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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: KRO-LAP |
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LABRADORITE, or LABRADOR SPAR , a lime-soda felspar of the plagioclase (q.v.) group, often cut and polished as an ornamental stone. It takes its name from the coast of Labrador, where it was discovered, as boulders, by the Moravian Mission about 1770, and specimens were soon afterwards sent to the secretary in London, the Rev. B. Latrobe. The felspar itself is generally of a dull grey colour, with a rather greasy lustre, but many specimens exhibit in certain directions a magnificent of low, rounded hills, seldom rising more than 500 It. above the surrounding general level. Minerals.The mineral wealth is undeveloped. Thick beds of excellent iron ore cover large areas in the interior and along the shores of Hudson and Ungava Bays. Large areas of mineralized Huronian rocks have also been discovered, similar to areas in other parts of Canada, where they contain valuable deposits of gold, copper, nickel and lead ; good prospects of these metals have been found. Climate.The climate ranges from cold temperate on the southern coasts to arctic on Hudson Strait, and is generally so rigorous that it is doubtful if the country is fit for agriculture north of 51, except on the low grounds near the coast. On James Bay good crops of potatoes and other roots are grown at Fort George, 540 N., while about the head of Hamilton Inlet, on the east coast, and in nearly the same latitude, similar crops are easily cultivated. On the outer coasts the climate is more rigorous, being affected by the floating ice borne southwards on the Arctic current. In the interior at Mistassini, 50 30' N , a crop of potatoes is raised annually, but they rarely mature. No attempts at agriculture have been made elsewhere inland. Owing to the absence of grass plains, there is little likelihood that it will ever be a grazing district. There are only two seasons in the interior: winter begins early in October, with the freezing of the small lakes, and lasts until the middle of June, when the ice on rivers and lakes melts and summer suddenly bursts forth. From unconnected observations the lowest temperatures of the interior range from -50 F. to -6o F., and are slightly higher along the coast. The mean summer temperature of the interior is about 55 F., with frosts during every month in the northern portion. On the Atlantic coast and in Hudson Bay the larger bays freeze.solid between the 1st and 15th of December, and these coasts remain ice-bound until late in June. Hudson Strait is usually sufficiently open for navigation about the loth of July. Vegetation.The southern half is included in the sub-Arctic forest belt, and nine species of trees constitute the whole arborescent flora of this region; these species are the white birch, poplar, aspen, cedar
Fisheries. The fisheries along the shores of the Gulf of St Lawrence and of the Atlantic form practically the only industry of the white population scattered along the coasts, as well as of a large proportion of the inhabitants of Newfoundland
Newfoundland
sturgeon
Population. The population is approximately 14,500, or about one person to every 35 sq. m.; it is made up of 3500 Indians, 2000 Eskimo and goon whites. The last are confined to the coasts and to the Hudson Bay Company's trading posts of the interior. On the Atlantic coast they are largely immigrants from Newfoundland, together with descendants of English fishermen and Hudson Bay Company's servants. To the north of Hamilton Inlet they.are of more or less mixed blood from marriage with Eskimo women. The Newfoundland census of toot gave 3634 as the number of permanent white residents along the Atlantic coast, and the Canadian census (1891) gave a white population of J728, mostly French Canadians, scattered along the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence, while the whites living at the inland posts did not exceed fifty persons. It is difficult to give more than a rough approximation of the number of the native population, owing to their habits of roving from one trading post to another, and the consequent liability of counting the same family several times if the returns are computed from the books of the various posts, the only available data for an enumeration. The following estimate is arrived play of coloursblue, green, orange, purple or red; the colour in some specimens changing when the stone is viewed in different directions. This optical effect, known sometimes as " labradorescence," seems due in some cases to the presence of minute laminae of certain minerals, like gothite or haematite, arranged darallel to the surface which reflects the colour; but in other cases it may be caused not so much by inclusions as by a delicate lamellar structure in the felspar. An aventurine effect is produced by the presence of microscopic enclosures. The original
York
syenite
chief
cone
The term labradorite is unfortunately used also as a rock-name, having been applied by Fouque and Levy to a group of basic rocks rich in augite and poor in olivine. (F. W. R.*) End of Article: LABRADORITE, or LABRADOR SPAR If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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