Front matter

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

THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS

ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN

THE LAST OF CIVILIZATION

ON THE OLD INDIAN TRAIL

WE GO ASTRAY

LAKE NIPISHISH IS REACHED

SCOUTING FOR THE TRAIL

SEAL LAKE AT LAST

WE LOSE THE TRAIL

“WE SEE MICHIKAMAU”

THE PARTING AT MICHIKAMAU

OVER THE NORTHERN DIVIDE

DISASTER IN THE RAPIDS

TIDE WATER AND THE POST

OFF WITH THE ESKIMOS

CAUGHT BY THE ARCTIC ICE

TO WHALE RIVER AND FORT CHIMO

THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH

THE ESKIMOS OF LABRADOR

THE SLEDGE JOURNEY BEGUN

CROSSING THE BARRENS

ON THE ATLANTIC ICE

BACK TO NORTHWEST RIVER

THE END OF THE LONG TRAIL

APPENDIX