LABRADOR
As Labrador adjoins the provinces of Quebec and Ungava, it is often
erroneously thought that the whole of it is under the jurisdiction
of the great Dominion of Canada, and the majority of boys will be
surprised to hear that the coast of this little-known country is a
dependency of Newfoundland. It is associated with the life of the
Eskimos, a people who dwell in “thrilling regions of thick-ribb’d ice,”
and is considered by the outside world as
“A land forsaken and dead,
Where the ghostly icebergs go.”
There is a great deal of tradition interwoven with the discovery of
Labrador. Some historians contend that as early as A.D. 1000 Europeans
had found their way to this bleak shore, and some are of the opinion
that the Icelanders and Greenlanders had set foot on the barren rocks
at a much earlier date. The true discoverer of Labrador, say other
historians, was John Cabot, of whose voyages we have given an account
in an earlier chapter.
[Illustration: UNLOADING THE HIDE AND FAT OF SEALS AT ST. JOHN’S.]
The present inhabitants obtain a livelihood by fishing and hunting,
and are really a peaceful people. Strange as it may seem, the best
educated people in Labrador are the Eskimos, which is due solely to the
untiring efforts of the Moravian missionaries. And when the inhabitants
are brought into closer communication with the outer world by increased
steamer, mail, and telegraphic services, there will be a greater future
reserved for the country than has ever been thought possible by even
those who know the Eskimo well, and the conditions under which he
maintains his existence.
The life of the Eskimo boy is a very hard one, but in their own way
the children enjoy themselves, and their days are not without pleasure
and sunshine. The baby boys are carried in a bag on the backs of their
mothers until they are able to eat a slice of walrus, and then they are
put into a pair of trousers, which the mother makes from seal-skins.
Their homes are made of wood and mud, or snow if the winter is
unusually cold. They consist of one room, through the top of which is a
hole to carry away the smoke from the open fire.
Before the Eskimo boys are very old, they are taught to repair tents,
use an oar, cast a line, and handle a gun. In addition, they are taught
how to drive a team of dogs across snow and ice, for dog-sleds in that
far-off country take the place of trains, trams, and hansom-cabs.
These dogs, however, are very treacherous. In appearance they are
exactly like wolves, and are often as ferocious. Any strange animal is
at once put to death by them. Domestic animals and farmyard stock are
soon killed and devoured. At certain seasons of the year, too, they
will snarl and snap at their owners. Quite recently a family of three
were reported to have been killed outright by these savage brutes. It
is expected that when the deer have been trained to do the work of
these dogs, an effort will be made to exterminate the entire breed.
It is astonishing, however, the amount of work the Eskimo dogs will
accomplish. A good team will travel from six to ten miles an hour, and
cover a distance of sixty miles in the day without showing fatigue.
Even at the end of such a day’s work, the team find no difficulty in
despatching a fox or a wolf should one dare to cross their path.
In the month of May, when the sealing season is practically over,
the salmon-nets are prepared, and away go the families with their
belongings to the salmon areas along the well-known rivers. Salmon
are so abundant that hundreds are caught in one week. Great skill is
sometimes shown by the Eskimo boys in the manipulation of their nets,
for unless they were watched and handled cautiously they would be
torn to pieces or carried away entirely by the masses of ice that go
rumbling down the rivers at the approach of warmer weather.
In the springtime the boys accompany their fathers on sealing
expeditions. Off they go, jumping from ice-pan to ice-pan with their
gaff for killing their victims. The boy has a keen eye, and if an old
seal pops his head above water, a bullet goes through it in a moment.
One method of capturing the seals is to build a barricade of ice,
behind which the hunters hide. As the seals appear above water they are
shot, and then harpooned, before they have a chance to sink.
The man who is destined to bring about the salvation of these
people, spiritually, intellectually, and commercially, is Dr. W. T.
Grenfell. To record all that this great man has accomplished, with his
experiences on land and sea, would be to fill a book many times larger
than the one in which these few references to him and his work are now
recorded.
Dr. Grenfell is descended from an old Devonshire stock. He was born on
the banks of the Dee, close to the Irish Sea, and he cannot remember
the time when he did not love the roar of the ocean, and longed for
romantic adventure in the far-off land towards which the billows
rolled. His youth was spent at Oxford, where he became a popular
figure in athletic circles. A surprising incident decided his future
for him. One evening during his medical course he went by chance
into the Tabernacle in East London, just at the time when Mr. Moody
was conducting evangelistic services in England. Here he received a
conviction that his own religious life was a humbug. He wrestled with
that conviction until it led him to decide that he would go to Labrador
as a missionary under the auspices of the Royal National Mission to
Deep-Sea Fishermen. In 1892 he took charge of the little steamer
_Alert_, and began his work among the people of Northern Newfoundland.
If you would like to know more of this self-denying man’s work, and to
read of his hairbreadth escapes from death, you should read his book
entitled “Vikings of To-day.”
