Linn. Coast of Lab- rador (Dr. Morrison). CYPERACE.-E. 2489. Eriophorum vaginatum Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Bonne Esper- ance (Allen) ; Dumpling Harbor (Mann). 2490. Eriophorum russeoluni Fries. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler, Martin) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Forteau (Allen) ; Nain (Lundberg). 2491. Eripphortim polys tacky on, var. angustifolium Gray. Hopedale (Weiz). Eriophorum Scheuchzeri Hoppe. Coast of Labra- dor (Martin) ; Nain (Lundberg). 2476. Scirpus ccEspitosiLs Linn. Hopedale (Weiz). 2556. Carex canescens Linn. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 2564. Carex lagopina Wahl. Maritime rocks, Labra- dor (Allen). 2566. Carex pratensis Drejer. Middle Bay, Labra- dor (Allen). 2598. Carex vulgaris, var, hyperborea Boott. Nairt and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 2604. Carex lenticular is Michx. Coast of Labrador, Lat. 51° 30' (Allen). 2608. Carex salinaV^2\)\. Coast of Labrador( Bailey). 2609. Carex ambusta Booth. Ungava Bay, North Labrador (Bailey). 2617. Carex Mage llanica Lamarck. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 2618. Carex rariflora Smith. Coast of Labrador (Miss Brodie and Allen). 472' THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 2627. Carex vaginata Tausch. Northern Labrador (Turner). 2672. Carex oligosperma Michx. Swamps on the coast of Labrador (Allen). 2674. Carex miliaris Michx. Ungava Bay (Turner). 2678. Carex rotundata Wahl. Ungava Bay (Turner). GRAMINE.^. 2726. Hierochloa alpina Roem. and Schultes. Ford's Harbor (R. Bell) ; Ungava Bay (G. Barnston). 2807. Deschampsia alba^o^vci.-diwA'^Q)a\x\\.^'s,. Ungava Bay (G. Barnston) ; Nain (R. Bell). 2812. Trisetum subspicatum, var. inolle Gray. Nain (R. Bell). 2848. Poa alpina Linn.. Nain and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 2854. Poa cenisia All. Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 2905. Feshica ovina, var. brevi folia Watson. Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 2949. Elyinus mollis Trin. Nain and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). EQUISETACE.^. EquisetMm sylvaticum Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). Equisetum arvense Linn. . Hopedale (Weiz). FILICES. Botrychium Limaria Swartz. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). Cystopteris fragilis Bernh. Nain (R. Bell). PLANTS. 473 PolypodiMjn Dryopteris Linn. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). LYCOPODIACE^. Lycopodium Selago Linn. Nain and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). , Lycopodium lucidulum Michx. Caribou Island (S. R Butler). APPENDIX. The following notes and corrections to this chapter have been made by Mr. Sereno Watson, who kindly read the proof in the absence of Prof. Macoun. Proof of pp. 448-459 was read after the pages had been printed. Mr. Watson writes me that the earliest paper on the Labrador flora was one by Schrank in the first volume of the Regensburg " Flora" (18 18), on some plants sent to Schreber by the Danish missionary Kohlmeister*. It was not completed, however. Meyer's list includes J98 species. P. 448, line 5, for plantes read plantis. P. 448, line 14, for Ance read Anse. P. 451, line 15, for cornitti, Linn. x^diA polyganum, Muhl. P. 451, line 23, dele See R. America7itcs (J. M.). P. 452, line 20, for Draba alpina Van (?) corymbosa, Durand, read Draba Fladnitzensis, Wulf. P. 452, line 21, add Dead Islands (J. A. Allen). P. 452, line 24, after Labrador (Pursh), add from the next line, Nachvak, coast of Labrador (R. Bell). * Spelt Colmaster in the foregoing list. 474 'I'HE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. P. 452, line 25, dele Var. confusa Pair. P. 452, line 26, dele Hopedale (Weiz). P. 452, line 27, for Draba read Var.; and for Michx^ read Watson. P. 453, line 10, dele sylvestris Regd. V. P. 453, line II, for Weiz' List read Gray. P. 454, line 27, for Spergularia salina Presb. read Buda borealis Watson. P. 454, line 28, add Bonne Esp^rance (J. A. Allen). P. 455, lines 5, 6, for and the arctic regions (Dr.) read Schweinitz in Herb. Gray. P. 455, line 10, add Ungava Bay (L. M. Turner);. Square Island (J. A. Allen). P. 455, line II, for Mott read Nutt. P. 455, line 13, for maritiniMm read maritimus, and dele Pisum maritimuin Linn. Weiz' List. P. 455, line 20, after Caribou Island insert (S. R. Butler). P. 457, line 10, dele Canadensis Var. (?) ; and for I & Gr. read Roem. P. 457, line 30, for Hit. read Kit. P. 459, line 6, dt\e palustre Linn. Var,; and for Gray' read Muhl. P. 459, line 10, for Hoffm. read Linn. P. 459, line 14, for Archangelica read Coelopleurum\. and for Db. read Lecheb. CHAPTER XVII. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES RELATING TO THE GEOGRAPHY AND CIVIL AND NATURAL HISTORY OF LABRADOR. This list is merely a tentative one, and will doubtless be found quite imperfect, especially in titles relating to early discovery, and early maps and charts. The au- thor is indebted for certain titles, also for advice, to Dr. Franz Boas, who has kindly lent him Chavanne's " The Literature on the Polar Regions of the Earth," from which a number of titles have been copied. Acknowl- edgment of aid should also be made to Mr. W. F. Ganong for titles of the North American Pilot. The titles of the works of Ramusio, Eden, Gilbert, Frobisher, and Hakluyt have not been included. A. Explorations, Geography, and History. Anon. A brief account established among the Esqui- maux, on the coast of Labrador. London, 1774, 8vo. The Grand Falls of Labrador. (Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine, Feb. 1891, vol. i. No. 2; pp. 117-119.) Ansparh (C A?). Geschichte und Beschreibung von Neufundland und der KUste Labrador. Aus dem 475 476 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Engl. TfO. Bd. der Bibliothek der neuesten Reisebeschrei- bunp:en von Bertuch. Weimar. History of the island of New Foundland and the coast of Labrador. London, 1819. As/ie {Lieut. E. D.). Journal of a voyage from Quebec to Labrador. (Nautical Magazine, 1861, Janu- ary ; pp. I-I3-) Journal of a voyage from New York to Labrador. (Trans. Lit. and Historical Society of Quebec ; IV ; April, 1861. Appendix. Svo, pp. 1-16.) Aufzeichnimgen (Aus den) eines Kabeljanfischers in Labrador. (Globus, I^ldburghausen, 11; 1862; pp. 281, 314.) Baddeley {Lieut. F. H.). Geology of a portion of the coast of Labrador. Trans. Lit. and Hist. Soc. Quebec, I. art. vi. pp. 72-79, 1829. (His account and measure- ments of Castle Island are based on Capt. Campbell's explorations made in the autumn of 1827.) Ballantyne {R. M^. Ungava : a tale of Esquimaux Land. London, Nelson, 1857 ; i860. Bancroft {George). History of the United States, vol. hi; 1840. (" Scandinavians may have reached the shores of Labrador." J. Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. America i. p. 93.) Barrow {Sir Johii). Voyages to the arctic regions. London, 18 18. Places Vinland in Labrador or New- foundland. (J, Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. America, I. p. 93.) Bayfield {Rear- Admiral Henry IVoolsey). Sailing directions for the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence. 2 vols. London, 1837-43. Beschreibung der Kilste von Labrador vom Cap St. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 47/ Charles bis zur Sandwich-Bucht. [Aus Hydrographia Notice, No. 3, .London, 1873.] (Hydrogr. Mittlieil., Berlin, i. 1873 ; pp. 1 75-1 77-) Beschreibung einiger Hafen, Buchten, und Anker- platze an den Kiisten von Neufundland und Labrador. (Annalen der Hydrogra^hie, Berlin, iv. 1876 ; pp. 21-26.) Biddle {R^. Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot, with a re- view of the history of maritime discovery. Illustrated by documents from the rolls, now first published. Phila- delphia, 183 1 ; 2d ed. London, 1832. Boas {Franz). Notes on ihe Geography of Labra- dor. (Science, New York, Feb. 17, 1888; xi. 77-79. l^ Boitchette. British Dominions in North America. (With a topographical map of Lower Canada, 1832.) Bowen {Noel H.). The social condition of the coast of Labrador. Trans. Lit, and Hist. Soc. Quebec,-iv. art. 19; Feb. 1856, pp. 329-341. British North America. Comprising Canada, British £^ Central North America, British Columbia, Vancouver's Island, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. 378 pp., with maps. London, Religious Tract Society, 1864, 8vo. Cabot, (y. Elliot). Massachusetts Quarterly Review, II. (Places the localities on American coast visited by the Northmen about Labrador and Newfoundland. Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. America, i. 96.) Campbell {J. Fi). Frost and Fire. Edinburgh, 1865 ;' 2 vols. 8vo. (The author visited the Labrador coast in 1864, and noticed the ice-marks at Indian Island and Red Bay.) 478 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Carpenter (C C). Report on the Labrador mission at Caribou Island, Straits of Belle Isle. (Annual report 1-6 of the Canada Foreign Missionary Society, 1858- 1863.) Cartier {^Jacques). Discours du voyage aux Terres neuves, les Canadas, Labrador, etc. 2d ed. Rouen, Bapt. du Petit-Val; 1585 ; 1598, i2mo. Bref recit et succincte narration de la navi- gation faite en 1535 et 1536 au Canada, Hochelaga, Sa- guenay. Reimpression figuree de I'edition de 1545, pre- ced^e d'une introduction, par d'Avezac. 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The great probability of a northwest passage deduced from observations on the letter of Admiral De Fonte, who sailed from the Callao of Lima on the discovery of a communication between the South Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and to intercept some navigators from Boston in New England, whom he met with, then in search of a northeast passage, prov- ing the authenticity of the Admiral's letter. With three explanatory maps. By Thomas Jefiferys, geographer to the king. With an Appendix. Containing the account of a discovery of part of the coast and inland country of Labrador, made in 1753. London, 1768; 4to, pp. 153. Jesuits. Relation de la nouvelle France, 166 1-4. Kerr. Early discovery of Vinland or America by the Icelanders, looi. Vol. i. Kohl (7. G.). Documentary history of the state of Maine. Edited by William Willis. Vol. i, containing a history of the discovery of Maine. By J. G Kohl, with an Appendix on the voyages of the Cabots, by M. D'Avezac, of Paris. 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Gath- ered out of their letters. 4to, London, 1811. (Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. JVr Lean (jfohfi). Notes of a twenty-five years' service in the Hudson's Bay territories, 1849. H. M. Article Labrador. Encyc. Brit., 9th edition. Michelant {H.). Voyage de Jacques Cartier au Can- ada en 1534. Nouvelle edition, publiee d'apres I'edition de 1598 et d'apres Ramusio, vol. iii, 1606 ; avec 2 cartes. Documents inedits sur J. Cartier et le Canada, communiques par A. Rame. Paris, 1865 ; 2 edit. 1867. Moravian explorations in northern Labrador. Lon- don, 1814. Moravian Missions. Die Mission en der Brlider- Unitat in Labrador. 