A Preliminary Study of the Ungava Caribou

Northern Quebec and Labrador together form a block of about 500,000 square miles popularly known as the Ungava, or Labrador, Peninsula. It is cut off from the remainder of North America by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Hudson and James bays. The topography is extremely varied. From a rough central plateau of about 2,000 feet elevation, large rivers drain in four directions to salt water. There are several mountain ranges; the highest—the Torngats—reach above 5,000 feet. Coastal plains are found in the north. Geologically the peninsula forms the eastern portion of the Canadian Shield, which embraces Hudson and James bays like a giant horseshoe. Bedrock is composed principally of Archean quartz and gneiss, but in the interior a belt of Proterozoic (Huronian) sedimentary rocks occurs in the valleys of the Hamilton and Kaniapiskau rivers. Four main vegetative zones have been described for the area by Hustich (1949). The Southern Boreal Forest extends along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as the Labrador boundary. North of this belt the Labrador Taiga extends from a line drawn between the southern tip of James Bay and and the Labrador boundary on the north shore of the Gulf, northward to approximately the 55th parallel. The most northern forest type is called the Forest-Tundra, and extends from the 55th parallel to the south shore of Ungava Bay. The fourth zone, the Tundra, is divided into two portions by Ungava Bay. The western Tundra lies north of tree-line, which extends from Richmond Gulf to Leaf Bay. The eastern Tundra covers the rugged highlands of northern Labrador east of the George River, Quebec.