called on the map the Nascaupee, it is in all likelihood
non-existent. There is a stream known to the natives as Northwest
River, but it is merely the strait, one hundred yards wide and three
hundred yards long, which, as shown on my map, connects Groswater Bay
with what the natives call the Little Lake, this being the small body
of water that lies at the lower end of Grand Lake, the waters of which
it receives through a rapid.

Hubbard hoped to reach the George River in season to meet the Nenenot
or Nascaupee Indians, who, according to an old tradition, gather on its
banks in late August or early September to attack with spears the herds
of caribou that migrate at that time, passing eastward to the sea
coast. It is reported that while the caribou are swimming the river
the Indians each year kill great numbers of them, drying the flesh for
winter provisions and using the skins to make clothing and
wigwam-covering. Hubbard wished not only to get a good story of the
yearly slaughter, but to spend some little time studying the habits of
the Indians, who are the most primitive on the North American continent.

Strange as it may seem to some, the temperature in the interior of
Labrador in midsummer sometimes rises as high as 90 degrees or more,
although at sunset it almost invariably drops to near the freezing
point and frost is liable at any time. But the summer, of course, is
very short. It may be said to begin early in July, by which time the
snow and ice are all gone, and to end late in August. There is just a
hint of spring and autumn. Winter glides into summer, and summer into
winter, almost imperceptibly, and the winter is the bitter winter of
the Arctic.

If the season were not too far advanced when he finished studying the
Indians, Hubbard expected to cross the country to the St. Lawrence and
civilisation; otherwise to retrace his steps over his upward trail. In
the event of our failure to discover the Indian encampment, and our
finding ourselves on the George short of provisions, Hubbard planned to
run down the swift-flowing river in our canoe to the George River Post
at its mouth, and there procure passage on some fishing vessel for
Newfoundland; or, if that were impossible, to outfit for winter, and
when the ice formed and the snow came, return overland with dogs.

Hubbard knew that by ascending the Grand River he would be taking a
surer, if longer, route to Lake Michikamau; but it was a part of his
p