Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-05-03
WHOLE NUMBER l2l7.
Labrador And IT'S People.

Labrador And IT'S People.
An interesting account Of this land Of
desolation was not long since published
in the Evening Post. From it we take
the following:
On glancing at a map Of North Amer
ica, great projection of land, labeled
Labrador, is seen extending between
Hudson's Bay and the Atlantic Ocean,
being separated from the most northern
point of Newfoundland by the Straits Of
Belle Isle, which are but twelve miles
in width. The dimensions Of this pen
insula are enormous. Its area is 49,
900 square miles, or equal to the British
islands, France and Prussia combined
and though its climate is so severe, it
lies between the same parallels of latitude
as Great Britain. The difference of tenn
perature arises mainly from the fact that
Britain enjoys the benefit Of the Gulf
Stream, while the Arctic current, laden
with ice, washes the whole coast Of Lab
rador. On the southeast and east
Labrador is bounded by the Gulf Of st.
Lawrence and the Atlantic; on the north
and west by Hudson's Straits and Hud-
sons Bay, and on the southwest by Ru-
pert's River and the MistassiDi and Ber-
siamits rivers. Its extreme length is
/, 100 miles; its breadth, 40 miles,
Blanc Sablon, near the mouth of the
Northwest River, in the eastern bound
airy Of the Canadian part of Labrador,
which includes the whole area draining
into the river and Gulf Of St. Lawrence.
The remaining area, draining into the
Hudson's Bay, is called East Main, and
under recent arrangement with the
Hudson's Bay Company has passed into
the jurisdiction Of Canada.
CLIMATE AND SOIL.
The popularideas regarding Labrador
are well founded. Regarded as a whole
there is not, perhaps, on the face of the
earth, a more uninviting region as an
abode of civilized man than Labrador.
Terra del Fuego alone excepted. On
much of it the snow lies from the end Of
September till the beginning Of June
In winter the coast is inaccessible, for the
most part, being blockaded with ice-fields
drifting from Bathn's Bay: and i'll spring
and good part of the summer thou
nds and thousands of gilt er,rg i C.
bergs, stranded or floating, impart a
stern beauty to the grim and rocky
shores. Storm sOf terrific character are
! frequent even in summer The soil is
barren: and but for its valuable fisheries
of cod, seal, and herring, there would
| be few inducements to visit these savage
shores. The interior appears to be, for
the most part vast table-land of most
forbidding aspect. Professor Hind, who
explored it two hundred and forty feet
above the ocean at the sources of the
east branch of the Moisic. 1t is pre-em
inently sterile, and where the country j.
not burned, cariboo moss covers tho
rocks with stunted spruce, birch, and as
pens in the hollows and deep rayinos.-
The whole of the table-land is streweC
with an infinite number of bowlderS
sometimes three and four deep. Thes,
singular erratics are perched on til,
summit of every mountain, and hill
often on the edges of cliffs, and they
vary in size from one foot to twenty fee
i'll diameter
THE INHABITANTS.
The whole of the vast wilderness
is uninhabited by civilized man, witt
the exception of few settlements oI
the St. Lawrence and Atlantic coasts
and some widely-separated posts of tn
Hudson's Bay Company. Wanderin
tribes of EsquimauX occupy the north
ern coast of Labrador, while nomadi
tribes of Nasquapee, Wistasini an
Moctagnais Indians are thinly scattere'
over the interior. The exports whicI
are chiefly through Newfoundland, ar
Goldfish, salmon, and seal, and whale oi
and furs. Once the country was ric
in fur bearing animals and caribOo or reil
deer but these are now greatly reduce
in numbers. Of the eastern side hardl
2 anything is known beyond the coas
: which had been carefully surveyed b
e Captain Bayfield,. Before his day it W;
$ on this bleak and dangerous coast tn;
o the great navigator, Capt. Cook, fir
: displayed those talents as marine SUI
e veyor, which gained for him the patroI
5 age of Sir Hugh PalliSer, and drew pul
e lie attention to his extraordinary ente
e prise. His chart of Newfoundland, l.;
| brador, and the Straits of Belle Isle ar
to this day, a convincing proof of h
k fidelity, genius, and discernment.
c THE FISHERIES OF LABRADOR.
= During the brief Labrador SUNNI
+, the whole coast, for five hundred mil
! north of the Straits of Bellisle, swarm
6 with fishermen from Newfoundland, \
4 va Scotia, Canada, and the United State
They are engaged in the capture an
cure of cod, salmon, and herring. III
total values of these fisheries is not lie
than million sterling. Even duriI
the fishing season the bleak coast is fir
le quently swept by storms; and when +
, turning, late iii October, fatal disaste
/ / are frequent among the small tishir
= craft. In homeward voyage, laden wi
J the proceeds of his summer toll, the pc
II fishermen is often shipwrecked and lo'
: or his ship is dashed to pieces and
u barely escapes his life, to find himself
. beggar, without any provision for t
Is Is long winter which is closing in.
~ THE RED INDIANS OF LABRADOR.
lie The Indians who inhabit the interi
ID of Labrador are all tribes of the on
| great Algonquin race, whose donna
l. extended, before the arrival OF the ''pal
he faces" from the Rocky Mountains
I