Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-12-11
THE PEOPLE OF LA DOR,
Their Homes and 0ccupations-Precari-
! ous Living Gained by Fishing and sealing
Hard and Dangerous Mode OF Life with
But Fow EnjOyments. $s

Their Homes and Occupations-precari
ous Living Gained by Fishing and Sealing
Hard and Dangerous Mode Of Life with
But Few Enjoyments.
! Il environment mi Guilds people, then,
the L.abradoreans should have strong
traits. The climate, the unique feat
ures Of the country, the undisputed
supremacy Of the sea, the isolation
from the world-all their circun-
stances, indeed -ares SO strongly mark
ed as to be irresistible. The popula-.
ton of the Canadian part of the coast
to the boundary line at Blanc
Sablon--is OF French origin. Canadian
and Acadian; the Newfoundland part
OF Labrador-the Strait of Belle Isle
and the Atlantic coasts inhabited
by English-spea4king people. Moravi-
ans and Exquimaux are found IN the
far North. The French Canadians
consist of two classes; part of them
come here every spring to fish for the
merchants, and return every fall to
their families and small homesteads
between Quebec and Gaspe; others live
here permanently, own little isolated
establishments, and fish on their own
account. The Acadians have collected
IN two principal settlements, Esqui-
maux Point and Natashquan, where
they have their schools, priests.
churches, and some other features OF
village life.
Twas fortunate in being storn,-stay-
ed at q few of these French Canadian
homes, where found now and then
a person able to give me some account
OF the summer and winter life of the
people. To begin with external and
material things, the average home OF
Labrador generally consists of a rough
board dwelling, with two rooms and q
garnet, a small dock and store-house
for receiving, cleaning, curing, and
storing fish, and two or three open
fishing boats. All these building perch
like anxious water-fowls on the bare
rocks; they never impress me as homes,
for they make for themselves no niche
or place in the surface of the earth;
you expect them to be washed or
blown away at the next gale-as they
sometimes are For the sake of be-
ing near the fishing grounds these
shelters are generally established on
some outlying island Offering a. moor
ing or else g beach for the boats;
they seem to be banished from the
earth as far as possible seward. They
stand up gaunt, stark naked in the
gales, in the midst of q desert of sea
and rocks.
In the best places there may be in a
q la IL
caying fish, where q few turnips and
cabbages manage to show themselves
duringa briefseason. You get ag]eam
OF hope and horror an behokling a
quaint scaffold about Is feet high; but
it is not a gallows1 for the ending Of
life, only a platform for keeping the
frozen fish for dogmeat. The interior
OF these homes is not quiteso distress
ing as these hard surroundings, for
the human hand indoors can make
it's mark, which IS not always a clean
one. The furniture, diet, costumes,
are rough and commonplace; but the
people are courteous and kind, and
they observe well their religious rites
Their isolation is such that they keep
the run of time by marking the days
OF the week on the door-post. An ex~
ception to this dreariness is to be met
here and there, at q lighthouse, or at
the home of a merchant. I asked an
intelligent fisherman how hecould con-
tent himself in such place.
"Well, sir, I expect we're fools to
stay here. The worst OF it is, our
children are growing up as ignorant as
we are-just like the dogs. Hardly any
of us can read or write. Our houses
are too far apart to get the children
together for school, excepting at Es-
quimaux Point, Natashquan, and
Mutton Bay. Then, too, we can't see
the priest more than once or twice a
year, and that's very announcement
about dying, for pleurisy and consump-
ton are very headstrong. And there s
no doctor at all, nor any roots or
herbs or medicines. We keep alive on
pain-killer and salts that the traders
sell. It's o hard life, and we don't
live to be very old. We have to do
all our own work-iack of all trades,
you know. When we came here to
live, my wife and cut all the timber
in the winter for building these houses,
sawed it by hand in a pit, and in the
spring RATED it down the.river."
Sealing, one of the peculiar industries
Of Esquimaux Point andNatashquan,
Is the most venturesome occupation
OF the Labrador coast. Seals are taken
in three ways-by hunting them along
the bays and shores in boats or on the
ice, by netting them as fish are taken,
and by following them out to sea in
vessels and killing them on the foes.
sometimes met boat sailing about
the islands and bays with two men
aboard eagerly watching the water and
the rocks for the harbor SEALS Dressed
in coats and skull-caps made of seal
skin, they often creep along the rocks
with the motion of the seal, and decoy
the animal by calling. Some of them
have trained dog
CIV hat is he good for in such work?'
inquired. "He can hardly be q re-
triever for an animal weighing hun
dreds of pounds
eyes, he is, sir; if seals are fat when
killed, they float, but even if they are
verUpoor it takes but little to float
thems., And the dog jumps off and
catches them often before they sink,
or he II dive for them in shallow water.
When they sink IN deep water we often
Jig them-haul them up with fish
hook and line. Some seals dive when
wounded, and swim off to sea; others
turn to the shore and crawl up On a
rock to dis =
In the spring of the year they hunt
seals on the ice when it drifts against
the shores. Cape Baud, Newfound-
land, is q noted point for this kind OF
sealing The foes coming from the
northern seas strike on this cape and
divide into two parts: one enters the