



Produced by Martin Schub










THE LONG LABRADOR TRAIL

by

DILLON WALLACE

Author of "The Lure of the Labrador Wild," etc.

Illustrated

MCMXVII






             TO THE
       MEMORY OF MY WIFE



  "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

"It's always the way, Wallace!  When a fellow starts on the long trail,
