2 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Portage through Oxford and Knee lakes to its mouth, but its greatest 
length from the head of God’s river and through God’s lake is about 
400 miles. It has a drainage area of 35,000 square miles, all of which 
is within the forest region, and a run-off of something like 15,000 
cubic feet per second. Its upper branches drain an exceedingly rocky 
country, but nearer its mouth the surface is entirely composed of sands 
and clays of glacial and post-glacial age. At first it cuts through these 
superficial Recent deposits to the underlying rock, but farther down the 
stream it has been unable to reach this rock, though in some places it has 
cut its valley down to a depth of 180 ft. It is still actively deepening 
its valley and cutting away its banks, but not everywhere to the same 
extent, for while in some places it is overhung by steep scarped cliffs, 
in other places it flows past or between low alluvial flats and terraces 
which occupy the bottom and sides of the valley, and behind which 
the banks rise in rounded slopes to the level of the surrounding country. 
Thus while the valley is still young, it is of a much more mature char- 
acter than that of Nelson river to the northwest of it. 
HESTORY 
Nelson river was discovered by Sir Thomas Button in 1612, 
when in the “Resolution” and “Discovery,” two ships of about 
55 tons, he sailed from England to Hudson Bay to look for Henry 
Hudson, who had been set adrift by mutineers somewhere in 
the Bay the year before, and also to try to find a northwest passage 
to China and the Indies. On the 15th of August he entered 
the mouth of the river with his ships, and although it was still so 
early in the season, he decided to remain for the winter, and he 
established his winter quarters at the mouth of a small stream 
on the northwest side, which is now known as Heart Creek. During 
the winter his crew suffered severely from scurvey, and Francis 
Nelson, his sailing master, and mate of the “Resolution,” died and 
was buried somewhere on the bank. From him the river received - 
its present name. In July, 1613, the party had been greatly depleted 
by sickness, and it would appear that the “Resolution” had been 
injured by ice, for it was abandoned, and Button with the remaining 
members of both crews sailed for England in the “Discovery.” 
In August, 1912, just 300 years after Button landed at Heart 
Creek, I was at the same place, and with me was a man who picked 
up a small three-pound cannon ball, much rusted, which probably 
came from one of the piles of cannon balls that this early explorer 
left behind him. 
In 1631 Luke Fox, in a ship of 70 tons called the “Charles” 
entered Nelson river, and ascended it to within six miles of Seal 
