OF THE POLAR SEA, . 37 
interpreter from that quarter 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 un- 
derstood English, if he could be induced to go. 
The governor selected one of the largest of the 
Company’s boats for our use on the journey, 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 depét of the Hud- 
son’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 this 
necessary material. The soil is alluvial clay, and 
contains imbedded 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 of the ice; by these portions 
