Labrador is the north-eastern peninsula of the North American continent, lying between Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St Lawrence. The coasts were probably visited by the Norsemen about the year 1000; they were again sighted by Cabot in 1498. In 1500 a Portuguese navigator, Cortereal, seems to have visited it and to have given it its name, which means 'labourers' land.' Labrador extends from 49° to 63° N. lat., and from 55° to about 79° W. long. The greatest length from the Strait of Belle Isle to its northern cape, Wolstenholme, is 1100 miles; its area, 420,000 sq. m., or nearly five times the area of Great Britain. The Atlantic coast is stern and precipitous (1000 to 4000 feet high), entirely destitute of vegetation, deeply indented with narrow fjords, and fringed with chains of rocky islands. The inner parts of Labrador have been but very imperfectly explored; the greater part consists of a plateau, some 2000 feet above sea-level, and mostly covered with fine forest trees, firs, birches, &c. Numerous lakes, including Mistassini (q.v.), also exist inland, and, connecting with the rivers, afford in summer continuous waterways for great distances. The only inhabitants of this interior plateau are Cree Indians, nomads. There are numerous rivers, 200 to 300 miles long and 2 and 3 miles wide at their mouths, flowing towards the Atlantic and Hudson Bay. The Grand Falls are 316 feet in perpendicular height, but from 4 miles above this, to the sea, there is a magnificent, almost continuous fall of 2000 feet. These rivers abound in fish, especially salmon and white-fish. The principal fur-bearing animals are bears, wolves, foxes, martens, otters, beavers, lynxes, &c. Of the mineral resources little is known; but iron and Labradorite (q.v.) are certainly abundant. The climate on the coast is very rigorous, owing mainly to the ice-laden Arctic current which washes the shores. The short three-months' summer is marred by the swarms of mosquitoes and black flies. The mean annual temperature at the missionary stations varies from 22° to 28°. The winter is dry, bracing, and frosty. The part draining to the St Lawrence belongs to Quebec, and forms indeed the larger part of Quebec province; that draining to Atlantic belongs (since 1809) to Newfoundland; the rest is, since 1895, the territory of Ungava. The great wealth of Labrador is its fish—cod, salmon, herrings, and trout. As many as 30,000 fishermen from Newfoundland, Canada, and the United States visit its fishing-grounds in the season. The annual catch is valued at more than £1,000,000. There are some 6000 permanent settlers, Eskimo and French Acadians, in the coast region, collected chiefly at the Moravian missionary stations—Nain (founded 1770), Okkak, Hebron, Hopedale, &c.
See A. S. Packard in Bulletin of the American Geographical Society (1887 and 1888), and his Labrador Coast (1892); Hind, Explorations of the Labrador Peninsula (1863); and R. F. Holme in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. (1888).