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To a man like Mr. Hind, of whom we last heard when on his return from sundry exploring expeditions in the Winnipeg district, the Red River settlement, and the wilds of the two Bow Rivers and the Rocky Mountains; the requisites for an exploration of the even less known interior of Labrador were few and simple. Small, light, and strong canoes, a plentiful supply of the best provisions, portable tents, two or three changes of flannel clothing, a few good instruments, practised voyageurs, and skilful guides, are, we are told, all that are absolutely necessary. mountainous character of the country does not admit of canoes longer than three fathoms being used, and this condition places a limit to the number of men that can be employed, and the amount of provisions that can be transported. A good three-fathom canoe will carry three men and five hundred-weight of provisions conveniently, without being too low in the water, in a large and rapid river; neither is it more than one man, accustomed to the work, can carry over the portages, which in the wilds of Eastern Canada and Labrador are generally long, "rough," and only capable of admitting the passage of the small canoes used by the Montagnais Indians.

Travel, in fact, in Labrador, as in Eastern and Western Canada, consists in paddling up mountain streams against all kinds of difficulties, with the ever-recurring change of having to get over rapids and falls by landing and carrying boats and stores over rocks and woods, down ravines, and up hills and mountains, with, in Labrador and other unexplored regions, no traffic pathway, but dense forest and bog, through which the voyageur has to cut his way foot by foot; and these tremendous obstacles to progress vary from one to sometimes many miles in length.

Mr. Hind's exploratory party consisted of himself, his brother, an artist, Messrs. Gaudet and Cally, surveyors, five French-Canadian voyageurs, one Abenakis, and one Montagnais Indian. For such a party, four birch canoes, 500 lbs. bacon, 800 lbs. flour, 200 lbs. biscuit, 2000 rations pressed vegetables, 50 lbs. tea, and 25 lbs. tobacco, were provided. None of the Nasquapees, the only other tribe, who, with the so-called Montagnais, inhabit the neighbourhood of the Moisie Riverthe river up which the exploration was to be carried, and of which little or nothing was previously known-could be induced to accompany the expedition.

Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula. By Henry Youle Hind, M.A., F.R.G.S. Two Vols. Longmans. Jan.-VOL. CXXX. NO. DXVII.

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Yet has this Moisie River-the " 'great river" of the Montagnais Indians, which enters the Gulf of St. Lawrence in longitude 66 deg. 10 min., about eighteen miles east of the bay of the Seven Islandsbeen for centuries one of the leading lines of communication from the interior to the coast, and travelled by the Montagnais during the time when they were a numerous and powerful people, capable of assembling upwards of "a thousand warriors" to repel the invasion of the Esquimaux; for even arctic and sub-arctic nations can no more be restrained from the perilous pastime of war than those dwelling in temperate or intertropical climates-than those who are supposed to be so much more humane and enlightened. Indians and Esquimaux are, like other savage races, gradually disappearing from contact with civilised man; but not in this case under the ordinary circumstances-of fire-water, new diseases, and perpetual pushing of the more energetic race-but from quite peculiar circumstances. The Indian Montagnais and Nasquapee alike deteriorate on the coast, and rapidly lose the energy and bodily strength which characterise them when living in the interior, and which constitutional powers are there absolutely necessary in order that they may maintain themselves in a mountainous country thinly stocked with game. Once on the coast, their habits soon change-they live on seals and fish, become very susceptible of changes in the weather, and are liable during the spring of the year to prolonged attacks of influenza; the young people become consumptive, the middle-aged rheumatic, and death rapidly thins the ranks of these once numerous and singularly interesting races. But if in the interior the mountaineer Indian preserves his pristine spirit, vigour, and enduring qualities, where is he to be found? Reading Mr. Hind's journal carefully through, we are only impressed with the idea of his meeting one Montagnais chief (he might well be a chief, for he seems to have been by himself alone), who had, with his wife and family, wintered in the interior; and even he had adopted a young Nasquapee Indian to help him in providing for the wants of his family, and this during the whole extent of the exploration! The chief cause of the decline of the Labrador Indians lies, however, in the greater destruction of animals brought about by the introduction of fire-arms. Before the Indians had guns they could not kill many caribou-the reindeer of Labrador: it was very hard work to shoot them with arrows and follow them for miles, so many remained. Since the white men have provided the Indians with guns and ammunition in their cupidity for skins, the caribou has become quite rare. So it is with all other useful animals, and those that preyed upon them being likewise deprived of resources, they have also perished away. All that remains to the Indian are salmon, and trout, and wild geese, but these are only to be obtained for a season, and in winter-time he is left to starve, and so it is that his race is becoming extinct even before the remote influence of the white

man.

In such a country a man is esteemed solely for his prowess in hunting, shooting, and fishing. We have a primeval condition of society, and man's power of rearing a family must depend upon his bodily activity and endurance, and his skill in procuring daily subsistence. An incident that occurred before the starting of the expedition from the coast is highly characteristic of this feature in Indian life. One of the Indians

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