St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-09-05
WORTHLESS LABRADOR.
Its wretched Though Peculiar PeopI

| date of August II from the coast of
Labrador a most interesting and in
structive letter to the Springfield Re
publican from which we make liberal
extracts
From Hopedale we proceeded
northwest, skirting the shore, con-
tinually lodging islands, icebergs
and homeward-bound fishing craft.
| The shores present the same lofty,
massive, desolate outline. AT our
distance occasionally the moss upon
them, under certain conditions of at
mosphere and sunlight, gave the APP
pearance of heathery heights such as
you will see when cruising along the
noble northern shores of Ireland,
| from Tough Foyle around Malin
| Head to Tough swiftly; but we knew
there was no verdure there, and
naught but stone With that con-
seriousness these shores are ever stern,
repellant, awful; and no influence,
save that curious facination to semi
! Arctic exploration one may have a
hint of in going thus far toward eter-
nal ice and silence, can justly prompt
| any rational being in following our
course for aught save danger and fish.
| Both can be got nearer home. We
agreed on sailing as far as human life
permanently existed along the coast,
and again had opportunity to carry
passengers free without a license.
! These were a sort of novitiate Nora
Wan missionary who belonged to
Hebron and had come to Hopedale
with homeward-bound fishers, and
two Eskimo pilots who had brought
vessels to the south. l was interest
ed chiefly in the formers narrative of
life at this remotest American mis-
sion, and in the powers of the latter
to assimilate our provisions. In all
nv wanderings | never saw two
creatures in the semblance of humans
with such swinish capacity. We had
a few boxes of oranges on board.
They had never seen the fruit before
l was curious to know if they could
once be stated with it. We made the
attempt but failed. These two ami
mails actually ate Sc oranges, skins
and all, in one hour and 40 minutes.
Passing Main, an important Nora
Wan mission where the Home society
annually sends large ship with sup
plies and for ft1rs, and Okak island
and village, where there are stray
CLING huts, a few traders and trap
pers, and where the EskimOs come in
the summer to fish, we finally reach
ed Hebron, and, without anchorage,
left our strange passengers, who
were taken ashore in a kayak-a sort
of hide bottOmed boat, almost pre-
cisely like the curragh of the Irish
Aran islands-followed by a process
sion of kayaks filled with grinning
and chattering Eskimos; when we
| proceeded on our now wholly dreary
voyage to Cape Chudleigh.
The result of the information Sc
cured during our few weeks cruise
leads me to believe that the portion
of Labrador east of a line extending
Lawrence river to Hudson's bay, is
the most worthless part of the whole
world. Indeed it is scarcely worth
visiting even as curiosity in steril-
ity and desolation. In the 1000
miles of coast upon which there is
any pretense of population, the total
number of resident human beings all
told will not exceed 5000 souls. This
number includes all Indians of the
Montagnais, Nasquapee and Eskimo
tribes. Estimating the peninsula as
quadrilateral with sides averaging
500 miles in length, a moderate COM
putation, this would give an area of
16O, 100000 acres; and just one hui
man being to about $4,000 acres.
That there is 100 acres of land capa-
BILE of cultivation within this mighty
eXpanse has been remorselessly dis
proved for over $50 years by the eff
forts of Jesuits and other mission
aries, by those of Christianized In
| dams, and by all settlers who have
been lured upon these shores to starve
| and perish. 1t possible that during
two, and possibly three, months of
the summer 10000 fishermen may
be found off Labrador; Is, 900 with
in the gulf of st. Lawrence and 25,-
600 along the Atlantic Labrador
shores. These are residents of the
United States, of Nova Scotia, Cape
Breton and Prince Edward Islands,
and Newfoundland. They have no
interest here whatever save to come
and grab and go. There are not
enough standing trees in all the Lab
rador district named, and that COM
prises all Of Labrador proper, avail
able for building timber, to pay for
transporting to any place and light
ing the first fire in single saw mill.
All the frantic efforts of the Dominion
government to discover mineral de-
posts have been unavailing.
What then does Labrador possess?
| An unmeasured and measureless
reach of stone and ice, covered here
and there with moss again OCCASION
ally patched with stunted spruce;
oftener for hundreds of miles SCARED
and blackened by burned spruce
stumps between which finty rocks
project like cruel spears; with count
less impossible rivers blowing in I'M
governable torrents through hideous
gorges; 1000 whites utterly unable
to leave their prisonment or better
their condition, living half of the year
like beasts, and the other half little
better; 1000 Indians subsisting on
salt fish and raw, with occasionally
bit of musty flour or meal; 800 to
400 Eskimo dogs; any number of
wolves; and countless seals and fish.
| Now that is all there is to Labrador
besides a climate of Greenland; and
even the seals and fish do not exclu-
sively belong to it, for they are a
common product of the ocean, and
as common to all other northeast
shores. Any land so God-forsaken
that the government possessing it
cannot survey it. or procure any form
of statistics concerning it, is a veri-
table castaway indeed. 1t is impossi-
BILE to obtain statistics of even seals