Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-11
OFF LONE LABRADOR.
Catching Seals on the Shores of the
Dreary Mingan Islands.
A WILD AND DANGEROUS PAsTIME.
Scattered Settlements Along the Southern
Labrador Coast.
SCENES ON THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE
rrRoM OUR TRAVELLING COMMISSIONERS. J

Wesleyan Methodist persuasion who haC
been expatriated from his sunny home ir
some pleasant English village to pass foul
i years in tireless, and he confessed almos
useless, mission work along these wretcheG
shores. Discarded by the cannibalsp
seemed to be written in every line of the
Mingan Harbor more than a month fol
opportunity of reaching Chateau Bay, a
the shoulder of the bowling Atlantic coast
and we gave him free passage, not only on
| general grounds of iberality to the cloth,
but in consideration of the added dignity a
| chaplain would give the schooner Sophie
as well as because he knew much of the
Labrador folk and their customs and was
not averse to telling what he knew. Alto
gether he was excellent company, and what
he told us OF the sealing industry alone
proved valuable and entertaining.
He related to begin with, that children Z
game called copy" similar to that of your
| own children who "follow the leader" a
| wild and dangerous pastime, but heartily
encouraged by parents, as at the basis of all
success in seal hunting. When the ice be-
gins breaking up in March all Labrador and
Newfoundland children hail the arrival of
their annual play-spell with Joyous delight.
Copying" consists of leaping from one float
ing slab or pan of ice to another. The most
daring of leaders are selected, and the sport
is followed with tremendous yigor so long as
the floating ice remains. Its utility lies in
its educative power. The very expertness
and bravery thus engendered are the supreme
requisites in youths and men as seal hunters.
PROFITABLE INDUSTRY.
Only few years ago seal hunting was
carried on in these waters exclusively from
schooners. built'ot enormous strength, whose
home ports were the little villages of the
Labrador and Northern Newfoundland
coasts and st. Johns, Newfoundland. But
immense sealing steamers finally supplanted
these, causing a desperate state of want
among the native fishermen. Latterly the
steamers have been given up to some extent,
those worn out or lost being abandoned,
owing to the lessening number of seals; but
the success of last years work, has given a
new activity to the industry. The total
take" was nearly 500, 600 seals, worth $780,
600. The 'take" of the sailing steamer.
Neptune, of st. Johns, was alone AZ, 900
seals. She was leaped to the gunwales, men
even resigning their sleeping berths SO that
the fat could be slowed away. The poor
sealers alongshore, who are called "seal-shov-
ers' to distinguish them from the steamer
sealers, took fully SOC, 900 seals. Every man,
woman and child who could WELD club,
gun, knife, or any other possible weapon,
was at work from Mingan Islands in St.
Lawrence, around to the White and Notre
Dame bays, on the East Newfoundland
coast, killing, skinning and dragging the
seals ashore. Our detected missionary
friend himself captured 45 in one day;
parish priest killed and skinned 20 in zone
do ON ind oh Ia xuid Nf fbo
shore, born in old Galway, who not only
fights the wild elements OF Labrador but
everybody else successfully, unaided, cap
tured, skinned and dragged ashore 175 seals
in three days; little fortune in itself in
this region, as her "take" netted her about
$500.
The seals are taken in three ways. They
are followed out to sea in vessels and killed
from small boats on the ice-foes; they are
hunted by showers" along the coves and
bays in boats, or upon the still solid ice; or
they are netted in coarse nets, with an g.
inch mesh, almost precisely in the manner
that herring are taken at Eastport and
around Grand Manan. These nets age
moored of favorable cove, with one end
fastened to a huge windlass on shore. Then
a careful lookout is kept, and when a herd
of seals has entered the enclosure, the net is
hauled in behind the seals, and boats fol-
low, with men shouting and driving the
impounded creatures to the beaches and
rocks, or back into the strangling net, when
the scene of clubbing and butchery begins.
EsQUIMAUx BAY.
On the afternoon of the third day after
leaving Mingan Harbor we dropped anchor
in that great arm OF the gulf know as Es-
quimaux Bay. There are no maps or charts
extant to give an interested student of these |
shores any proper idea of the areas of these |
occasional tremendous indentations along |
the Labrador coast. But our captain and |
chaplain we're sure that this inlet was one |
of the largest of the southern Labrador |
shore. Grandly wild and impressive as was |
the scenery of its islands and the shore-side |
terrace upon terrace of everlast-
ing stone blended by the magic of distance
into fairy peaks of green but showing their
hard, sterile remorseless actuality through |
riffs of sickly moss ard stunted spruce on
near approach, it was a relief to find morn
ing and slight suggestion of human asso-
citation in the occasionally seen fishers sail
upon the mighty gulf again; and we sped
gaily along in company with gurgling gulls
and registering porpoises below, making our
course towasd the exqisitely beautiful
Bradore Bay.
Illuminating upon the inconceivabIe hard.
ships of this Labrador coast and people, 1
Tell into a critical and interrogative mood,
in which the Yankee timber explorer, by
this time heartily hateful of everything
upon which our eyes might rest, was my
proud and enthusiaStic ally. I asked the
how many people could be found
in the Lower Canadian portion of Labra-
dor, between its shore limits at Point Neuf
on the ST. Lawrence, and L'Anse Aux
Blancs SaDlons, near the entrance to the
Straits of Belle Isle.
"About 4.500;" he replied, thoughtfully.
"And this is distance of about 600
niles?"
eyes, and of these fully LOCO are Montag-
lais and Nasquapee Indians. To illustrate
1ow thinly scattered they are I may instance
he locality OF my work along the straits,
p houses there. Three miles further is
L'Anse au Clair, with 9 houses; the next,
Forteaux, 8 miles, with IL houses; L'Anse
IN Loup, 6 miles, II houses; Penware River,
miles, IL houses; st. Modiste, 3 miles, s
houses; CarrolPs Cove, 6 miles, 4 houses;
Red Bay, 4 miles, 25 houses; Wild Cove, 10
niles, 2 houses; Chateau, 20 miles.
houses; Camp Island IL miles,
,ouses; Cape Charles, 8 miles, 8 houses;
Battle Harbor, miles. 25 houses; and the
lext and last, Fox Harbor, miles, with
houses; so that in a distance of So miles
here are, all told, but 157 houses, or barely
nough for one village of moderate size."
But is there no population behind
his?"
"'Not . soul between these people and the
North Pole. They could not by any possi-
'ility exist"
SCENES ON THE ST. LAwRENcE.
We passed the noble Bay of Bradore.