The "Canadian Labrador" is the last remaining vestige of the
No-Man's-Land which, only a hundred years ago, began at the Saguenay,
within 120 miles of Quebec. Then, as the organised "North Shore"
advanced down stream, the unorganised "Canadian Labrador" receded before
it. Fifty years ago the dividing line was at Seven Islands, 300 miles
below Quebec. To-day it runs just east of Natashquan and is a full 500
miles below.
There is no stranger country anywhere than this Canadian Labrador. Dr
Grenfell's Labrador, which has nothing to do with Canada, is known to
everyone. But the very existence of our own Labrador, with its 200
miles of coastline and its more than 20,000 islands, is quite unknown,
as a separate entity, to all but a very few outside of its little, but
increasing, population of 1200 souls. It lies on the north shore of the
Gulf, just inside the Straits of Belle Isle, and runs from Bradore in
the east to Kegashka in the west. Here, close beside the crowded track
of ocean liners, and well below the latitude of London, is by far the
most southerly arctic region in the world. It is a land of rock and
moss; for, except along the river valleys, there are neither grass nor
trees.
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