xlvi INTRODUCTION. 



Thus ends Cheacrfield's Inler, and all Mr. Ellis's expecta- 

 tions of a pafTage through it to the Vveftern Ocean. The 

 other part of the coafl, from latitude 62", to the South Point 

 of Main, within which limits hopes were alfo entertained 

 of finding a paflage, have, of late years, been thoroughly 

 explored. It is here that Piftol Bay is ficuated ; which the 

 author who has writ laft in this country, on the probahUitycf 

 a North V/eJl pajfage *, fpeaks of as the only remaining part 

 of Hudfon's Bay where this WeRern communication may 

 exift. But this has been alfo examined ; and, on the autho- 

 rity of Captain Chriflopher, we can afTure the Reader, that 

 there is no inlet of any confequence in all that part of the 

 coaft. Nay, he has, in an open boat, failed round the bot- 

 tom of what is called Piftol Bay, and, inftead of a pafTage to 

 a Weftern Sea, found it does not run above three or four 

 miles inland. 



Befides thefe voyages by fea, which fatisfy us that wc 

 mud not look for a paflage to the South of 67' of latitude; 

 we are indebted to the Hudfon's Bay Company, for a jour- 

 ney by land, which has thrown much additional light on 

 this matter, by affording what may be called demonftra- 

 tion, how much farther North, at leaft in fome part of their 

 voyage, fliips muft hold their courfe, before they can pafs 

 from one fide of America to the other. The Northern In- 

 dians, who come down to the Company's forts for trade, 

 had brought to the knowledge of our people, the exiftence 

 ► of a river ; which, from copper abounding near it, had got 



the name of the Copper-mine River. We read much about 



* Printed for Jeffreys, in 1768. His words are, " There remains then to be 

 .-*' fearched for the difcovery of a paflage, the opening called Piftol Bay, in Hudfon's 

 .." Bay." P. 122. 



this 