85 pp., mit eine Karte. Gnadau, Pemsel, 1871 ; 8vo. Die Missionen der mahrischen Briider unter den Eskimos in Labrador. Ausland, xlii, 1869; p. 788. Kurzer Abriss der Geschichte unserer Mission in Labrador. (Missionblatt aus der Briider- gemeinde, 1871, April.) Mailer {Karl). Die Vinlandsfahrten der Norman- ner. (Die Natur, Halle, viii, [859; pp. 41, 65, 81.) 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August, 1864.; p. 300-304. Also Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London. Jan. 20, 1864, p. 122.) Kumlien (^LtLciwig). Bulletin of the U. S. National Museum, No. 15. Contributions to the natural history of Arctic America, made in connection with the How- gate Polar Expedition, 1877-78. Washington, 1879, pp. 69-105. Macoun {J. M.). List of plants collected on the Rupert and Moose Rivers, along the shore of James' Bay, and on the islands in James' Bay, during the sum- mers of 1885 and 1887. (Appendix i. to A. P. Low's Report on Explorations in James' Bay, etc. Report of the Geol. Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada for 1887-88 ; iii, pt. 2, 1889.) Lieber {Oscar J/.). Notes on the geology of the coast of Labrador. Report of the U. S. Coast Survey for i860; pp. 402-408. Low {\A. 7".). Report on the Explorations in James' Bay and country east of Hudson's Bay, drained by the Big, Great Whale, and Clearance Rivers. (Report J. Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada. New Series, iii. part 2, 1887-88. Montreal, 1889.) Lucas {Frederic A.). The expedition to the Funk Island, with observations upon the history and anatomy 494 BIBLIOGRAPHY. of the great auk. From the report of the U. S. National Museum, 1887-88 ; pp. 493-529. Washington, 1890. 8°. Meyer (£.). De plantis labradoricis. Libri iii. Lipsiae, Voss, 1830, 8vo. Nuttall ( Thomas). A manual of the ornithology of the U. S. and Canada, 1832-34; 2d edition, 1840. Packard (^Alpheus Spring). A list of animals dredged near Caribou Island, southern Labrador, during July and August, i860. Canadian Naturalist and Geo- logist, pp. 29. 2 plates, 8vo. Results of observations on the drift phe- nomena of Labrador and the Atlantic coast southward. Amer. Journ. Sc. and Arts. 2d ser. xli, Jan. 1866. pp. 30-32. 8vo. List of vertebrates observed at Okkak, Lab- rador, by Rev. Samuel Weiz, with annotations by A. S. Packard, Jr., M.D. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. x. April, 1866. pp. 264-277. 8vo. View of the lepidopterous fauna of Lab- rador. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. March, 1867. pp. 32-63. 8vo. Observations on the glacial phenomena of Labrador and Maine, with a view of the recent inver- tebrate fauna of Labrador. Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. I. pp. 210-303, 1867. 4to, 2 plates. The Esquimaux of Labrador. Appleton's Journal, Dec. 9, 1871. pp. 657-659. (Reprinted in Beach's Indian Miscellany, Albany, 1877.) List of the Coleoptera collected in Labra- dor. Ann. Rep. Peab. Acad. Science, Salem, for 1871 pp. 92-94 ; April, 1872. 8vo. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 495 Packard {A. 6^.). One of fifty days in southern Labra- dor. Appleton's Journal, Aug. 22, 1874. pp. 241-243. Glacial marks in Labrador. American Naturalist, Jan. 1882. pp. 30-33. Do Labrador dogs bark ? American Nat- uralist, XVIII. p. 1063. 1884. The bees, wasps, etc., of Labrador. American Naturalist, xviii. p. 1267. 1884. Life and nature in southern Labrador. American Naturalist, xix. 269-275, 365-372; Mar., April, 1885. 8vo. Notes on the Labrador Eskimo and their former range southward. Amer. Nat., xix. 471-481, 553-560. May, June, 1885. 8vo. List of the spiders, myriopods, and insects of Labrador. Canadian Naturalist, Aug. 1888. pp. 141- 149. Payne {F. F.). (Eskimo of Hudson Strait. Proc. Canadian Institute, 1889.) Pilling {James Constantine'). Smithsonian Institu- tion I Bureau of Ethnology ] J. W. Powell, Director | Proof-sheets | of a | bibliography | of | the languages | of the I North American Indians | By | James Constan- tine Pilling I (Distributed only to collaborators) | Washington | Government Printing-office | 1885. pp. i-XL, 1-1135. 29 facsimiles. 4to. Only 100 copies printed. : — Smithsonian Institution | Bureau of Eth- nology : J. W. Powell, Director | Bibliography | of the I Eskimo language | By James Constantine Pilling | Washington | Government Printing-office | 1887. pp. i-v, 1-116. 496 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Plantes du Labrador. (Bulletin de la Soc. de Geogr. Paris, I Ser. vi. p. 132.) Richardson (Sir John). Fauna Boreali-Americana. Vol. i-iv. London, 1 829-1837. 4to. {yohn). List of plants collected on the island of Anticosti and coast of Labrador in i860. Canada, Botanical Society Ann. i, 1861-1862. pp. 58-59. Scudder {Samuel Hubbard^. Description of some Labradorian Butterflies. Proc. Soc. Nat. Hist. Boston, xvn, 1874. pp. 294-314. A revised list of the butterflies obtained in Labrador by Dr. A, S. Packard, Canadian Entomologist, Aug. 1888. p. 148. Spencer (Miles). Notes on the breeding habits of certain mammals, from personal observations and en- quiries from Indians. (Appendix iii. to A. P. Low's Report on Explorations in James Bay, etc. Report Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada for 1887-88, iii. p. 82. 