LABRADOR

northeastern portion of the Canadian mainland. It embraces the great peninsula of northern Quebec and Newfoundland, an area of approximately 625,000 square miles (1,620,000 square km) that is bounded by the Hudson Strait (north), Atlantic Ocean (east), Gulf of St. Lawrence and Eastmain River (south), and the Hudson Bay (west). As a geographic entity Labrador comprises the easternmost portion of the Canadian Shield, the rocky, glaciated plateau of eastern Canada. This plateau is characterized by numerous lakes draining into the Atlantic via the Churchill, Naskaupi, Eagle, and other rivers; by thin, poorly drained soils; and by a bleak, deeply indented coastline that is swept by the cold Labrador Current. Labrador as a political entity refers to the Atlantic coast of Labrador, the Newfoundland portion of the peninsula, whereas the Quebec portion is known as Ungava. The origin of the term Labrador is obscure, but it is believed to have been first applied to Greenland, called Land of Labrador by early Portuguese navigators, and later transferred to the northeastern North American mainland by cartographers. Political control of the peninsula passed back and forth between Newfoundland and Quebec, thus confusing the name's geographic significance until the Quebec-Newfoundland border was established in 1927. Economic activity is centred along the southwestern part of the provincial boundary between Quebec and Newfoundland, an area known as the Labrador Trough, which has immense iron-ore deposits. The region's largest towns of Schefferville (Quebec) and Labrador City and Wabush (Newfoundland) have sprung up since iron-ore exploitation began in the 1950s, powered by hydroelectric plants at Menihek and Churchill Falls. Fishing and lumbering are of local importance. Pop. (1991) Labrador section of Newfoundland province, 30,375.