Labrador, the country and the people

Front matter

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Foreword

By Wilfred T. Grenfell

Having selected for myself a role in life that compels me to pass most of my days along the coasts of Labrador, I have come to love the rugged fastnesses of my adopted country, and to lament the amount of almost Stygian darkness that hangs still over it and its resources. With regard to the future of this vast area, nearly half a million square miles, I am myself an optimist. True it is that the great tide of humanity flowing ever westward has for the most part passed it by, leaving it lone and frigid in its polar waters. But the hand of man has grappled with harder problems than this presents.

A scientific man has but recently transformed the useless flora of hitherto arid deserts into food for man and beast ; at the bidding of an engineer water is now flowing over the sands of Southern California, and land of perhaps unrivalled fertility is the result. Man's hand has dammed the royal Nile, so long prodigal of her unfettered waters ; and a vast, new kingdom is springing into being. A college man has given his skill to acclimatizing fruit and vegetables to Dakotan frosts, and we have a plum that withstands a temperature of forty degrees below zero Fahrenheit, and strawberries that will live in the open all winter even in that climate.

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VI FOBEWOBD

The coming granary for the world's wheat supply was yesterday despised as " the land of snows " ; to-day the subsoil of the world's best wheat land never thaws out, and the frozen valley of the Peace River is vying with the " corn " lands of the Pharaohs.

To us here, away out of the world's hum and bustle, it seems only a question of time. Some day a railway will come to export our stores of mineral wealth, to tap our sources of more than Niagaran power, to bring visitors to scenery of Norwegian quality yet made peculiarly attractive by the entrancing colour plays of Arctic auroras over the fantastic architecture of mountains the like of which can seldom be matched on the earth. Surely it will come to pass that one day another Atlantic City will rise amidst these unexplored but invigorating wilds to lure men and women tired of heat and exhausted by the nerve stress of overcrowded centres.

It has seemed appropriate, in this belief, to try to collate available information in the form of a book that should bring within easy reach of the public the facts that are of interest concerning Labrador. It is hoped, also, that such a book will act as an incentive to others to come and pursue still further the studies and explorations herein described. With these objects in view I sought the help of friends skilled in the various branches of science, as it can now declare the meaning of Labrador, the land and the people.

Dr. Reginald A. Daly, Professor of Geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of Boston, had, during an extended trip in a schooner along the Labrador coast, expended considerable work upon its rock formations, and to him has been intrusted not only

FOREWORD Vll

the chapter on Geology, but also the task of editing the whole work.

Dr. E. B. Delabarre, Professor of Psychology at Brown University, accompanied Dr. Daly on his journey along the coast, and has described the flora from an ecological point of view as most likely to be of interest to the average reader. His exhaustive list of plants has been omitted from the book, but is preserved at Brown University.

Dr. C. W. Townsend of Boston and Mr. G. M. Allen, who have written on the ornithology, made a special journey to Labrador to study its birds. Dr. Townsend has already published a book entitled Along the Labrador Coast as a further result of their expedition.

Mr. Charles W. Johnson, Curator of the Boston Society of Natural History, has undertaken the insects (Mr. John Sherman, Junior, expert on the beetles, has described this special group) and mollusks from a collection of Mr. Owen Bryant of Harvard, made in 1908.

Mr. Outram Bangs has supplied the list of mammals. Miss Mary J. Rathbun, the well-known expert at the United States National Museum at Washington, supplied all the information we have about the crustaceans, including a study of those collected by Mr. Bryant.

Dr. A. P. Low, Deputy of Minister of Mines in Canada, has contributed a chapter on the interior of this littleknown land.

Mr. William B. Cabot of Boston, who for several years has made an annual visit to the Montagnais Indians of Labrador, and who has edited a dictionary of their language, has had unique opportunities for observing their habits. He has contributed a valuable monograph from his special experiences.

Vlll FOREWORD

The chapter on History was to have been prepared by Mr. W. G. Gosling of St. John's, Newfoundland, who had devoted some years, and gone to no small expense, on a special study of this subject. But his results involved such an extended treatise that it was thought wiser to issue them under a separate cover than unduly to enlarge this volume, and Mr. W. S. Wallace, of Balliol College, Oxford, has prepared a brief historical introduction.

For seventeen years I have been collecting such facts as my regular work permitted. From them I have selected material for certain chapters. To many friends who have supplied such information I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness. Incomplete as this book surely is, it is issued from a desire to record the more interesting facts, the coins of science, which might otherwise need rediscovery. It is hoped that the book may be of use even to those familiar with Packard's excellent work.