1889.) Stearns ( Win/red Alden). Notes on the natural his- tory of Labrador. Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, vi. Aug. I, 1883. 8vo. pp. 1 1 1-137. Stearns (Winfred A.). Bird life in Labrador. Re- printed from the American Field, Chicago, 111. 1890. Steinhaur (Henry). Notes on the geology of the Labrador coast. Trans. Geol. Soc. London, 11, 18 14. pp. 488-494. Stupart (R. F.). The Eskimo of Stupart Bay. (Can. Institute, new ser. iv. pp. 95-114. Toronto, 1886. 8vo.) Turner (Lucien M.). List of the birds of Labrador, including Ungava, East Main, Moose and Gulf districts BIBLIOGRAPHY. 497 of the Hudson Bay Company, together with the island of Anticosti. Proc. U. S. National Museum, viii, July 13, 1885. On the Indians and Eskimos of the Un- gava district, Labrador (Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, sect. 11; 1887. 99-119.) Physical and zoological character of the Ungava District, Labrador. (Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, sect. IV, 1887. pp. 79-83.) Thorell ( Tamerlane). Notice of some spiders from Labrador. (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist, xvii, Boston, 1875. 8vo. pp. 490-504.) Vogelsang (H.). Sur le Labradorite colore de la c6te de Labrador. (Verhandl. d. Geolog. Reichsanst., Wien., 1868 ; p. 107.) C. CHARTS. Besides the ancient maps and charts illustrating the discoveries of the early voyagers, and referred to or copied on pp. 33-59, Winsor (Narr. and Crit. History of America, i, 120) states: "What was apparently a work- ing Portuguese chart of 1503, grasps pretty clearly the relations of Greenland to Labrador." Northern Labrador, Greenland with Baffin's Bay, Straits Davis's and Hudson. Amsterdam, P. Mortier, 1 700. Canada et pays voisin. Par Guillaume Delisle, Pre- mier Geographe du Roi, Paris, 1 703. A Collection of charts of the coasts of New Found- land and Labrador, with the particular plans of the prin- cipal harbors. Drawn from original surveys taken by 498 BIBLIOGRAPHY. James Cook and M. Lane, and J. Gilbert .... chiefly- engraved by Thomas Jefferys, geographer to the king. London, J. Jefferys, 1766-1770. Arrowsmith (^.). Northern seas between Europe and America, including the American coast (New Foundland, Labrador, and Greenland). London, 1808. (Name of Hamilton Inlet applied to Invuctoke Bay.) The North American pilot | for Newfoundland, Lab- rador, I the Gulf and River St. Lawrence : | being a col- lection of I sixty accurate charts and plans, | drawn from original surveys : | taken by | James Cook and Michael Lane, surveyors, | and Joseph Gilbert, and other officers in the king's service. | Published by permission of the | Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty : I chiefly engraved by | the late Thomas Jefferys, geog- rapher to the king. | On thirty-six large copper-plates. | London : | Printed according to Act of Parliament and sold by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, No. 53, in Fleet Street. I MDCCLxxix. I N.B. Of whom may be had Sailing Direc- tions to the above charts. A new and enlarged edition of this work was published in 1799, containing 61 charts on -^"j copper-plates. Printed and published by Robert Laurie and James Whittle. (The edition of which the title is quoted above seems to be simply a reprint of the ist edition, which appeared in 1775. I have not been able to see a copy of the latter, but from its title on Harvard College Library Catalogue cards, think the title is exactly as given below. Sailing directions | for this | North American Pilot: | containing the | Gulf and River St. Lawrence, | the whole island of Newfoundland, | including | the Strait BIBLIOGRAPHY. 499 of Belle Isle, | and the coast of Labrador. | Giving a particular account, etc. | London. | Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett. | mdcclxxv. | (Small 4to. Divided into sections, each paged sepa- rately. 148 pp. in all.) Partie de I'Amerique Sept., qui comprend le Canada, la Louisiane, le Labrador, le Groenland, la Nouv. Angle- terre, la Floride, etc. p. Bonne. Carte color. 2 feuilles. Paris, 1 77 1. Chaque 30 x 44 cm. Labrador and Greenland, including the north-west passage of Hudson, Frobisher, and Davis, with Plan of Man vers Port, 1808- 1863. Chart of part of the coast of Labrador, from Cape Charles to Sandwich Bay, surveyed by order of Hon. Commodore Byron. By Michael Lane, surveyor. 2 ed. London, W. Faden, 1809. Morse {^Jedidiali). The American Gazetteer, etc. (Map.) Third edit. Boston, July, 1810. Art. Labra- dor. (The map gives some names of places on the Labrador coast which we have not seen on other maps.) The American Universal Geography;: etc. (Map). Seventh edition. Vol. 11, 18 19. 8vo. Reichel {Levin Th?). Missionatlas der Briider-Unitat. 15 Karten in Qu. Folio, Farbendruck mit Text, Herrn- hut, Expedition der Missions- Verwaltung, 1861. Labrador. Spear Point to Camp Islands, including St. Lewis Sound and Inlet, surv. by Bayfield, 1835, 1:72,000. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1863, No. 133. Labrador Coast, Hamilton Inlet. Capt. Sir F. Mc- Clintock, i860. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1864. Labrador Coast, Indian Harbor, Commander Chim- 500 BIBLIOGRAPHY. mo, 1867, 1:12,172. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1868, No. 222. Labrador Coast, Webeck and Hopedale Harbors and Allik Bay. Commander Chimmo, 1867, 1:24,344. Lon- don, Hydrogr. Office, 1868, No. 223. Labrador Coast, Indian Tickle and Occasional Har- bors. Commander Chimmo, 1867, 1:24,344. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1868, No. 225. Labrador Coast, Domino Run. Lieut. J. J. A. Gravener, 1867, 1:18,255. London, Hydrogr. Office. Labrador Coast, Cape Charles to Sandwich Bay, vari- ous authorities, corrected to 1867. 1:243,440. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1869, No. 263. Labrador, with plans of Port Manvers and Eclipse Harbor. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1871, No. 1422. Labrador, Commander Maxwell's Chart. London, 1871? Reichel {L . Th?) . Labrador. Aivektok oder Eskimo Bay, 1873. Lith. 1:2,300,000. Missionsblatt der Brudergemeinde. Labrador, compiled from various documents in the Hydrographic Office, London, 1881. (Large corrections, June, 1 88 1. Small corrections ix, 1884, with plans of Port Manvers and Eclipse Harbor.) Weiz and Packard. Map of Labrador, compiled by J. Leuthner, from British Admiralty maps, and an un- published Moravian map (prepared by Rev. Samuel Weiz). Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, No. 4, 1887. Cape Cod to Belle Isle. Imray & Son, London, 1886. (" By far the best map we have of this coast." Ganong, p. 126.) BIBLIOGRAPHY. 5OI Winsor {Justin). Bibliography of Ptolemy's Geog- raphy. Harvard University Bulletin. Bibliographical Contributions, No. i8, 1884. Ganong {W. F.). Cartography of the Gulf of St. Lawrence from Cartier to Champlain. Proc. and Trans. Royal Soc. of Canada, vol. vii. for 1889. 1890. ERRATA. Pp. 120 and 140, for Cape St. Michael's read Cape St. Michael. P. 396. The remainder of the list of insects will be found on pp. 446 and 447. P. 484. Add to Bibliography, Humboldt {Alexander von). Examen critique. See p, 29, foot-note. INDEX. Abbot, C. C, 245 Acadian fauna, 337 Ailik Head, 318 Alca impennis, 342, 360 AUagaigai, Mount, 6, 182 Allen, J. A., 406 Alpine fauna, 176, 356 flora, 66, 341 American Island, 166 Anorthosite formation, 282 Anse-au-Loup. 118 Anse-au-Sablon, 236, 281 Aphaniie, 285 Arachnida, 385 Arctic fauna, 63, 356, 365 Arenaria groeniandica, 63, 340, 345 Ascidians, 396 Auk, great, 256, 342. 360 Aulatsivik gneiss, 284 Island, 228 Auroras, 78 Bache, Mount, 7, 294 Banks, Labrador, 241, 318 Basalt, doleritic, 134 Battle Island, 136 Point, '221 Bayfield's charts, 58 Beaches, raised, 130, 162, 170, 178, 195. 206, 210, 230, 315, 353, 305, 307, 309, 310, 311 Beacon, 197 Bear, black, 34 white, 35, 149, 160, 165, 357 Beetles, 387 Bell, Robert, 8, 9, 301, 322 Belle Isle, 119, 129, 134, 280 Belles Amours, no, 112, 234, 281, 316 Bethuks, 257 Biarne's Voyage, 21 Birch, dwarf, 177 paper, 151 Bird rocks, 96 Birds, list of, 406 Birds, sea, 91, 126, 167 Black and White Island, 168, 289 Blanc Sablon, 43, 116, 219, 234, 237, 307 Boas, Franz, 226 Bonne Esperance, 232 Bowlders, 150, 303 Brachioppds, 373 Bradford, William, 93 Bradore, 116, 262, 280 Bay, 281 Hills, 6 Brest, 108, 239, 265 Butterflies, 395 Button's voyage, 56 Cabot. Mount, 165 Cabot's voyages, 33 Cambrian rocks, 117, 281 Caniapuscaw, Lake, 15 Canso, Gut of, 94 Capelin, 154, 401 Carabus groenlandicus, 160 Caribou, 209 Caribou Island, 65, 85 upper, 137 Carpenter, C. C, 64, 245, 266 Cartier, J., Voyages of, 41 Mount, 108, 109 jCartwright, George, 256 Cartwright's Tickle, 290 Castle Island, 286, 307 Cephalopods, 379 503 504 INDEX. Chadbourne, Paul A., 60 Charles, Cape, 136 Charlevoix, 258 Chateau Bay, 130, 239, 247, 250, 311, Chert, 2go Chidley, Cape, 8,279 Chimo, Fort, 16, 231, 406. Chionobas, 167 semidea, 341 Chudleigh, Cape, 8, 279 Clays, Leda, 323, 339, 351 Clione limacina, 112 Cloudberry, 69 Coast, elevation of, 322, 324 Coats, W., 249 Cod, bull-dog, 179 fishery, 124, 126, 146, 154, 156, 240, 398 Coelenterates, 368 Coleoptera, 387 Cormorant, 103 Cortereal's voyage, 37 Crantz, 250 Crustaceans, 381 Curlewberry, 63, 107 Curlews, 78, 91 Cusk, 399 Davis Inlet, 53 Davis' voyage, 52 Despair Harbor, 19 Devil's Dining Table, 120, 128, 134 Dewitz, A., von, 273 Diptera, 390 Domino gneiss, 159, 286 Harbor, 159, 218, 286, 310 Run, 159, 219 Dredging, 76, no, 113, 125, 127, 145, 153, 160, 218, 223 Duck, eider, loi, 105 Duffy, 179, 399 Dumplin Harbor, 161, 164, 218, 287 Echinoderms, 370 Eggers, 104 Elevation of coast, 322, 324 Entry Island, 96 Eskimo, 67 camp, 193 dress, 200 game, 254 graves, 207, 263 in New Foundland,246, 252 house, 270 longevity of, 208, 269 mean height, 199 numbers of, 235, 261, 272 population, 235 Eskimo, ruins, 262 their former range, 245 yearly life, 275 Esquimaux Island, 265, 267 River, i, 2, 11, 73, 74, 80, 232 Falco candicans, 181 Fauna, circumpolar, 337, 356 Fiords, 18, 228 Fisheries, 124, 126, 132, 146, 154, 156, 240, 243 herring, 132, 240 Fishes, 397 Fishing Ship Harbor, 138 Flies, 390 Fly, black, 74, 86, 89 Flora, Labrador, 63, 69, 143, 201, 344 Flobnder, 398 Ford's Bight, 191 Forests, dwarf, 86 Forteau, 117 Fossils, quaternary, 75, 79, 107, 124 Fox, 133, 187, 209 blue, 180, 209 Frobisher's voyage, 48 Frog, 126, 405 Game, 72, loi. 133, 167, 194 Gasteropods, 376 Geology, 279 George, River, 15 Gibbons' voyage, 56 Glacial beds, 336 marks, 150, 216, 293 Glaciers, 172, 219 Gneiss, Domino, 159, 286 Laurentian, 280 Gore Island Harbor, 316 Grand Falls, 231 River, 121, 231 Granite, 285 Grasshopper, 150 Greely Islands, 163 Greville's Fort, 129, 239 Groswater Bay, 166 Grouse, 73 Gull Island, 319 Hake, 399 Hamilton Inlet, 53, 166, 288, 298 geology of, 285, 288 Ri,ver, 12 Handy, Ichabod, 93 Harrison, Cape, 181, 215, 283, 286 Hebron, 199, 311 Helluland, 29, 32 Hemiptera, 386 Henley Island, 129, 310 INDEX. 