Where our hosts have
taken up their abode meanwhile remains a riddle for the present. (The
riddle was solved in a subsequent tour of inspection of the house,
when I found that the one resident couple had retired to the garret
and the other to a workshop on the ground floor.)
ZOAR.
In its summer aspect this is a singularly lovely place. Yet, I see
each station at its best, and can only guess at the changes which snow
and ice will work in the landscape. Were this spot in Europe, it would
soon be a favourite summer resort. Being in Labrador, however, the
summer visitors would speedily fly from the swarms of mosquitoes and
sand-flies. These appear as soon as the weather is at all warm and are
a veritable plague in the summer evenings, which would else be so
enjoyable. And when these myriad tormentors with wings and stings are
gone, rude winter cuts short the autumn.
As usual in Labrador, the little mission-station lies on the north
side of the bay, so that the wooded hill behind shields it from the
northern blasts. This fir-clad slope makes Zoar much more friendly in
appearance than any other station. Hopedale is bare and treeless in
its general aspect and so in less degree are Nain and Okak, though all
three have fir-trees in their neighbourhood.
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