Preface

The three years which have passed since the publication of this book have seen more attention paid to the development of Labrador than the twenty -five preceding. The results promise to be consonant with the views herein expressed; viz., that Labrador may always remain a "Labourer's Land," a land where men are obliged to work for sport or a living, but one which can yield an ample return to those who do so. Deposits of rich ore may at any time give out, but the wealth of Labrador lies in those things which, if properly handled, are ever reproducing themselves.

The fact is that as a storehouse and sanctuary Labrador needs now, if ever, the serious and disinterested attention of those able to save it. With this end in view, I have decided to add to the new edition a chapter on Conservation and Exploration in Labrador, and what that might mean, not only for the future of the country itself, but also to the increasing population of the North American Continent. Besides this chapter, I have also added a much-needed bibliography and some remarks about the habits of our land mammals.

WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.D.

" Strathcona,"

North Labrador.

IX

Introduction

During the years that have elapsed since this symposium was published, a good deal of work has been done on the Labrador Peninsula and new facts have been contributed to our knowledge concerning it that are of interest to the public. The deductions of all recent observers is that the country has been too harshly judged and that it is far from being the awful desolation pictured by Professor Hind, or necessarily the home of starvation that Professor Sterne would have the world believe.

Labrador has continued through the ages the lone, lorn widow of civilization. The possible values of its half million square miles are still almost unknown. The Canadian Geological Survey has done splendid work on it, though no industrial development has resulted from its discoveries. Due to its work, however, an immense amount of light has been thrown upon this vast peninsula with its waters draining into four seas. Geologically it forms part of the great Canadian Shield — a vast complex of pre-Cambrian rocks, which in its well-known parts has furnished immense deposits of valuable minerals, such as the iron and copper of the Lake Superior district, the magnetic iron ores of the Adirondacks, the gold of the Porcupine, the silver and cobalt of Cobalt, and the nickel and copper of Sudbury, Ontario. It is reasonable to suppose that treasures do lie still untouched in Labrador's rocks. For beyond the mere analogy with the rest of Northern Canada, gold was discovered "in situ" a few years ago in the Mealy Mountains, a range xii INTRODUCTION

running northwest and southeast about the centre of the east coast. The furore created at that time ended in a small expedition whose efforts are marked now only by a heap of abandoned machinery on the sandy beaches between Sandwich Bay and Hamilton Inlet. The long winter which prevents communication by water with the northern part of the seacoast for eight or nine months out of twelve also broke the Syndicate which was mining pyrites for the sulphur one hundred miles south of Cape Chidley. So far nothing has been done to develop the large iron deposits known as magnetite and hematite in the Grand River Valley. Like some sulky virgin, Labrador is still wrapped in the garments of isolation, while her lovers seem for the time to have turned dejectedly away. Probably the best overture made for her favor has been the quarrying of some of the precious labradorite which appears in large quantities near Nain and also near the Northwest River.

War and industrial unrest have prevented the settlement of the question of the boundary of Newfoundland Labrador, It is still an undefined strip of land along the Atlantic Coast and the Straits of Belle Isle. This fact, as far as the development of the country is concerned, is a serious handicap. However, events in Newfoundland seem to point to the probability of confederation with Canada in the near future, when the point at issue could readily be solved even if the decision of the Privy Council, now under consideration, never materializes. In 1912 all the rest of the large peninsula formerly known as "Labrador" was added to the Province of Quebec, an area reputed to contain 354,961 square miles. Under the mediaeval title "the coasts of Labrador," Newfoundland still holds jurisdiction over an unknown quantity of it, as if she were some sea rover granted all she could get out of " foreign parts abroad."

INTRODUCTION xiii

Canada in 1921 sent the S.S. Acadia to make a complete survey of Hamilton Inlet, which she claimed directly lumber mills were erected in the Grand River district. As a result, the big companies trading for fur in the Bay have refused to pay duties to Newfoundland. If justified in this, it looks as if those which have long been paid under protest would have to be refunded by the Colony.

As Labrador has no representation, it being too expensive to collect the votes of the widely scattered inhabitants, it was proposed in 1919 to appoint the Governor of Newfoundland ex-officio as Commissioner for it, but nothing resulted and there is still no one to care for her interests. The first protector, the Governor of Boston, refused to look after her, Newfoundland neglected her, and Canada got tired of her and returned her, till now she still drags along unrepresented and uncared for. This is so much the case that close as she is to the United States many of her marvellous fjords are as yet uncharted. Thus the only chart extant of the approach to Nain from the sea was made in 1912 by a German. My own copy was presented to me by the author, captain of the battleship Bremen, later so famous in the Great War. The captain of the mail steamer patrolling the northern three hundred miles of coast says that he never uses a chart, as there is none of any value, except for the general direction.

