206 LA BRADOR.

in 1561, Terra Verde, or Greenland, and the southern part he called Terra Labrador, 0r Terra Agricolae, thinking the latter fit for cultivation. It was alto— gether, for some time after, called, after him, Terra Corterealis, which name has, however, long been sup- planted by that of Labrador.

This vast country, equal in square miles to France, Spain, and Germany, has not a resident population of 4000 inhabitants, including the natives and Mo- ravians.

Its surface is as sterile and naked as any part of the globe. Rocks, swamps, and water, are its pre- vailing features; and in this inhospitable country, which extends from 50" to 64" north latitude, and from the longitude of 56" west on the Atlantic, to that of 78” west on Hudson’s Bay, vegetation only appears as the last efforts of expiring nature. Small scraggy poplar, stunted firs, creeping birch,and dwarf willows, thinly scattered in the southern parts, form the whole catalogue of trees; herbs and grass are also, in sheltered places, to be met with; but, in the most northerly parts, different varieties of moss, and lichens, are the only signs of vegetation.

The climate is, in severity,probably as cold as at the poles of the earth, and the summer is of short dura- tion. Yet, with all these disadvantages, this country, which is, along its coasts, indented with excellent harbours, and which has its shores frequented by vast multitudes of fishes, is of great importance to Great Britain. The whole of the interior of Lab- rador appears, from the aspect of What has been