|
 Labrador
remains one of the last great wilderness areas on earth. The
vast mainland portion of the combined Province of Newfoundland
and Labrador stretches from the Straits of Belle Isle in the
south (immediately adjacent to the first European settlement
in the New World-the Viking encampment at L'Anse aux Meadows)
to Cape Chidley on Ungava Bay in the north. Eons of glaciation,
uplift and erosion have carved a landscape reminiscent of
the way the world looked millions of years ago. Beyond the
northern-most settlement of Nain, the Torngat Mountains remain,
as their name means in the native Innu and Inuit languages,
a land of mysterious spirits. These spectacular mountains
rise directly from the sea, but evoke the canyons of the American
Southwest, while the geology of the area from Hopedale to
Nain resembles that of our Yosemite Park.
In the course of our cruises we have carefully
retraced the spectacular, but often difficult and challenging
route pioneered by the notable Donald MacMillan aboard the
famous wooden arctic schooner Bowdoin. Making twenty-six voyages
to the North in the Bowdoin, MacMillan was often forced close
inshore in order to skirt the pack ice, allowing him to call
at numerous villages and missions during the exceptionally
short navigation season found along this coast. Tamara would
do the same.
|