The bays of Labrador are marvellously wild and interesting, many still untrodden by the foot of civilized man. In the Labrador Pilot, volume II of 1917, are our descriptions of three of these bays. In addition, we have explored three more. Jeanette Bay has a fine harbour for yachts at the entrance, and a vessel of ten feet draught could easily pick her way up thence, following her motor boat to an anchorage close to a fine salmon river. The seals and birds which we saw in the Bay also made us feel that it would appeal strongly xiv INTRODUCTION

to sportsmen. Mr. Paul Rainey in the S.S. Surf visited it about 1912, and secured excellent hunting and fishing. Adlatok Bay is also a wonderful piece of water, uniting half way down with another great bay called Ugutok. Of all the fjords visited by us and as yet undescribed, I would place Tikkoaktokak Bay first for grandeur and awe-inspiring scenery. Its perpendicular cliffs polished by land and snowslides ; its extraordinary formation on the north side and the two rivers flowing into the head, one from the east and the other from the southwest, with their mouths within a biscuit's toss of one another, make it an exceptionally thrilling experience to penetrate to its headwaters. The anchorage there is safe and excellent. These magnificent waterways will some day prove one of the chief sources of income of the " Lonely Labrador." While we took salmon and large trout on the fly the former need a lot of tempting to rise, though each fish was worth catching. One could see hundreds in the pools. There is also hunting in season, — deer trails, bear footprints, and other signs of wild animal life being very evident. Of the other bays, Seaglek runs in forty miles, between cliffs averaging two thousand feet in height and in places reaching to over three thousand five hundred. For the last twenty miles these cliffs are only separated by a narrow mile of fjord, and give an impressive sense of grandeur as one sails up. In Kanairiktok Bay — running in about thirty miles from the seacoast — is a beautiful fall thirty feet high, the foam of which can be seen miles distant. In Adlavik Bay are several rivers and in the pool of one of them were hundreds of salmon. The old idea that salmon north of latitude 52° will hardly take a fly is entirely exploded. Two American friends fishing in the Eagle River this year (1921) only stopped fishing because they had caught all they needed and could preserve.

INTRODUCTION XV

The forests of Labrador, though not known to be of great value and immense extent, are hardly touched by man's enterprise. Black and white pines attain commercial size in most of the river valleys as far north as 55°. Spruce two feet across and several feet long are numerous in the Hamilton River Valley. An adventurous aeronautical survey of the timber lands of the southeastern section made in 1919 showed a very general and dense distribution of good-looking timbers, birch and balsam poplars being everywhere in evidence among the conifers. Judging by the excellent spars up to seventy feet long which I have seen floated out of rivers as far north even as the big river of Adlavik north of Cape Harrison, the day is not far off when in this land of Cain the " welkin will ring to the tune of axes and saws" that will hew out prosperity for a people, even as at Chicoutami and Abatibi, further west and south in the same peninsula.

The much frequented ocean way known as the Straits of Belle Isle which bounds Labrador on the southeast has been again of late the subject of serious discussion. It has been suggested that a dam nine miles long be built from Point Amour to Flowers Cove on the north Newfoundland shore, which would close off the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This, by shutting out the Arctic ice and the cold water of the Polar current, might considerably ameliorate the climate of all the land to the westward. The water is not deep, and the enterprise is in no way impossible. Judging from personal experience, however, I should very much doubt this result on the climate, for the outside ice seems seldom to penetrate far enough into the Gulf to alter the temperature much, although the formation of ice locally may be responsible for this.

The fact that the ability to free nitrogen from its compounds was really a measure of power to win the war also suggests a great future for the perfectly untold undeveloped xvi INTRODUCTION

energy of the waterfalls from the great Labrador table-land. When it is remembered that Germany succeeded during the past few years in converting a need for nitrogen expressed by 750,000 tons annually of imported nitrates into an ability to export 500,000 tons of her own manufacture from the air, the untold possibilities of a country, one-fourth of which is estimated to be lakes and rivers, and whose immense tablelands rise many hundreds of feet above the sea and measure hundreds of thousands of square miles, can well be realized. It needs no special prophetic vision to foretell a future for this long neglected country, especially when timber, coal and other fuel get scarcer, as they bid fair to do, before the energy of the free atom is at man's service. Such energy in all probability will be available by the use of some such unstinted cheap power as falling water — a geometrical progression, exactly as toxins communicated are stepped up, becoming more toxic as they affect each new person. Another new and enormous source of power was put on the map in 1921 by John Thomas of Buffalo. Travelling from the hospital at Northwest River in the month of March with his dogs he discovered twenty miles south of the present Grand Falls another of the same height though less in volume. The water is an offshoot of the Grand River above the falls and rejoins it below. Okpatik, Kanairiktok and others are also very considerable sources of power. About the centre of the country one of the most wonderful phenomena in the world, the Grand Falls of Labrador, still yields neither its pleasure nor its energy to mankind, and only a rare traveller has set eyes upon its marvels.

