The Land That God Gave Cain

This book describes the experiences, primarily, of Gino Watkins and Jamie Scott, on the former’s expedition to Labrador in 1928 and 1929. It was the second expedition which Watkins had organised (the first had been to Edge Island in Spitsbergen in 1927) and its objective was to explore and map the unknown interior of southern Labrador (known colloquially by the book’s title) on foot, by canoe, in motor boats, and with dog sledges. The pair later went to Greenland, respectively as the leader and a member of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition of 1930-31. Watkins, by then a highly respected Arctic explorer, returned to Greenland in 1933 and drowned there when his kayak capsized. Jamie Scott married Gino’s sister Pamela, wrote the biography “Gino Watkins,” and in 1953 also published “Portrait of an ice-cap” about his Greenland experience. On the first part of the Labrador expedition, Watkins and Scott were accompanied by Lionel Leslie – who gave his own account of the experience in the book “Wilderness trails in three continents” (1931). They established their base at the settlement of North West River in July, 1928, and the pair spent nine months in Labrador, travelling about 800