Dr. Grenfell has made a study of the Eskimo dog, the animal that
has played such a part in the doctor’s missionary work. One of his
experiences runs thus:
“Modesty is a virtue of which the Eskimo dog is seldom guilty. I was
visiting one day a bedridden patient. As the outer door opened, a
fragrant scent as of a dinner preparing was wafted outward. Suddenly
an avalanche swept me off my legs, and a pack of dogs, whisking the
stew-pot off the fire, began to fight savagely over its contents, the
more so as each having burnt his nose in the boiling liquid attributed
his affliction to his neighbour. Meanwhile, the house filling with
steam and Eskimo imprecations, the latter rendered forcible by long
harpoon handles, made me almost sorry I had called.
“The ‘trail’ is usually over the frozen sea, the land being too
uneven. Good dogs will cover from 70 to 100 miles in a day. When
starting in the morning, the snow is covered with little icicles,
formed by the midday sun melting the frozen surface. As this is apt to
make the feet of the dogs bleed, they are shod with a bag of sealskin,
tied round the ankle. Three small holes are cut for the claws. A pup
shod for the first time holds up his paws in the air alternately, but
once he learns to appreciate the fact that shoes save his feet from
being cut, though he will always eat any ordinary piece of skin, such
as a _kavak_ or a skin boot, he rarely eats his own shoes. They do,
however, bite at and eat the harness, especially of the dog in front
of them. Mr. Young tells of a big dog which, though apparently always
hard at work, never seemed to get tired like the rest. It always
seemed to strain at its trace, and kept looking round, apparently for
the driver’s approval. His suspicions, however, were aroused, and one
day, cutting loose the trace, he fastened it by a single thread to the
_komatik_. Sure enough, the dog strained and worked as hard as ever,
but it never broke a single thread!
“Ploughing is a humdrum task which these dogs do not enjoy. The only
way it can be done is for one man to march solemnly in front dragging a
seal’s flipper, while another man has to shove and guide the plough.
“These dogs are fearless in retrieving birds by the seashore.
“When a flock passes, all the guns are discharged simultaneously, and
the ducks, which at times respond in showers, are nominally divided
equally.
“But now comes the excitement. As a rule a huge Atlantic surf, with
these north-east winds, breaks over the point, and the splendid pluck
and endurance of the dogs is taxed to the uttermost. Dashing into the
waves, I have seen them repeatedly hurled back, bruised and winded,
high on to the ledges of rock, only to be dragged off by the return
wave and once more pounded on to the rocks. To avoid this, the brave
beasts hold on with the energy of despair, and many times have I noted
their bleeding paws, and nails torn off in the unequal struggle. Yet
they would at once return to the charge, and, waiting their chance,
leap right over the breaking crest, and so get clear of the surf.
Once they seize a duck they never let it go, and I have often felt
sorely tempted even to jump in and give the brave creatures a hand
when it seemed impossible for them to keep up the struggle any longer.
Yet, after being lost to view, engulfed by a huge breaker, one would
soon see a duck appear, and after it a dog’s head, still true to its
hazardous duty. Sometimes, however, they are really lost.”
The Eskimo is not without some vague idea of a future state, as one
might expect when the religion of his progenitors is borne in mind.
He believes that death involves the separation of the spirit from his
body, and the spirit either soars to an unknown country in the sky,
or descends, he knows not where, into a subterranean resting-place.
The destiny of the soul is decided by the Eskimo’s manner of life and
death upon the earth. The Eskimos who die a violent death on the ice
or in the hunting-grounds are transported to the abode above. One
would naturally expect that every Eskimo coveted a death that would
insure his passage to the sky, but such is not the case. Those who go
below are considered to enjoy luxuries that are denied to those who go
above. Moreover, the inhabitants of the lower region are privileged
to communicate with their friends on earth, such communication being
impossible to the inhabitants of the other region.
The Eskimo also believes that the affairs of his earthly life are
ordered by an attendant spirit, who has power to destroy the labours of
his hands or crown them with success. This spirit is understood to be
extremely malignant, and only by sacrificial offerings is it possible
to propitiate him. Very frequently an idol of this malignant spirit is
carried by the Eskimo in his ammunition-bag if he wishes his hunting
expedition to be successful.
There is something very poetic, if crude, about their notions of the
sky and clouds. They believe that the sky is a hard substance forming
a gigantic arch above the earth, and that the clouds are in charge of
two old women, who spread them across the sky and then roll them up
again. When it thunders, the old women are conversing together, and the
lightning is supposed to be a lamp to light them on their way beneath
the arch of blue. The whistling wind is interpreted as the breath of
two large-headed spirits who stand one at each corner of the earth.
It is natural for ignorant people to associate superstition with the
magnificent displays of the Aurora Borealis.
These beautiful lights, say the Eskimos, are torches held in the hands
of spirits who come to seek the souls of those who have recently passed
away. By the aid of these torches the souls are led across the dark
abyss at the edge of the world to a celestial region where sorrow and
death never come, and where they no longer feel the pangs of hunger,
for food and water are abundant there.
BILLING AND SONS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unpaired
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of
inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.
List of Illustrations: “Indian Burying-Place Near Exploits” was not
found in the source materials of the original book. The actual cover,
which was not included in those source materials, uses the illustration
facing page 30.
Page 6: The quotation attributed to John Guy contains many words
spelled differently than how they are spelled today. These and other
possibly archaic or dialect spellings have not been changed.
Page 57: The caption SEALS ON “PACK-ICE” was omitted in the original
book but added by Transcriber by copying it from the List of
Illustrations.