So far it has always been the fishery and furring industry of Labrador in which have consisted its chief sources of wealth. Considerable changes have overtaken both her land and sea industries. Twine for nets, rope, canvas and all ship neces-

INTRODUCTION xvn

sities, pork, flour and foodstuffs, oilskins, boots, woollens and all clothing, have so risen in cost that fish cannot be caught now for less than double the old-time prices. Freights have mounted also ; poverty and adverse exchange have so crippled our customers in the Mediterranean that it has become so big a venture to fit out a schooner for the fisheries that many of the very best of our " voyage-killers" have ceased to prosecute their calling, while some of the supply merchants have been driven out of business. New markets must be opened up. Temporarily Russia is bidding for a large quantity; while efforts are also being made to sell Labrador fish in the United States. Unfortunately the new revision of the tariff, among other things, discriminates against fish practically to its exclusion. America's new policy is to raise a huge wall of exclusion against her poor little neighbour; and some of us question its wisdom.

New methods of catching fish, such as flax gill nets, have been introduced to prevent the disaster that follows upon there being too much bait fish, in which case the cod, lying stoggy in deep water, glutted with food, are impossible to work. There is now even a machine to split the cod, remove the bone and clean the fish, which is in operation in some parts of Labrador. The machine will take seventy fish in a minute and might be made to do even three times that quantity.

Some markets are being opened in Europe for our salmon, and one or two steamers have prepared to furnish cold storage space during transportation. The old method of salting fish in barrels does not leave it appetizing enough to ever develop a new market. The recent idea of having the salmon exported frozen, though about three times the cost, is well worth the expenditure. About one million pounds went out in 1921.

There is also a modern plan for converting the immense xviii INTRODUCTION

bulk of offal, heads and general wastage from our fish, into food for chickens. This has not yet been perfected, but is being tried out. As the matter stands at present the waste is appalling. The large amount of gelatin now lost promises to produce a bi-product that will again add greatly to the incentive to engage in the fisheries. Even before the war Germany was using over two hundred and fifty thousand tons of fish meal made from waste fish and fish waste, for feeding hogs and cattle. In Iceland cows are fed on salt fish, and they even seem to like and thrive upon the gristle and tail fins of large fish. There is no reason why we should not make farina — the dry powdered product of the flat fish now wasted, or of other fish — seeing that it has a protein value over sixty per cent. All that is needed in Labrador is to wisely utilize its natural products.

The onslaught with gun harpoons and fast steamers has to some extent told on the number of large cetaceans that come within striking distance of our shores. At the present moment every whaling station is closed. For our dog teams in winter we are already lamenting the loss of the generous supply of fat and protein food that was formerly furnished us by that industry, for as our sole means of transportation during at least six months of the year, the physical welfare of our dogs is of vital importance. Our seals have certainly decreased in number. The great steamers with their large crews and modern rifles give unprotected mothers and their young little chance to escape ; and many of the old fishery stands, where the seals in spring and fall regularly ' 'trimmed the shore" and were captured in large numbers, are now hardly worth fishing. The greatly increased difficulty of getting seal-skin moccasins which are a necessity to life in the North emphasizes the fact, and calls more loudly than ever to have accorded to these valuable animals the protection, when breed-

INTRODUCTION xix

ing, that every other mammal on earth useful to man has to have, in order to save it from extinction.

The scientific study of the movements of our staple food fishes, like so much else, is still quite neglected. A big fishery will be carried on all summer on one side of a headland, and not catch enough fish to eat, while on the other side fish are so plentiful that the fishermen are unable to haul their nets or salt their catches. Why ? No one knows. Can a fisherman find out if he should remain waiting or move to another berth ? Every year empty boats return with impoverished breadwinners from the Coast due to this peculiar fact. Yet no one knows what the cause is, nor how to avert it ; and no one is seriously trying to find out. Temperature of the water is said to be the cause. In rivers heated by forest fires trout die at a temperature of 68° F. The bait fish in the sea appear to be even more sensitive. Caplin, on the movements of which our cod fishing depends, seem to die at a much lower temperature and to be sensitive to even one or two degrees rise. If a fisherman, by lowering a thermometer into the sea, knew that he could not find fish in one place, he would move to another ; but no one is even trying to teach him how to find out.

