LIFE IN LABRADOR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 87, 6 January 1940, Page 15

LIFE IN LABRADOR

“Frost and Fire,” by Elliott Merrick (London: Heinemann). It would lie hard to find a more intimate picture of a trapper’s life in Labrador than that contained in Elliott Merrick’s unusual novel “Frost and Fire.” It is the .story of a boy’s growth to manhood in a wild, primitive country where nothing can be won from nature without fearless determination and the endurance of constant hardship. The author obviously knows from experience the meaning of existence in Labrador. He provides detailed descriptions of hunting, trapping, fishing, of great inland journeys and coastal voyages, of great dangers faced and difficulties surmounted, of personal triumphs and disasters. It is a vivid tale in which the human characters compete for first place in the reader’s attention with the natural phenomena—the fiords, lakes and rivers, the extreme cold of winter and its unrelenting beauty, the charm a*nd brilliance of spring.