505 Henley Harbor, 120, 132, 220, 280, 281, 285, 307 Herring fishery, 132, 240, 243, 318, 403 Hind, H. Y., 10, 13, 318 History of Labrador, 234 Holme, Randle F., 231 Hopedale, 197, 199, 253, 283, 286 310, 323 Horsford, E. N., 30 Horsechops Island, 165, 301 House, winter, 124 Hudson Bay Co. posts, 234 Hudson's voyage, 56 Huntington Island, 163, 287, 289. Hydroids, 368 Icebergs, 135, 157 Ice, floe, no, 173, 205, 317, 357 foot, 173, 313 Tickle, 170, 218 Indian Harbor, 170, 216, 288, 299 Harbor Islands, 321 Indians, red, 188, 256, 359 Insects, 63, 102, 141, 150, 176, 207, 225, 386 Iron, magnetic, 285 Isle of Demons, 119 Ponds, 158, 289 Ivuctoke Inlet, 53, 166 Jasper, 290 Kaubkonga River, 229 Kauk River, 229 Kaumajet, Mount, g, 227, 284 Kayak, 207 Keith, Lake, 285 Kenamou River, 13 Kiglapeit, Mount, 9, 227, 284 Killer, 152 Kippokok Bay, 195, 255, 318 Koch, R., 227, 274 Kohl, J. G., 21 Kohlmeister, 2, 15 Koksoak River, 15, 406 Knoch, 2, 15 Kypocock Bay, 318 Labradorite, 282 Labrador current, 320, 357 Maps of, 3 Lamellibranchs, 373 Latrobe, B., 273 Lauren tian rocks, 117, 279 Leda arctica, 347, 350 portlandica, 347, 350 clays, 292, 323, 339, 351 Leif's voyage, 27, 30 Lepidoptera, 391 Lieber, O. M., 284 Limacina helicina, 215 Lobster, 71, 203, 384 Long Island, 163 Lunoid glacial marks, 216, 298 Mackerel, 397 Magdalen Islands, 96, 223 Maggovik Bay, 209 Magnetite, 285, 290 Mammals, 442 Mealy mountains, 6, 13, 159, 164 Mecatina, Cape, 100 Little, Island, 99, 280, 300 Mercator's map, 46 Meshikumau River, 2, 11 73, 74, 80 Minerva, 239 Mirage, 99, 136, 138 Misery, Mount, 6,182. Moisie River, 10 Molluscs, 373 quarternary, 326 Montaignais, 14, 67, 189, 239, 264 Moravian settlements, 199 Mosquito, 86, 191 Moths, 391 Mount Allagaigai, 6,182 Cabot, 165 Cartier, 109 Misery, 6, 182 Mountaineers, 14, 67, 189, 239, 256, 264 Mountains of Labrador, 6, 7, 8 Mugford, Cape, 9, 319 Murre, loi, 170, 180 Muskrat, 155 Myriopoda, 286 Nain, 199, 327, 229, 253, 311 Nachvak Inlet, 9, 284, 315 Nascopi Indians, 239, 256, 264 Nasquapee Indians, 239, 256, 264 Nautilus, voyage of, 60 Newfoundland, 61 Newfoundlanders, 240 Nisbet's Harbor, 191 Norsemen, 21 North, Cape, 163, 289 Nucula expansa, 108 Occasional Harbor, 139 Odonata, 386 Okkak, 199, 201, 202, 227, 253 Orthoptera, 386 Otter, 68 Pandorina arenosa, 108 Parroqueet Island, 43 ^ Penguin, 256 Pike's Harbor, 164 5o6 INDEX. Pikkintit Islands, 284 Pitt's Arm, 124, 308, 323 Plants, list of, 447 Platyptera, 387 Plectoptera, 387 Polyommatus franklinii, 177, 207 Polyps, 368 Polyzoans, 371 Porcupine, Cape, 321 Port Burwell, 9 Manvers, 9 Neuf, 234 Potentilla tridentata, 69, 340, 345 Ptarmigan, 72 Puffin, 83, 90, 341 Pussel, 64, 75 Rama, 228 Reichel, L. T., 274 Rigolet, 167 Rise of land, 322 River terrace, 322 Robin, 151, 410 Roger's Harbor, 184 St. Francis, Cape, 138 Harbor, 138 Lewis Bay, 137 Sound, 319 Michael, Cape, 140 Bay, 40 Modeste, 118 Paul's Bay, 265 Salamander, 106, 112 Salmon Bay, 71, 87, 222 Fishery, 133, 154, 186, 187, 193. 216, 399 Sand, magnetic iron, 285 Sealer, 121 Seal fishery, 122, 145 Island, 158 Seal's flippers, 81 Semed , 18 Shallop Island, 117 Shag's nest, 103 Shells, quarternary, 326 Silurian fossils, 325 Sister Islands, 163^ Skralings, 246 Sloop Harbor, 168, 179, 288, 310, 313 Snails, 194, 202 South River, 15 Spear Harbor, 138 Spear Point, 138 Spotted Island, 158, 162. 319 Spruce, 188 cat, 191 skunk, 192 white, 191 Square Island, 138, 140. 282 Stag Bay, 182, 185 Strawberry Harbor, 190, 215, 283,. 286, 308, 313 Stony Island, 163, 319 Syenite, Laurentian, 280 Syrtensian fauna, 334, 33S Taconic rocks, 281 Terraces, river, 322 rock, 144, 197, 315 Thomas Bay, 209, 210, 283, 310 Thoresby, Mount, 284 Tickle, 140, 183 Tilt, 121, 141 Tinker, 180 Island, 179 Toad, 160, 405 Trap dykes, 168, 285, 286, 289 Trees, northern limits of, 201 Trichoptera, 387 Trout, 68 salmon, 193, 400 Tub Island, 165, 218,287,288,289,299 Tuckermel bush, 86 Tucking bush, 86 Tunicates, 396 Turner, L. M., 231, 406 Tylor, E. B., 246 Ungava Bay, 406 Vetromile, Father, 258 Walrus, 104, 147, 162, 366 Wasp, 87, 103 Watson, Sereno, 473 Weasel, 68,114 Webuc, Cape, 181, 215, 283, 286 Range, 185 Weiz, Samuel, 5, 226 Whale, humpback, 137 sperm, 220 Whiteley, W. H., 232 Wolf, 194 Wolverene, 203 Worms, 380 Zoar, 199 Zoology of Labrador, 355 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XL Recent Explorations. — Rediscovery of the Grand Falls. On page 231 we referred to Mr. Randle Holme's ascent of the Grand River, to a point within fifty miles of the Grand Falls, which he claimed to be " the most stupen- dous falls in the world," giving a greatly exaggerated estimate of their height. During the summer of 1891, the Bowdoin College expedition to Labrador, in charge of Professor Leslie A. Lee, sent a party up the Grand River, which happily solved the mystery which has hung over the subject, and thus achieved the most important geographical discovery which has been made in the interior of Labrador since the first discovery of this cata- ract by white men. The following account has been prepared from dispatches, sent to the daily press, and has been kindly revised by Professor Lee and Mr. Cary. The expedition left