Out of sight (III)

When viewed in winter, in fine weather, at the time of sunset, these mountains present scenes of great beauty ; and it is difficult for the imagination to conceive anything more beautiful than the tints that their summits assume as they are touched by the last rays of the setting sun, long after he has disappeared from the eye, while every little ravine, every inequality in their surface is chiselled out against the clear cold sky with a precision and vividness that are alike beautiful and wonderful.

- W.H.A. Davies, 1842

As a public service, here’s an image of another of the landscapes, conveniently far from the seat of the media universe in St. John’s, and conveniently less famous than Gros Morne, that may be impacted by NALCO(R)’s proposed Lower Churchill project, as described in the recent environmental filings.

For the benefit of those who don’t know, these are the Mealy Mountains, as viewed from the same spot, give or take a couple hundred metres, where W.H.A. Davies saw the view that inspired the words above.

These are the "low Mealies", about 2000 feet high — the same height or higher than most of the Long Range Mountains, or the cliffs around Western Brook Pond, the landscape whose possible disfigurement woke a small few people out of their slumber in the past couple of weeks. The "high Mealies", further to the east in the English River country, top out just under 4,000 feet.

The knobbly prominence at left is the Biscuit. A century ago, in line with the chimney of the Grand River Pulp & Lumber Company mill, it marked the channel into the company's wharf. The GRP&LCo., in an exchange of correspondence with officials of the Quebec government, inadvertantly precipitated the Labrador boundary dispute.

This long, foreshortened shot also passes through the study area of the proposed Mealy Mountains National Park. And this same scene is also under consideration as one of the possible routings for the electrode line running from the Gull Island end of the Lower Churchill infeed to Newfoundland.