down in a southeasterly direction and then bends
northeasterly to reach the end of Hamilton Inlet. The tributaries of
the lakes forming the headwaters of the Grand River connect it
indirectly with Lake Michikamau (Big Water). This, the largest lake in
eastern Labrador, is between eighty and ninety miles in length, with a
width varying from six to twenty-five miles.

The Grand River, as well as a portion of Lake Michikamau, some years
ago was explored and correctly mapped; but the other rivers that flow
to the eastward have either been mapped only from hearsay or not at
all. Of the several rivers flowing into Ungava Bay, the Koksoak alone
has been explored. This river, which is the largest of those flowing
north, rises in lakes to the westward of Lake Michikamau. Next to the
Koksoak, the George is the best known of the rivers emptying into
Ungava Bay, as well as the second largest; but while it has been
learned that its source is among the lakes to the northward of
Michikamau, it has been mapped only from hearsay.

Now if the reader will turn to the accompanying map of Labrador made by
Mr. A. P. Low of the Canadian Geological Survey, he will see that the
body of water known as Grand Lake is represented thereon merely as the
widening out of a large river, called the Northwest, which flows from
Lake Michikamau to Groswater Bay or Hamilton Inlet, after being joined
about twenty miles above Grand Lake by a river called the Nascaupee.
Relying upon this map, Hubbard planned to reach early in the summer the
Northwest River Post of the Hudson's Bay Company, which is situated at
the mouth of the Northwest River, ascend the river to Lake Michikamau,
and then, from the northern end of that lake, beat across the country
to the George River.

The Geological Survey map is the best of Labrador extant, but its
representation as to the Northwest River (made from hearsay) proved to
be wholly incorrect, and the mistake it led us into cost us dear.
After the rescue, I thoroughly explored Grand Lake, and, as will be
seen from my map, I discovered that no less than five rivers flow into
it, which are known to the natives as the Nascaupee, the Beaver, the
Susan, the Crooked, and the Cape Corbeau. The Nascaupee is the
largest, and as the inquiries I made among the Indians satisfied me
that it is the outlet of Lake Michikamau, it is undoubtedly the river
that figures on the Geological Survey map as the Northwest, while as
for the river