24 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



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could be procured before their return in the following spring. The 

 Governor, however, undertook to forward to us next season the 

 only one amongst them who understood English, if he could be 

 induced to go. a ^ 



The Governor selected one of the largest of the Company's boats 

 for our use on the j ourney , and directed the carpenters to commence 

 refitting it immediately ; but he was only able to furnish us with a 

 steersman ; and we were obliged to make up the rest of the crew 

 with the boatmen brought from Stromness, and our two attendants. 



York Factory, the principal depdt of the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 stands on the west bank of Hayes River, about five miles above its 

 mouth, on the marshy peninsula which separates the Hayes and 

 Nelson rivers. The surrounding country is flat and swampy, and 

 covered with willows, poplars, larch, spruce, and birch trees, but the 

 requisition for fuel has expended all the wood in the vicinity of the 

 fort, and the residents have now to send a considerable distance for 



necessary material. The soil is alluvial clay and contains im- 

 bedded rolled stones. Though the bank of the river is elevated 

 about twenty feet, it is frequently overflown by the spring floods, 



and large portions of it are annually carried away by the disruption 



? ice; by these portions grounding in the stream, several muddy 



islands have been formed. These interruptions, together with the 



various collections of stones that are hid at high water render the 



navigation of the river difficult ; but vessels of two hundred tons 



burthen may be brought through the proper channels as high as the 

 Factory. 



The principal buildings are placed in the form of a square, having 

 an octagonal court in the centre ; they are two stories in height, and 

 have flat roofs covered with lead. The officers dwell in one portion 

 of this square, and in the other parts the articles of merchandise are 

 kept: the workshops, storehouses for the furs, and the servants' 

 houses, are ranged on the outside of the square, and the whole is 



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