HAMILTON (

See also:

• GRAND

GRAND or ASHUANIPI)  , the chief river of Labrador, Canada . It rises in the Labrador highlands at an elevation of 1700 ft., its chief sources being Lakes Attikonak and Ashuanipi, between 65° and 66° W. and 52° and 53° N . After a precipitous course of boo m. it empties into Melville Lake (90 m. long and 18 wide), an extension of Hamilton inlet, on the Atlantic . About 220 M. from its mouth occur the Grand Falls of Labrador . Here in a distance of 12 M. the river drops 76o ft., culminating in a final vertical fall of 316 ft . Below the falls are violent rapids, and the river sweeps through a deep and narrow canyon . The country through which it passes is for the most part a wilderness of barren rock, full of lakes and lacustrine rivers, many of which are its tributaries . In certain portions of the valley spruce and poplars grow to a moderate size . From the head of Lake Attikonak a steep and rocky portage of less than a mile leads to Burnt Lake, which is drained into the St Lawrence by the Romaine river .