Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-17
WILDS OF LABRADOR.
Edgar L. Wakeman Explores These
Most Unfreq nented Regions.
THE EXPLOSION OF AN ICEBERG.
A Yankee Shippers Scheme to Accumulate
Small Fortune.
IMPRESSIVE SCENES OF DEsoLATIos
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH,

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPATcH.I
ON BOARD SCH'R. SOPHIA" August
| 1.-Leaving the bright and beautiful Cha
teau Bay, our course now lay within the
Atlantic along the Labrador coast, whose
general bearing is to the northwest for
500 miles until Hudson's Strait is passed,
and the almost measureless shores OF Hud-
sons Bay turn squarely to the south at the
mighty headland Of Cape Wolstenholme.
Out to the southeast stood grim Belle Isle,
the first land which European steamers
make along these turbulent shores. This,
with Quiripon Island, were known as the
isles of Demons" in ancisnt times, and in
the old prints they are represented as being
covered by rampant devils with wings,
horns and tails. Certainly no other
creatures could subsist upon Belle Isle.
1t is here that the chroniclers locate the
scene ofthe pathetic tale of Lady Marguerite,
niece of Roberval. Viceroy of New France,
and her impetuous thotgh devoted lover.
We sailed near the southwestern edge of the
island, close enough to well observe its
formation. 1t is simply Q tremendous
monolith of stone nine miles long and three
broad, rising preoipitously from the sea at
the outer entrance of the Strait, with not an
iota of verdure upon its iron like sides and
top. We got fine glimpse of its light
house perched high upon southern head
land, its guys and snchorings for preventing
its being blown away, giving it the appear
ance Of some colossal Arctic aux poised in
readiness for flight.
RATHER WINDY.
Uva. oasI Na-x.s~ no..l.-.
lively, "only once year any vessel lands
there: and the storms are SO terrible that
every time we sailors pass we dread to look
up there, fearing the Gght'us'l be blown
away. How hard does the wind blow? Well,
1 can't rightly give ye the v'locity, but I
can furnish facts. Twenty years ago-'n' 1
well remember him-a keeper named Vaughn
had charge of the hight. He got sort O.
hankerin' arter green things. Awful fool
ish; but twus hard to get anybody to stay
there at all, so they lowed his scheme for
q garding- They took hull boat loads of soil
up there n made him gardins n acre big.
dig in it, prob'ly. One evenin' a whirlin'
sort Of storm rig, m sorter kept risin' all
night. When Vaughn poked his head out
in the mornin' he coulde'nt see the gardlng
nowhere. He didn't know at fust but he
was leetle confused hisself, an climbed
back in an took his bearin's; but there was
no garding nowhere certain. That tornader
had jest yanked up the hull sile an spilled
it all over the 'Lantic. Vaughn had sperit,
he did. He wouldn't stand that. So he
threw up the job an took to shown seals"
Our captain had sailed out of st. Johns
for many years, and knew every island, cove
and inlet between Belle Isle and Hudson's
Bay. Dangerous q voyage as it always is.
ours was fearlessly made through mazes of
islands and rocky channels which lined the
coast. We successfully passed the many
headlands and islets of st. Louis Sound,
the wonderful mountain-ribbed expanse of
Alexis river mouth, the inconceivably grand
and awful barren peaks of Occasional Har-
Dor and st. Michael's Bay. the black and
frowning ledges and crags of Dead, Barren,
Hawk and Seal Islands, and passing Round
Hill Island, the eastermost land of Labra-
dor. to our right, rounded the great Isle of
Ponds, crept through the noted Indian
Tickle channel and sped out into the ocean
again, past Gannet Islands to the Esqui-
maux Islands at the north of the vast Ham
ilton Inlet, the Ivuctoke of the Esquimaux,
and made our first anchorage among per-
haps 300 vessels, sloops, schooners, brlgs
and brigantines, and indeed every manner
Of sailing craft that follows the sea for fish.
DEsoLArE SCENES.
There are no more impressive scenes of
desolation on earth than are to be found
along this coast; and yet one will hardly
find anywhere upon the sea, away from the
great ports of the continents, such swarms
and bevies of vessels. In every cove or bay
we passed could be seen their sails or masts
looming behind blackened -crags, or their
rocking hulls moored to sloping shelves of
stone. We met them hourly returning to
. tha aynfh xuif fell e G.l l..
harbors there must have been 1000 boats;
and at Indian Tickle wewere informed that
more than 1000 vessels had passed to the
north through that channel this season.
So FAR as landsman might judge, our
dangers, it any, lay not 50 much in the jut- |
ting barbs of the steely coast, as in collision |
with other craft, and the constant menace of |
those silent and dreadful Arctic travellers,
the icebergs. They were never out of sight !
day or night. By day they are dreadful |
enough; but when at night they confront |
you, ghost-like and weird in the pale light |
of the stars, there is q sense of inexpressibly |
awful danger in the first chill of their icy |
breath. was at sea in 1882 when our |
steamer in a fog ran with slackened speed |
squarely into ole of these monsters, crunch |
ing and climbing upon its hidden base with |
her iron PROV. 1t was thought that the |
mass would topple over upon US; but we |
finally slowly slid quivering back into the |
sea-. IS.
In that five minutes nearness to an un-
steady iceberg, several hundred of rs ex- |
perienced more than it. is said men feel |
when they die. But on our way to Indian |
Harbor we had stranger experience still. |
The English tourist and my friend the |
timber-hunter were sitting beside me on |
deck at about 10 o'clock at night watching
. tremendous iceberg lying about a mile |
and half to the east. Captain Deschamps
assured us it was the largest he had |
ever seen in these waters. and he estimated |
its length to be fully three-fourths of a |
mile and Its height above water at nearly |
time was in its wonderful appearance under
the dazzling effect of the brilliant Northern
Lights Presenting apparently to us a
solid wall of the softest opalescent light. |
now and then the stupendous mass would |
glow with exquisitely beautiful pulsations,
from a pale and shimmering sheen to the |
of flame at white heat.
THE ISLAND ExPLopEs.
But this thrilling scene was the least of |
the wonderful phenomena. Suddenly, with |
q crash so appalling that our schooner
masts quivered like wind-whipped tree
tops, the whole vast island of ice exploded |
into millions of fragments. Nothing else
save the sudden irruption of some marine
volcano could have presented so bew.ldering
q spectacle. Latterally and perpendicularly
pieces weighing thousands Of tons were
hurled tremendous distances. A corona of
g miles arc lifted high above the spot COM
posed of other millions of glittering slivers
Of ice. As these and the more massive
IL IL