Labrador has many fine rivers, such as the George river, Whale river and Payne river that enter Ungava bay, the Koksoak river being 500 m. long. Into Hudson's bay fall the East Main river, Rupert river, and the Great Whale river, also 500 m. in length. Most of these rivers freeze solid in winter. On the south coast are the Moisie, Romaine, St. Paul's, Natasquhan and St. Augustine, about 30o m. long, while the main rivers on the east coast are the Frazer, the Eagle, the North-west river, the Hamilton, and fair-sized rivers at the heads of all the end less fjords. Canoe journeys across the whole peninsula are thus easily made, and, it is said, with less effort and portages, and greater safety than in almost any country. There are many noticeable waterfalls in Labrador, especially on the Eagle river, the White Bear river, and Okpatik river, the finest being that of the Grand or Hamilton river. This stream drains the plateau from I,000 lakes, cuts through the height of land, and after falling 75o ft. in 12 m., takes one stupendous leap of 316 ft. about 300 m. from its mouth, and about 150 m. N. of the shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This fall has been always known to the Indians, who, hearing its thunder, and seeing its clouds of spray with their eternal rainbows ever hovering high over them in the air, have considered the chasm always to be the home of the Manitou, or their chief omnipotent spirit, on which account they never venture near it. It has now been mapped and photographed. The actual fall, over 30o ft. in height, is almost as high as one Niagara on the top of another. Its canyon below is II m. long, and its cliffs average Soo ft. in height. The cliffs are topped by abundant forests, and over a million horse power is eternally running to waste over the fall, as no attempt to harness it has yet been made. Two other rivers, some 20 to 25 TM to the south ward leap over the same fault in the rocks. The larger is the farthest south. It was discovered by John Thomas of Buffalo, on an expedition by dogs from North-west river, and was called by him the Grenf ell falls. It drains the Ossokmanuan lake, and possibly Attikonak lake also, and ends in the Hamilton near Lake Winakopau. The other, about 5 m. to the north, probably part of the upper Hamilton, was located and photographed by Varrick Frissell of Yale, and was named the Yale falls. For more detailed accounts of the hinterland of Labrador, other works must be consulted. Commander MacMillan's expedition of 1927 in 56° N., expeditions of the International Paper company, and many explorers flying in on planes and landing in the large lakes, have added much knowledge to the excellent descriptions given by A. P. Lowe of the Canadian survey. But so far not many of their results are published. Exploration of the ice in Hudson strait is being carried on in 1928 by a flying corps stationed at the north end of Labrador with a view of determining the feasibility of the Hudson's bay route for freight from Western Canada to Europe, via the Hudson's bay railway. The ice blowing out of Fox channel in the autumn has at times made navigation of the strait difficult in September and October.
The main Labrador rocks are the oldest in the world ; alongside its mountains the Rockies and the Andes are new-born babies. Up and down, they have been, like all the rest, probably many times beneath the sea, as the marvellous section of the very ribs of mother earth displayed in all their naked ness at Mugford Tickle clearly show. It is rising now from the sea, which its raised sea caves 30o ft. above sea level, its endless great beaches of boulders high up on the hillsides, show perhaps more plainly than anywhere in the world. The minerals
of Labrador, beyond mica and hornblende, iron ores, and the semi-precious crystalline feldspar formation known as labradorite, were said to be about all that could ever be expected in the ancient formations of which the majority of its rocks consist. But the discovery of gold and silver, nickel and cobalt, lead, zinc and copper in the same Archaean complex of which Labrador's vast table land is known to be formed, just further west in Ontario, and now in Manitoba, and now in Newfound land, give reason to try and re-read the story of the earth in terms of more modern experience. Included in the crumples of the ancient surface, when the earth's oldest crust was yielding to untold pressure from the north-east, are now known to be rem nants of the younger rocks, sometimes called algomin, in which all across the great Canadian shield vast deposits of valuable minerals are being found. Thus there is every likelihood of similar valuable deposits being found in Labrador, when they can be prospected. Iron in the interior in the form of magnetite is known to exist over vast areas. It has been located and mapped by such experts as those of the Canadian Geological Survey, while travellers and trappers have often complained that their compasses would not work along the higher reaches of the Hamilton river. This has been suggested as a possible cause for the errors of the aeroplanes bound west across the Atlantic. Veins of iron outcrop along the face of the cliffs around Rowse11's Harbour. These have been located and worked experimentally. Gold has been found north of Sandwich bay, antimony in traces in the Mealy mountains, and copper near Cape Mugf ord. But until 1927 no firm titles could be given to encourage prospectors, as the ownership of Labrador was always in dispute, moreover, communication during months of the year was impossible, and transport in winter equally so.
In A.D. 986 Bjarni Herjulfson, attempting to reach Greenland found Labrador instead. In A.D. i000, Leif, son of Eric the Red, followed him, and declared it to be worthless, containing only rocks and ice. In 1534 Jacques Cartier corro borated this, and called it the Land of Cain. John Cabot visited it in 1498, and in 15oo Corte Real from Portugal cruised all along the east coast. He captured some 6o Nascopee Indians, whom he carried back for slaves, and he reported timber in great abundance, from both of which facts it is evident that he was the first to sail up the fjords, as neither forests nor Indians affect the outside coast line that is kept barren by the Polar current. In later times, many famous names have been associated with Lab rador. Thither went Frobisher, and Davis and Bourdon, and Joliet, discoverer of the Mississippi, who made the first rough chart of the whole coast, which is still preserved in Paris. In the i6th century, Basque fishermen frequented the coast, and were followed by Portuguese, and French who have left remains in Brest, La Bradore, Chateau and other places, together with French names and French seignorial rights, such as those of the Chevalier family at Bonne Esperance. In the i 7th century, great fishing firms from the Channel Islands made settlements on the south coast, and at its close Maj. George Cartwright, from Eng land, opened stations as far north as Sandwich bay. To him we owe the first history we have of any value, his diary being a close rival of Pepys's for human interest. But Labrador may be said to have never had any historian till W. G. Gosling published his most excellent and reliable researches in 1906.