Bowdoin Boys in Labrador: An Account of the Bowdoin College Scientific Expedition to Labrador led by Prof. Leslie A. Lee of the Biological Department — John Shaqi
Bowdoin Boys in Labrador: An Account of the Bowdoin College Scientific Expedition to Labrador led by Prof. Leslie A. Lee of the Biological DepartmentCilley, Jonathan Prince
History
Bowdoin Boys in Labrador: An Account of the Bowdoin College Scientific Expedition to Labrador led by Prof. Leslie A. Lee of the Biological Department
Cilley, Jonathan Prince
Labrador (N.L.) -- Description and travel; Scientific expeditions
About two miles south of us a vast, unexplored bay ran for a long
distance inland, while to the north, looking from Flagstaff Peak, we
could see Cape Harrigan and the shoals about it, the numberless
inlets, coves and bays which fill in the sixty miles to Nain. We were
very much disappointed at our inability to go north to that place, but
before our start from the United States Hopedale had been named as the
point with which we would be content if ice and winds allowed us to
reach it, and that point proved the northern limit of our voyage.
About half a mile across the point of land on which the missionary
settlement lies, is the site of the pre-historic village of "Avatoke,"
which means "may-we-have-seals." It consisted of three approximately
circular houses, in line parallel with the shore, at the head of a
slight cove, backed to the west by a high hill, and with a fine beach
in front, now raised considerably from the sea level. Along the front
of the row of houses were immense shell heaps, from which we dug
ivory, that is, walrus teeth; carvings, stone lamps, spear heads,
portions of kyaks, whips, komatiks, as the sleds are called, etc.,
etc., and bones innumerable of all the varieties of birds, fish and
game on which the early Eskimo dined; as well as remnants of all the
implements which Eskimos used in the household generations ago, and
which can nearly all now be recognized by the almost identically
shaped and made implements in the houses of Eskimos there in Hopedale,
so little do they change in the course of centuries. The village has
been completely deserted for over one hundred years, and was in its
prime centuries before that, so the tales of its greatness are only
dim Eskimo traditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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