Rockland, Me., early in July in the Julia Decker, a schooner of ninety tons, the party consisting of nineteen members. The party left Rigolet for Grand River, July 27, equipped with two Rushton boats, a kodak, surveying instruments, fire-arms, and provisions for a month. E. 507 508 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS. B. Young and D. M. Cole were in one boat ; W. R. Smith and Austin Gary, who was chief of the exploring party, in the other. Twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river the first falls were reached. They make a descent of 70 feet in two leaps, and necessitate a portage up a steep ascent of 210 feet, then half a mile through woods, and finally a descent to the river of 140 feet. With much labor this portage was accomplished in four hours. A cache of provisions was made below the falls. Then the struggle began. Up to this point the current had been easy and the river about a mile wide ; but above the falls the river narrowed somewhat and the current became swifter, so that tracking was rendered necessary at times. This was no small labor, as the banks are rugged and jagged rocks, bowlders and fallen timber obstructed the way of the trackers. After a struggle of forty miles of this sort the Gull Island Rapids presented a still more serious difficulty in the way of tracking. Here the boats had to be lightened and guided through a short but extremely difficult rapid — a slow and laborious task. For a dis- tance of fifteen miles above, the river flowed very swiftly between high wooded banks, rendering rowing very often impossible and tracking difficult. After this the next hard work was in the Horseshoe Rapids. In these a most unfortunate accident happened to one of the boats. While tracking around a turn the boat in charge of Gary and Smith was over-turned, the keel and sharp prow ill adapting it to such rapid water. A large part of the provisions, cooking utensils, the shot- gun, the barometer, and a revolver were lost. But though crippled the party were undismayed and pushed on up APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 509 to the Mininipi Rapids, the most formidable of all except the Gull Island Rapids. The route here laid through a burnt district. Precipitous banks lined the river and the current was very fierce. After a stretch of smooth water and then alternate rowing and tracking, next in succession came the Mouni Rapids, which were comparatively easy. Between the Mininipi and the Mouni another cache was made. After passing the Mouni Rapids the voyagers glided into Lake Wami- nikapou, a most beautiful sheet of water 40 miles in length and 150 miles from the mouth of the river. The scenery here was simply grand. High precipitous shores studded with high groves, towered six or eight hundred feet above the placid bosom of the lake. Holme in 1887 had succeeded in reaching the middle of the lake when he was obliged to relinquish his under- taking, estimating his distance from the falls at 50 miles, 20 of which would have been in the dead water of the lake. The Bowdoin party had a comparatively easy time rowing across, and had pushed five miles beyond when a halt was called because of the disablement of one of the party. For some days Young had been suffering from a severe sore on his hand, which, irritated by row- ing and aggravated by exposure, was beginning to develop serious symptoms and was very painful. Owing to this and the loss of provisions in the Horseshoe Rapids it was decided to divide the party — Cole to con- tinue with Gary, and Young and Smith to return. Up to this time the party had been' eleven days on the river. Young and Smith made the return to the mouth in five days without incident. They were well received by Mr. 510 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS. McLaren, Hudson Bay Co. 's factor at Northwest River, and thence were conveyed across Lake Melville in a yawl, with their Rushton boat in tow. During the night a severe storm arose and filled the Rushton, making it necessary to cut it loose. Parties going up the lake some days later found the boat dashed to pieces on the rocks. Young and Smith reached Rigolet August i8, and found very comfortable quarters with Mr. Bell, factor of the Hudson Bay Co., who showed them every kind- ness. Meanwhile Cary and Cole pushed on for sixty-five miles, finding the distance much farther than it had been estimated. Most of this was made in easy rowing water, but tracking was necessary for the last eight or ten miles. At this point a short reconnoitre satisfied the men that it would be impossible to proceed farther with the boat because of the extremely heavy water above. Conse- quently a cache was made of the boat, and all unneces- sary luggage and provisions, and the two men struck out through the woods to gain the plateau, which was a very arduous task. Upon reaching the table-land a mountain, rising from five to eight hundred feet from the surface, was sighted about six miles away ; and as it was the highest land anywhere around they ascended to get a view of their surroundings. The whole country was spread out beneath them, but there was as yet no sign of the falls. They called this mountain Mt. Hyde in honor of the president of Bowdoin College. Bear- ings were taken from the summit and an attempt made of surveying, but the black-flies became intolerable and compelled them to beat a retreat to the river valley, where they camped