The Long Labrador Trail

"A drear and desolate shore! Where no tree unfolds its leaves, And never the spring wind weaves Green grass for the hunter's tread; A land forsaken and dead, Where the ghostly icebergs go And come with the ebb and flow..."

Whittier's "The Rock-tomb of Bradore."

PREFACE

In the summer of 1903 when Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., went to Labrador to explore a section of the unknown interior it was my privilege to accompany him as his companion and friend. The world has heard of the disastrous ending of our little expedition, and how Hubbard, fighting bravely and heroically to the last, finally succumbed to starvation.

Before his death I gave him my promise that should I survive I would write and publish the story of the journey. In "The Lure of The Labrador Wild" that pledge was kept to the best of my ability.

While Hubbard and I were struggling inland over those desolate wastes, where life was always uncertain, we entered into a compact that in case one of us fall the other would carry to completion the exploratory work that he had planned and begun. Providence willed that it should become my duty to fulfil this compact, and the following pages are a record of how it was done.

Not I, but Hubbard, planned the journey of which this book tells, and from him I received the inspiration and with him the training and experience that enabled me to succeed. It was his spirit that led me on over the wearisome trails, and through the rushing rapids, and to him and to his memory belong the credit and the honor of success.

D. W. February, 1907.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS II ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN III THE LAST OF CIVILIZATION IV ON THE OLD INDIAN TRAIL V WE GO ASTRAY VI LAKE NIPISHISH IS REACHED VII SCOUTING FOR THE TRAIL VIII SEAL LAKE AT LAST IX WE LOSE THE TRAIL X "WE SEE MICHIKAMAU" XI THE PARTING AT MICHIKAMAU XII OVER THE NORTHERN DIVIDE XIII DISASTER IN THE RAPIDS XIV TIDE WATER AND THE POST XV OFF WITH THE ESKIMOS XVI CAUGHT BY THE ARCTIC ICE XVII TO WHALE RIVER AND FORT CHIMO XVIII THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH XIX THE ESKIMOS OF LABRADOR XX THE SLEDGE JOURNEY BEGUN XXI CROSSING THE BARRENS XXII ON THE ATLANTIC ICE XXIII BACK TO NORTHWEST RIVER XXIV THE END OF THE LONG TRAIL APPENDIX

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Perils of the Rapids (in color, from a painting by Oliver Kemp)

Ice Encountered Off the Labrador Coast

"The Time For Action Had Come"

"Camp Was Moved to the First Small Lake"

"We Found a Long-disused Log Cache of the Indians"

Below Lake Nipishish

Through Ponds and Marshes Northward Toward Otter Lake

"We Shall Call the River Babewendigash"

"Pete, Standing by the Prostrate Caribou, Was Grinning From Ear to Ear"

"A Network of Lakes and the Country as Level as a Table"

Michikamau

"Writing Letters to the Home Folks"

"Our Lonely Perilous Journey Toward the Dismal Wastes ...Was Begun"

Abandoned Indian Camp On the Shore of Lake Michikamats

"One of the Wigwams Was a Large One and Oblong in Shape"

"At Last ...We Saw the Post"

"A Miserable Little Log Shack"

A Group of Eskimo Women

A Labrador Type

Eskimo Children

A Snow Igloo

The Silence of the North (in color, from a painting by Frederic C. Stokes)

"Nachvak Post of the Hudson's Bay Company".

"The Hills Grew Higher and Higher"

"We Turned Into a Pass Leading to the Northward"

The Moravian Mission at Ramah

"Plodding Southward Over the Endless Snow"

"Nain, the Moravian Headquarters in Labrador"

"The Indians Were Here"

Geological Specimens

Maps.

CHAPTER I

THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS