Genre:

Essay, Travelogue, Serial

Subjects:

Exploration, Race, Extinction, Mining, Disease, Quackery, Invention, Medical Treatment

    Narrates a perilous journey along the coast of Labrador in Northern Canada in a one-man canoe, reflecting on features such as the native Indians of the region who are described as 'waddling savages' and a 'dusky race—now at the twilight of its life' (492). Later, observes that in the coastal area of Moisie, the 'ore is magnetic sand, found in a layer about two or three inches deep on the beach; the mining operations consisted of simply cleaning away a superincumbent layer of white sand, and then shovelling up the ore into bags' (496). The narrator recounts how on a previous cruise in the same region he had fallen ill with a 'high fever' and had had to be left on 'a barren beach', during which period he 'spent much of my time inventing patent medicines that excelled every compound known to man; and flying-machines swooped through my brain till I felt dizzy' (497). Then, the 'most practical device of all came to me when the fever seemed to have reached an alarming height. I bethought me of the Indian's cure—a steam bath', and 'Repeated baths at last broke up the condition, but it left me in such a condition that this cruise had to be given up until the next year' (497–98).