LABMADOR (Port. terra labarador, " cultivable land"), the name given by certain Portuguese discoverers to the continental coast of America near Newfoundland; a name as inappropriate as that of Greenland! The name gradually came to be extended from the strait of Belle Isle to Hudson's strait, being sometimes carried as far westward as the eastern shores of Hudson's bay. More properly, however, Labrador embraces only such portions of that vast peninsula as do not fall within what were formerly the, char tered territories of the Hudson's Bay company (q.v ), by pouring water into Hudson's strait or bay. In this sense, the country stretches in n. lat. from about :a° to about 60°, and in w. long: from about 55° to upwards of 65°; area, 70,000 sq.m.; pop. 5,000. Of this extensive country the interior is little known, but is understood to be mostly an impenetrable wilderness of swamps and forests. The maritime border, however (although its shores are wild and precipitous, reaching a height of from 400 to GOO ft., and on the n. from 1000 to 1500 ft.), is not without its value. The sea is here far less subject to fogs than it is in the neighborhood of Newfoundland, where the warm waters of the Florida stream meet the cold currents from the n ; and as it is constantly sup plied from the polar ice, its temperature is remarkably favorable both to the quantity and the quality of its fish. Of the entire population of Labrador, 4,000 are Esquimaux,
who are settled on the gulfs and creeks of the coast, and who subsist chiyfly by fishing. Many European establishments also have sprung up on the coast, some of them, such as the Moravian settlements, blending commercial pursuits with missionary labors. The principal missionary stations are Fain (founded 1771), Okak (1776), Hebron (1830), and Hopenthal (1782). The fisheries employ, in the season, nearly 1000 decked vessels, partly to the British provinces, principally Newfoundland, and partly to the United States: Besides a few furs and feathers, the exports consist of cod and salmon, with cod-oil and seal-oil, the total value in 1875 amounting to £1,642,953. The climate, like that of North America generally, is subject to great vicissitudes In summer, the thermometer ranges as high as 85° Fahr.; in winter, the temperature. and that in nearly the same latitude as the British isles, falls 30° below the freezing-point. Labrador is a dependency of the United Kingdom.• but it has never had a separate government of its own. Part of it is under the jurisdiction of Canada, and part under that of New foundland. It is supposed to have been visited by the Northmen about the 9th century.