for the night. Next day the journey APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 51 1 was continued for seven miles along the river to a point where the river issues from a remarkable gorge, worn out of the solid Archaean rock five hundred feet or more in depth and from 150 feet to a quarter of a mile in width. Once more they were obliged to take to the high ground, and for the rest of that day and part of the next skirted the gorge. They were proceeding in this man- ner when a distant rumbling led them to approach the river. It was flowing at their own level. Below them were the long-sought-for falls, and three cheers for Bow- doin immediately mingled with their roar. As was expected, reports concerning them were greatly exaggerated. The falls themselves are 150 feet wide and do not exceed 150 feet in height. For five or six miles above was a series of heavy rapids with several smaller falls varying from 10 to 25 feet in height and making about 100 feet more fall. The water, as it ap- proached the brink of the Grand Falls, makes a long, graceful bend downward and then shoots straight down- ward into the canon. The river above the falls flows almost due south by compass (really S. E.) while im- mediately upon striking the bottom of the gorge it makes a sharp turn to the east and continues in that direction for several hundred yards when it again resumes its general southeasterly course, and goes roaring down the canon in heavy rapids. Although reports concern- ing them were greatly exaggerated, the falls were found to be truly grand. But probably the most remarkable feature of all is the great gorge, worn, as it is in the solid grani.te. It is probably one of the oldest drainage lines in the world. This was named the Bowdoin Canon. 512 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS. Several hours were spent at the falls measuring and photographing, but the results are as yet not available. The Labrador Plateau has been estimated by other parties to be 2,000 feet above the sea-level, but owing to the loss of the barometer our men were unable to deter- mine the accuracy of this estimate. The plateau is for the most part level with occasional prominences. It is well wooded with spruce timber, the largest of which are perhaps eight inches through. A heavy carpet of moss lies underfoot and there is very little underbrush to make travelling difficult. Innumerable lakes dot the surface in all directions, a large chain of which are undoubtedly drained by the Grand River. The black-flies on the high ground were terrible. The falls were reached on the morning of the 13th of August. On the next day the successful explorers started to retrace their course of 300 miles. They had reached the end of their provisions and were worn out and hungry. On the afternoon of the 15th, with no little joy, they sighted the location of their cache of boat, luggage, and provisions. But their joy was soon turned to dismay, for, instead of the pleasant sight they had ex- pected, nothing but smoking and charred remains greeted their eyes. Rifle, ammunition, instruments, boat, pro- visions — everything that had been left behind was burned, and there they were nearly 300 miles from the mouth of the river. It is supposed that the camp-fire still hung in the moss and peat soil after it was thought to be com- pletely extinguished, and later revived and spread to the cache. About three pints of parched flour and as much rice, together with one can each of burned baked beans and APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 513 tongue, a 32-calibre revolver, a small axe, fish-line, and a few matches were all they had to rely upon for a safe voyage back, nor did the resources of the country war- rant them in expecting much from that quarter. For eight days the two men built rafts, tramped and floated down the river, travelling a distance of 150 miles with no other food than the above-mentioned provisions, an oc- casional squirrel, and berries. Black-flies harried them terribly, and made their condition almost unbearable. At last the cache between the Mininipi and Mouni Rapids was reached. From this they obtained five pounds of buckwheat and a can of tongue to last them for the next seventy-five miles to the cache below the first falls. By continual rafting and tramping they reached the cabin of an old trapper, near the mouth of the river, August 29th, ragged and shoeless and much worn with hardships and privations. Thence they were conveyed to Northwest River, where they received kind treatment at the hands of Mr. McLaren, and from there went across Lake Melville to Rigolet in a yawl, arriving on the afternoon of September ist. The main expedition had been waiting for them in that vicinity for six days, and was beginning to get anxious, for they were due August 25th, and according to the report brought back by Young and Smith were likely to be on time. When at last they did arrive they were welcomed on board with every demonstration of joy. %. 'H %' ^^' '^ .^." .S^-V ^^. .r-!s' ^;«-\/>,o..c,<^--^^^ ''^^ v^ " <- ^r/l"??^ ^ ^\- - \^- 1.^' .. '> - i :.%,. ./ ' "-'-^ \^ ,^-' \- ■"^. .^^ -^c.. A ^ - -f. t i-t' .^^' \ -r.. - ^. ft -n^ o >.%, -^z^-. -^. 1.-^ ^O^^ ^oo^. .'^O. V^ V. ■• * ^ > .^^^^ ^ ::^ >. \^^r?^'. >5^. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS > i: immmii ii i! ill ii'lili! iM»;{.» ;;; :■!,,, iliiiiPiiPiliP' i! jiiiii.tai tlllllllllll ilUilil: