Geological Survey of Canada

Chapter 2 Slipping Away into the Wilderness It was on the 15th of July, 1903, that Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., my husband, with two companions, set out from Northwest River Post, near the head of Lake Melville, for a canoe trip into the interior of Labrador, which he hoped would not only afford him an interesting wilderness experience, but also an opportunity to explore and map one and perhaps both of these rivers, the Northwest River draining Lake Michikamau to Lake Melville and the George River draining the northern slope of the plateau to Ungava Bay.

Misled by information obtained at the post, which corresponded with the indications of the map he carried, that of the Geological Survey of Canada, Mr. Hubbard took the Susan River, which enters Grand Lake at the head of a bay five miles from its western end.

The Susan River led them, not by an open waterway to Lake Michikamau, but up to the edge of the plateau, where they became lost in the maze of its lakes.

When within sight of the great lake the party was forced to begin a retreat, which Mr. Hubbard did not survive to complete.

Besides Stefansson, anthropologist, and Dr. Anderson, zoologist, it included 12 men who were all specialists.

The Canadian Geological Survey detailed four men to our party.

George Malik, an expert on coal deposits and stratigraphy, who had been a graduate student at Yale.

J.J. O'Neill, a mining geologist whose specialty was copper.