The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-12-07
STERILE LABRADOR.
Worthless Land Covered With Ice
and Snow.

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The result of the information Sc.
cured during few weeks cruise Of
a correspondent of the Republican,
leads him to believe that the por-
ton of Labrador east of line ex-
tending due north from the mouth
of the St. Lawrence river to Hud-
sons bay is the most worthless part
of the whole world. Indeed, it is
scarcely worth visiting even as a
curiosity in sterility and desolation.
In the 1000 miles Of coast upon
which there is any pretense of pop
ulation the total number Of resi-
dent human human beings all told
will not exceed 5000 souls. This
number includes all Indians of the
Montagnals, Nasquapee and Esqul-
mau tribes. Estimating the penin-
sula as quadrilateral with sides
averaging 500 miles in length, a
moderate computation, this would
give an area of 16O,OOO,OOO acres !;
and just one human being to about
27, 900 acres. That there are 100
acres of land capable of cultivation
within this mighty expanse has
been remorselessly disproved for
over $50 years by the efforts of Jes-
ults and other missionaries, by
those of Christianized Indians and
by all settlers who have been lured
upon these shores to starve and
perish. 1t is possible that during
two, and possibly three, months of
the summer 10000 fishermen may
be found off Labrador, $1,000 with
in the Gulf Of st. Lawrence and
25,OOO along the Atlantic Labrador
shores. They are residents of the
United States, of Nova Scotia, Cape
Breton and Prince Edward Island
and Newfoundland They have no
interest here whatever, save to come
and grab and go. There are not
enough standing trees in all the
Labrador district named-and that
comprises all of the Labrador prop
er-available for building timber to
pay for transporting to any place
and lighting the first fire in sim
gle sawmill. All the frantic efforts
of the Dominion government to
discover mineral deposits have been
unayailing.
What, then, does Labrador pos
sess? An unmeasured and meas
ureless reach of stone and ice, COW
cred here and there with moss J;
again occasionally patched with
stunted spruce; oftener for hum
dreds of miles SCARED and black
ened by burned spruce stumps, be-
tween which finty rocks project
like cruel spears; with countless
impossible rivers plowing in un-
governable torrents through hide
Gus gorges; 1000 whites utterly un-
able to leave their prisonment, or
better their condition, living half
the year like beasts and the other
half little better; 1000 Indians sub
sisting on salt fish and raw, with
occasionally a bit Of musty flour or
meal; 800 or 400 Esquimau dogs,
any number of wolves and count
less seals and fish. Now, that is
all there is to Labrador besides a
climate of Greenland, and even the
seals and fish do not exclusively
belong there, for they are COM
mon product of the ocean and as
common to all norther shores. Any
land so God-forsaken that the Gov
ernment possessing it cannot sur
vey it or procure any form of sta
tistics concerning it is veritable
castaway indeed. 1t is impossible
to obtain statistics of even seals or
fish. But from the known loss in
naval and commercial expeditions,
and the wreckage of coasting and
fishers vessels along the coasts
since Labrador was discovered, it
would be safe calculation that
for every dollar in value Of fish or
fur secured upon the Labrador
coast for the past 400 years an
equal or greater actual loss by
somebody has been sustained. And
when the additional frightful loss
of life has been taken into account,
the inexpressible worthlessness of
the entire peninsula may be to some
extent ved.-Springfeld Re-
publican.