Smyrna times., 1886-08-04
For III
Labrador.


gion of Labrador are of the most dis
tressing character as regards the tena-
ciOus hold that Winter yet retains on
the land as well as the intense suffer-
ings of the few inhabitants by reason of
it. 1t is now the end of July and yet
for 300 miles out from the north
ern portion of the coast towards the
straits of Belle Isle presents one un-
broken field of ice, while inland the
rugged crevices are filled with deep
SHOWS and everywhere the ground is
frozen hard. This extends to southern
Labrador where the bulk of the peo-
pie live, and the terrible story of cold
and starvation among them is carried
by few of the stouter ones across the
dreary reaches Of Northern NewfOund-
land, and help is sent just as it has
been sent these dozen of years past.
The truth is, the region is unfit for
habitatiOn when the fisheries are in
terfered with by ice. The people do
manage in good years with the aid of
fish to prepare for Winter, but this
year it has been all Winter, so far,
with another and fresher one at their
doors and between them and help
miles upon miles of boisterous sea, filled
with moving masses of ice, perilous in
the extreme to navigate. Here,
amidst all that is fearful in nature can
be realized that in the evolution of
time a thousand years is but as one
day. Within that time, according to
the traditions of Iceland, the North
men under Eric the Red set sail and
steered South, touching at Greenland,
a land teeming with animal and vege-
table life and this too was remem-
bered when later, anchor was cast in
what is now Massachusetts Bay centu-
ries before Columbus started from
Palos, Spain, in quest of the West, At
this day more inappropriate name
than Greenland could not be selected
for land that has not even the re-
deeming feature of rocks to relieve the
vast glittering glacier of ice that covers
its entire length and breadth and
which the most daring of voyagers
will not dare to explore. Leaving this
lost land, hundreds of miles intervene
before Labrador is reached, and here is
seen slowly but surely the land being
swallowed up in the same climatic
changes as did Greenland and which
no power on earth can hope to arrest,
and this, too, straight as the crow flies
but 400 miles north-nOrtheast of these
latitudes. Huddled in starving groups
as the people are on the southern
prOmOnitOries of bleak Labrador it
would be a blessing for them did the
Dominion Government once for all in
sist on their fOrcible removal, since
they cling to these sterile rocks with a
grip that only death can loosen.
And yet this land is within the cir
Gle of the temperate zone, so called
perhaps from courtesy, or else, if true,
to show proximity of these latitudes
to cold neighbor that is not reassur-
ing for agriculture, by inducing too
cOpiOus falls of rain on the seabOard to
the extreme on the other hand of pro-
tracted drOughts in the interior. The
influence of so vast body of stationary
ice is more than periodical in the
changes wrought in the climate of those
countries, especially South and West
of it. A hot wave, if not predicted is
soon felt by the rise in the tempera-
ture of the air and then the mercury
aspires to high climbing S0o, 90o, 95o,
and 1902 is as much as human nature
can stand comfortably; a blasting
siroccO sweeps over the land, piling uI
sun-dog" clouds in the sky, which
in turn, throws back again the suns
fierce heat until one could wish that
Yon moaning sea. would rise and burst tho
shore,
And such a whirlwind blow these woods a.
never blew before"
Evidently this wish is soon graft
fed The wind begins to "chop
around from west of south, then nOrtl
of this again until north of northeast i.
reached and now the conditions ar,
at hand for tremendous atmospheric
disturbances and abundance of rain
Like wall the hot wave follows the
wind which sweeping across the ice
locked bays of Labrador soon licks III
greedily q surfeit of moisture and bV
its excessive gravity is unable to pro
ceed further and turning travels back
to the hot space it has Just left anC
!, down tumbles the thermometer from
1907 to co. or lower in few hours
and in the opposing clash of dry anC
moisture-laden clouds, is evolved
crash after crash of terrific lightning
and thunder, and we are apt to won
} der why it so happened, only it de
velOps into awe, if not intimidation
when by the force of this unusual hear
the air becomes so rarefied that the ice
laden winds from the North tumble
to the earth in a rotary motion anC
carry death and destruction in it.
path as a cyclone, when is fully real
lied the truth of Tennyson's lines JUS
quoted:
And such a whirlwind blow these woods a
never blew before"
So then this is perhaps the only
taste that these latitudes will ever ge
of the frozen climate that, clutchinl
t Labrador by the throat has laid it Low
D and seeks to cover it with an icy pal
driving its remanant of people to othe
D and more congenial climes, and tn,
! desOlation that belongs to long Arc
I tic night broOds over the place relieve,
! only when the echoes among the cliff
q are started by the scream of the SCI
birds in an uninhabited land, an,
when the mighty winds changing her
e from gentle. Southern zephyrs gathe
e force and hurl themselves on the fai
= countries that lie to the South, th
desOlation of Labrador is felt and wit
y good reason for it is the voice of tn
y white ghost of the North Atlantic"
: ].