The Long Labrador Trail | Page 2

by Frederic C.
Stokes) "Nachvak Post of the Hudson's Bay Company". "The Hills
Grew Higher and Higher" "We Turned Into a Pass Leading to the
Northward" The Moravian Mission at Ramah "Plodding Southward
Over the Endless Snow" "Nain, the Moravian Headquarters in
Labrador" "The Indians Were Here" Geological Specimens Maps.
CHAPTER I
THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS
"It's always the way, Wallace! When a fellow starts on the long trail,

he's never willing to quit. It'll be the same with you if you go with me
to Labrador. When you come home, you'll hear the voice of the
wilderness calling you to return, and it will lure you back again."
It seems but yesterday that Hubbard uttered those prophetic words as he
and I lay before our blazing camp fire in the snow-covered
Shawangunk Mountains on that November night in the year 1901, and
planned that fateful trip into the unexplored Labrador wilderness which
was to cost my dear friend his life, and both of us indescribable
sufferings and hardships. And how true a prophecy it was! You who
have smelled the camp fire smoke; who have drunk in the pure forest
air, laden with the smell of the fir tree; who have dipped your paddle
into untamed waters, or climbed mountains, with the knowledge that
none but the red man has been there before you; or have, perchance,
had to fight the wilds and nature for your very existence; you of the
wilderness brotherhood can understand how the fever of exploration
gets into one's blood and draws one back again to the forests and the
barrens in spite of resolutions to "go no more."
It was more than this, however, that lured me back to Labrador. There
was the vision of dear old Hubbard as I so often saw him during our
struggle through that rugged northland wilderness, wasted in form and
ragged in dress, but always hopeful and eager, his undying spirit and
indomitable will focused in his words to me, and I can still see him as
he looked when he said them:
"The work must be done, Wallace, and if one of us falls before it is
completed the other must finish it."
I went back to Labrador to do the work he had undertaken, but which
he was not permitted to accomplish. His exhortation appealed to me as
a command from my leader--a call to duty.
Hubbard had planned to penetrate the Labrador peninsula from
Groswater Bay, following the old northern trail of the Mountaineer
Indians from Northwest River Post of the Hudson's Bay Company,
situated on Groswater Bay, one hundred and forty miles inland from
the eastern coast, to Lake Michikamau, thence through the lake and

northward over the divide, where he hoped to locate the headwaters of
the George River.
It was his intention to pass down this river until he reached the hunting
camps of the Nenenot or Nascaupee Indians, there witness the annual
migration of the caribou to the eastern seacoast, which tradition said
took place about the middle or latter part of September, and to be
present at the "killing," when the Indians, it was reported, secured their
winter's supply of provisions by spearing the caribou while the herds
were swimming the river. The caribou hunt over, he was to have
returned across country to the St. Lawrence or retrace his steps to
Northwest River Post, whichever might seem advisable. Should the
season, however, be too far advanced to permit of a safe return, he was
to have proceeded down the river to its mouth, at Ungava Bay, and
return to civilization in winter with dogs.
The country through which we were to have traveled was to be mapped
so far as possible, and observations made of the geological formation
and of the flora, and as many specimens collected as possible.
This, then, Hubbard's plan, was the plan which I adopted and which I
set out to accomplish, when, in March, 1905, I finally decided to return
to Labrador.
It was advisable to reach Hamilton Inlet with the opening of navigation
and make an early start into the country, for every possible day of the
brief summer would be needed for our purpose.
It was, as I fully realized, no small undertaking. Many hundreds of
miles of unknown country must be traversed, and over mountains and
through marshes for long distances our canoes and outfit would have to
be transported upon the backs of the men comprising my party, as pack
animals cannot be used in Labrador.
Through immense stretches of country there would be no sustenance
for them, and, in addition to this, the character of the country itself
forbids their use.

The personnel of the expedition required much thought. I might with
one canoe and one or two professional Indian packers