The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-08-07


bases covered by dense growths OF
stunted spruce. rise in dark and
undulating silhouettes as If to rem
der impossible the impenetrable will
| derness behind. Sweeping around coast
| ward toward the Moisie river is a long,
/ circllng, sandy beach, and along this in
the edge OF the stunted spruce behind
! were scattered a few wild and ragged en-
| campments OF Labrador Indians. All
looked greasy, lifeless, respondent, hope
| less There was not one picturesque char
| acter1stic about them save the queer,
puggv, alm0ud.eyel faces OF the little
children, and an occasional quaint cap of
crimson and black, set upon the heads of
the Indian women, IRON underneath the
edge OF which are puffs of black and wirv
! hair matted down between the eyes and
ears. These people, perhaps 200 in num-
Der. and called the Montagnais, with a few
| Nasqaupees. are n port IN of the ragged
starving, fate-whipped remnant of the
great Cree branch of the once noble
! Algonquin race. Seven Islands bav and
I Moisie have for centuries been their sum-
mer rendezvous At Moisie are the mis-
sion honses, chapel, one of the dreariest
/ cemeteries your eyes ever beheld, trading
! houses, salmon fish stations and scraggy
! village alone, enlivened by these spirit
/ less Indians, the summer time salmon
curers and traders and the trifiing Off
cial life, as the Canadian government
! conPels ali sailing craft trading along the
| Labrador shore TO take out their clear
| ances at this point 1t is a drearv, life
less, dirty spot, where nothing less alert
and pugnacious than soul-saving and trade
could brave the wretched soddennesS and
desolation. The mouth OF the Moisie has
special interest for sportsmen, it being the
haunt of myriads OF salmon and fish OF
from 80 to 40 pounds weight have fire.
ouently been taken. The river itself
winds through an unbroken wilderness
from the central, ;reeless stone and ice
table-lanis of Labrador, while part way
along it's valley runs the c-nturies-old
wide Indian trail TO the great lake of st.
John. 800 miles to the southwest.
The coast line from Seven islands and
bay would doubtless measure 100 miles TO
the next trading post and village behind
the noble group OF Ningan islands which
stud the Labrador coast for a distance OF
forty-five miles; but the sailing distance
is not half so much. In delicious weather
and without trace Of fog we sped east
ward past huge ocean steamers, govern
meut cutters aud scores of fishing-smacks,
changing our course somewhat TO the
south, for at least glimpse of that lone
Hest and most gruesome of all spots with
in these northern seas, the Island of An
ticosti, the north point and the light
house OF which are about fourteen miles
distant from the Labrador shore. The
pane of this endless terror to all northern
mariners and fisher folk was origi-
nally Assumption. This was changed
to Ascension; this again to Natiscotee;
and finally the latter was transformed by
the photographers and geographers into
Anticosti. There IS little in this name
and far less in the island ITSELF save hor-
ror and desolation. It lies diagOnaiv
across the northern portion OF the gulf, its
northwestern extremity set squarely into
the ninety miles wide mouth of the ST.
Lawrence river, and its extreme south
eastern point lies about one hundred miles
directly north of the center of the gulf.
1t is 100 miles long, so broad, has a cir
conference of go miles, and contains
about two million acres OF land, or more
properly speaking, surface; for land it has
not. Its northern shores are lofty and
present to the eve noble terraces of
mountainous rock with spruce-covered es-
carpments of green, blending into purple,
discovered indentations, or black and
forbidding crags. No one can describe. or
Justly conceive the desolation and dan
gerous character OF this great Gulf island
Canadian geologic and geographic surveys
have been repeatedly used to foist it into
notice and invite population. But its his
tory is one of death TO mariners ruin to
capital, and starvation and death TO emf
grants, who, to further some dastardly stock
scheme OF plumber, have from time
to time been left to die alone
upon it. Its entire interior is one vast
utterly irreclaimable wilderness of rock,
f.I =
many places so matted dense and storm
broken that wild animals cannot pene-
trate it, and shipwrecked men have walked
on top of the murderous mass fer miles.
There are no safe harbors. In every d.
rection extend into the gulf limestone
reefs to entrap and wreck. The only
humans existing upon it are the keepers
of the lighthouses and wrecking stations,
warily supplied with supplies in fair
weather; a half dozen trappers and hunters
who are set down on its shores
from venturesome sloops, an occa-
sional ''egger" who here pursues
his contrsband vocation unmolested
through fear of approaching his
haunts; or downright outlaws who con-
sign themselves to an inconceivably moro
wletched imprisonment than any known
government can provide. Puffins and
ssa-eulls shrek around 1t; few wild
animals deyour each other upon it; its
deadly shores are strewn with ever-bleach-
ing wrecks; every hoarse song OF the sea
beating against its crags is dirge for the
dead whose skeletons rot beneath; but
curiously enough, as il ia keeping with
that seeming law of compensation which
holds danger and sacrifice as the price of
all attainment OF value, its cruel coves
and its impenetrable bays swarm with
mackerel. cod, seals and whales in pro-
fusion not elsewhere known of men.
But IT is a more pleasant thing to turn
ones sight from such accursed shores to
the beauteous Aiingan islands TO the
north. Emerald, amethyst and ONYX, set
in ieathery surf, they are, and all day the
sunlight and the vagrant mists play over
their winSome sea face wondrously in
deed. All the way eastward toward the
Atlantic the great Laurentian range of
mountains gradually lessons in altitude,
breaking into rounded and softened ele-
vations, with here and there a lowering
cliff 10 hint of the Sahara of some behind.
But there splendid old peak leaps up
right like fierce outpost toward the sea
Over and above the Mingan is es it lifts
its cloudy head, midway between the
Maybe and 81. John rivers. This is grim
old Mt. ST. John, and the river of that
name in which countless salmon