Evening star., 1926-04-11


AN Friday, April 23. for the
purpose Of making an ad-
dress on the Labrador
medical missions, scheduled for
Epiphany Church at s o'clock, he Will
find friends and acquaintances In the
audience. So we'll known is this hero
of the North and his work that
wherever he goes he finds those who
have spent a Summer in his hospitals
and schools along the Newfoundland
and Canadian coast. or who have had
brothers sisters or friends who have
done so.
The great part of the work of the
International Grenfell Association. If
not the whole of it, Is carried on by
volunteer help. In Great Britain.
Canada and the United States are
agents of the association who annual
ly enroll hundreds of young men and
women for the work. Medical schools
and colleges respond heartily to the
appeal and send undergraduates to
the North for the wonderful expert
epce, the health-giving climate and
the fascinating human contacts of
bleak Labrador.
Yet how ignorant most of us remain
of the country and its people, and OF
the work being carried on there in
the name of humanity. Perhaps few
are as poorly informed as the man
who wrote to DIR. Grenfell that he
thought OF Labrador as an island in
the Southern Pacific, noted for the ex-
port of bananas. But to most of us it
is a place on a map, and nothing
more.
Those who go to sea think of Labra-
dor as a bold deep-water shore, north
of all transatlantic traffic, famous only
for the deep-sea fishing that forms its
stock in trade. But no one ever goes
there, unless he is fisherman, for
there is nothing to go for. That
proves to be a fairly correct picture
of the place, but very empty one.
The writer confesses to adding ice
foes, igloos and Eskimos. fishing
through holes in the ice. to his mental
| conception of Labrador. ideas dimly
associated with geography illustra-
tions labeled THE Arctic Regions"
AS a matter of fact, Labrador is no
farther north than England and Scot
land, and Is just about as long as the
Island Of Great Britain.
|. ''The Labrador" to give 1t its cor
rect local name. is divided into two
parts. The southern part Is that long
narrow peninsular which extends
north from the Island Of Newfound-
| land, the continuation Of the high land
which skirts the west shore Of the
Island. The Strait Of Belle Isle. which
unites the Gulf of st. Lawrence and
the Atlantic Ocean, divides the New
foundland Labrador from the Canad-
ian Labrador which runs north along
the coast as far as the Hudson Strait,
beyond which there is Greenland.
That description in itself gives
tangible idea of the extent of the
country; its southern end Tapped by
the waters of the Gulf of st. Law
renee, which seems we'll within reach
Of our Summer pleasure trips; its
northern peak looking across the
Straits toward Greenland, that sy-
nonym for all that is cold, cherries
and ice-bound.
The latitude Of Battle Harbor on
the Canadian Labrador, where Dr.
Grenfell opened his first hospital in
1893, is very close to the latitude of
London. The latitude of Cape Child
ley, northern extreme of the Labrador,
is that Of the Shetland Islands,
stretching north from Scotland. The
whole stretch of coast is about 500
miles long, as far as from Cape Cod,
Mass, to Charleston, s. c.
But 1t is colder in Labrador than
In England. The well known Gulf
Stream carries the warm waters Of
the Caribbean Sea to the very shores
Of the British Isles. materially mod
Grating the Winter temperature, while
the equally effective but opposing
Arctic current sweeps down from the
north along the Labrador, lowering
the temperature by about 10 degrees.
There Is also a marked climatic diff
ference between northern Labrador
and the Island Of Newfoundland; the
latter being foggy and damp, While
the former is clear and bracing.
The people of Labrador are not
Eskimos. There are Indians in con-
siderable numbers. but even they are
not the people Of Labrador. The typi.
cal Labradorian is man of English.
Scotch or Irish ancestry, whose fore.
bears have lived in the soil for sew
eral generations. and there are some
sc, 900 of them. Little by little they
are working their way into the in
terror Of the country, seeking furs
In the Hudson Bay Country or cutting
pulp-wood nearer the coast, but gener-
ally speaking, the Labradorian fol-
lows the sea for livelihood. The sea
is their natural as well as traditional
habitat.
The fishing has always been the lure
of Labrador. 1t brought out the first
settlers and it is the main support of
the population today. Annually, some
&C, 900 men sail south in the Fall and
land the Summers catch at st. johns
or more distant ports in Canada and
New England Cod, salmon, halibut
and Holsters all abound in the ocean
waters or the coast, or in the rocky
fjords that penetrate the northern