t camp was made on the edge of the
plateau or table land of Labrador.

After proceeding a short distance on the next day, Aug. 13, a loud
roar was heard in the distance, and a course was laid for the river at
the nearest point. The river at this point, about one mile above the
falls, was 500 yards wide, narrowing to fifty yards a short distance
below, where great clouds of spray floating in the air warned the
weary travelers that their object had been attained. Quickly they
proceeded to the scene, and a magnificent sight burst upon their view.

Grand Falls, though not approaching the incredible height attributed
to it by legendary accounts of the Indians, is a grand fall of water.
Its total descent is accomplished in a series of falls aggregating
nearly 500 feet. The greatest perpendicular descent is not over 200
feet. The half dozen falls between this grand descent and the bed of
the river on the plateau vary from ten to twenty-five feet, adding to
the majesty and grandeur of the scene. It was with great difficulty
that the bottom of the falls was reached and a photograph of the scene
taken.

After leaving the plateau and plunging over the falls, the waters
enter an immense canon or gorge, nearly 40 miles long and 300 yards
wide, the perpendicular sides of which rise to a height of from 300 to
500 feet. The sides of this canon show it to be hollowed out of solid
Archaean rock. Through this canon the water rushes with terrific
rapidity, making passage by boat wholly impossible. Many erroneous
stories have been told in regard to the height of these falls, all of
them greatly exaggerating the descent of the water. The Indians of
this locality of the tribe of the Nascopee or the race of Crees have
long believed the falls to be haunted by an evil spirit, who punished
with death any one who might dare to look upon them. The height of
land or plateau which constitutes the interior of the Labrador
peninsula is from 2,000 to 2,500 feet above the sea level, fairly
heavily wooded with spruce, fir, hackmatack, and birch, and not at all
the desolate waste it has been pictured by many writers. The
barrenness of Labrador is confined to the coast, and one cannot enter
the interior in any direction without being struck by the latent
possibilities of the peninsula were it not for the abundance of flies
and mosquitoes. Their greed is insatiable, and at times the two men
were weakened from the loss of blood occasioned by these insects.