he city seem to
me a prison and I simply must get away."

My friend's enthusiasm was contagious. It had never previously
occurred to me to undertake the game of exploration; but, like most
American boys, I had had youthful dreams of going into a great wild
country, even as my forefathers had gone, and Hubbard's talk brought
back the old juvenile love of adventure. That night before we lay down
to sleep I said: "Hubbard, I'll go with you." And so the thing was
settled--that was how Hubbard's expedition had its birth.

More than a year passed, however, before Hubbard was able to make
definite arrangements to get away. I believe it was in February, 1903,
that the telephone bell in my law office rang, and Hubbard's voice at
the other end of the wire conveyed to me the information that he had
"bully news."

"Is that so?" I said. "What's up?

"The Labrador trip is all fixed for this summer," was the excited
reply. "Come out to Congers to-night without fail, and we'll talk it
over."

In accordance with his invitation, I went out that evening to visit my
friend in his suburban home. I shall never forget the exuberance of
his joy. You would have thought he was a boy about to be released from
school. By this time he had become the associate editor of the
magazine for which he had been writing, but he had finally been able to
induce his employers to consent to the project upon which he had set
his heart and grant him a leave of absence.

"It will be a big thing, Wallace," he said in closing; "it ought to
make my reputation."

Into the project of penetrating the vast solitudes of desolate
Labrador, over which still brooded the fascinating twilight of the
mysterious unknown, Hubbard, with characteristic zeal, threw his whole
heart and soul. Systematically and thoroughly he went about planning,
in the minutest detail, our outfit and entire journey. Every possible
contingency received the most careful consideration.

In order to make plain just what he hoped to accomplish and the
conditions against which he had to provide, the reader's patience is
asked for a few minutes while something is told of what was known of
Labrador at the time Hubbard was making preparations for his expedition.

The interior of the peninsula of Labrador is a rolling plateau, the
land rising more or less abruptly from the coast to a height of two
thousand or more feet above the level of the sea. Scattered over this
plateau are numerous l