Abstract
IN a handsome volume Mr. Hesketh Prichard tells the story of a short journey made by Mr. G. M. Gathorne-Hardy and himself in Labrador in 1910. The coast settlement of Nairn, from which the journey started up the Fraser River, lies somewhat north of the centre of the Labrador coast. In this latitude there is little enough to tempt men up to the interior plateau, and the explorers broke new ground in striking out of the Fraser Valley, climbing a tributary valley on its south flank, and striking southward and westward to the George River. They returned on their tracks, so were able to travel light when on the plateau by leaving caches of food at different points againstfheir return. They depended largely on game and fish, and were fortunate in obtaining a sufficiency of both, though more than once they went hungry. The writer points out, and it is easy to realise, how near to the margin of safety an expedition travels thus lightly equipped and in so desolate a country. Adverse circumstances carried Leonidas Hubbard across that margin and drove him to starvation; Mr. Prichard pays a moving tribute to his efforts. It does not appear that the present expedition attempted more than to see “what the country looks like”; scientific observation was not systematically attempted in any direction. But valuable details as to the physical geography of the country traversed are to be gathered from the narrative, and among several photographs of interest in this connection, that of a raised beach George Valley may be selected for mention. the travellers can speak with authority on Arctic insect pests.
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H., O. Travel, Sport, and Administration 1 . Nature 89, 35–37 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/089035a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/089035a0