THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 223 



whose flesh or fur renders their chase a highly lucrative employment. 

 How comes it, then, that, for all this superabundant endowment, the 

 only population outside the wandering bands of Eskimos and native 

 Indians to be found there to-day gathers in little circles around the 

 company's forts which dot the shore at immense intervals? 



The explanation of this apparent enigma is not far to seek. It lies 

 simply in the fact that, until little more than a decade ago, Hudson 

 Bay and vicinity was the subject of a monopoly, which effectually ex- 

 cluded from it all but the employes of a single corporation. It was first 

 visited in 1610 by Henry Hudson, who, after giving his name to the 

 Hudson River, in his rude little bark, well named Discovery, daunt- 

 lessly pushed his way thither in search of the mythical northwest pas- 

 sage to the Pacific, and made it both his imperishable monument and 

 his grave. The stories that his mutinous crew took home with them 

 did not prevent other vessels being dispatched on the same hopeless 

 quest, and, if these latter failed to find the northwest passage, they at 

 all events found sufficient cause for the Hudson Bay Company being 

 founded in 1668. This astute corporation, easily obtaining a grant of 

 the bay and its environing territory, together with the most extensive 

 powers from a king who knew nothing of its value, and cared less, 

 forthwith set about excluding all possible rivals from their invaluable 

 fur-preserve. For half a century or more they had a serious obstacle 

 to the execution of their laudable design in the presence of the French, 

 and the bay became the theatre of many a hard-fought conflict. 



It was not until, by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the whole of 

 Hudson Bay was ceded to the British, that the company were left to 

 the undisputed possession of their vast estate the most stupendous 

 landed property ever owned by one corporation, embracing, as it then 

 did, the entire Northwest of Canada. As the day for violence had gone 

 by, they resorted to a subtler but incomparably more effective method 

 of keeping the country to themselves. The most ingeniously false and 

 distorted accounts were sedulously spread abroad concerning this 

 region. According to them, it was a land of eternal snow and ice, 

 utterly unfit for human settlement. The perils of the passage through 

 the strait were grossly magnified. Preposterous tales were circulated 

 as to the rigors of the climate, the fierceness of the wild animals, and 

 the barbarous character of the inhabitants. The company's efforts 

 were crowned with the most gratifying success. Decade after decade 

 slipped by, and they were still in unquestioned possession, and proba- 

 bly would have continued so to this day, but for their having been 

 bought out in 1870 for the tidy sum of 300,000, by the Canadian 

 Government, to whom, with some reservation, they transferred all their 

 real estate. 



With the change of ownership came a complete change in policy. 

 Under the new regime, the great object held in view was no longer to 

 keep the country a solitude, unbroken by the hum of human life, but 