Labrador is affording the world a most explicit illustration of the fact that impulses radiate in every direction. When trap-nets were first evolved and it was found that cod could be caught in immense quantities at one time, fishermen worked for an earthly paradise, and we prophesied a great increase in their numbers. But the contrary has happened. As soon as motor engines came into use, they found it so easy to go to and fro from the fishing grounds that we again prophesied that every man would be selling his farm and buying a schooner. But again the reverse was the result. If ever the price of fish were to reach ten dollars a quintal we prophesied xx INTRODUCTION

plenty and ease for the fishermen. But once more we were entirely wrong. Even now the fishermen get nearly three times the price for their catch that used to satisfy their forebears, but they are poorer than ever, so poor that many are literally starved out of fishing. All along the line the country has made so-called progress, but the average fisherman is if anything less able to wrest his bread and butter from his hard environment. Here and there a stalwart lad has returned to the hook and line fishery, avoiding the gamble of a huge and expensive net liable without a moment's notice to be lost owing to heavy seas or ice and leave the venturer with a debt which he can never hope to pay. The " hook-andliner " has to work harder, to fish during a longer season, and to endure more physical hardship, but he gains enormously in mental peace. Not a few of these same men even scrapped their motor engines when the price of oil mounted to a dollar a gallon. They thus inadvertently avoided the result of the motor habit, the symptoms of which seem to be marked by the atrophy of both physical and moral muscles.

Mr. William Cabot journeyed from St. Augustine to Paradise rivers in 1920, and his almost annual visits to them have demonstrated that our ancient Indian Aborigines are rapidly approaching extinction. The high selling price of fur during the war lured the white trappers to penetrate even further than ever into the interior and so curtail the Indians ' ground. The Indian will farm the valuable fur-bearing animals on his presumptive territory as carefully as a farmer his stock, while he will destroy all the caribou that he sees, though they are equally necessary to his life, since he depends on them for food. But he knows that the caribou is a vagrant, and that the white settler will shoot it if he does not. On lands that are common hunting grounds he has no reason to spare anything. Cabot, who better than any one knows

INTRODUCTION xxi

these people from long personal acquaintance, living and travelling with them, and having helped to publish a book of their language, describes them as a very charming race, friendly, peaceful, generous and real sportsmen — but doomed.

The native Eskimo and half-breed population were almost decimated in 1918 by a terrible epidemic of influenza. In one village of three hundred people, in three weeks, two hundred and fifty died — which toll included every adult male. In some white settlers ' homes every soul died in a few hours ; and some, isolated and enfeebled, were killed by their own famished dogs and partly eaten, there being literally no one left to go to their assistance. The chief Moravian settlement at Nain, on its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, was destroyed by fire, the very day after their steamer Harmony had landed all their winter supplies. Everything was destroyed, including the valuable fur catch of the year, and the personal belongings of the missionaries. For the past one hundred and fifty years the Moravians have been the champions of the Eskimo people.

Still, there is a future, and a great future, for Labrador, as there was for "Our Lady of the Snows," for Alaska, for Australia, New Mexico, Florida, and other countries that have but recently come to their own. Personally, I can see the day ever clearer as the years go by. It may not be in my time. But the world needs now what the Labrador can give — this great, lone land of silence. In body and spirit it has great things to offer. During the years that have passed since this volume was first published, our faith has become only more unshaken in the future of "the Labrador."

Contents

CHAPTEB PAGE

I. Historical Introduction — By W. S. Wallace . 1 II. Travelled Routes to Labrador — By Wilfred

T. Grenfell 37

Chapter I

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION * By W. S. Wallace

Labrador has not much history. So far as we know, it was first seen by European eyes in 986. From that time until about 1700 it almost enjoyed the happiness of the country which has no history. There is nothing to record but the voyages of navigators who came and saw the land, and sailed away. Labrador, said Jacques Cartier, was " the land God gave to Cain"; there was "not one cartload of earth on the whole of it." No one came to live on the coast until about 1700. But if the history of Labrador is deficient in quantity, it is marked by an infinite variety. Across the stage there pass in succession the savage bands of the Eskimos, an earlier race than ours; the storm-driven " dragons" of the Vikings; the early navigators, Venetian, Portuguese, English; whalers and fishermen from the Basque Provinces, from France, from the west of England; French-Canadian seigneurs and concessionaires along the Cdte du Nord; English settlers after 1763 above the Strait of Belle Isle (among them