104 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. I VoL. V".. 



THE SEASONS, HUDSON'S STRAIT. 



By F. F. Payne. 



{^Read 28th March, i8g6.] 



With the object of testing the feasibihty of a much talked of steam- 

 ship route from certain Hudson's Bay ports to Europe via Hudson's 

 Strait, in 1884 an expedition was equipped by the Dominion Government 

 and dispatched to these waters with instructions to estabHsh observing 

 stations at several prominent points along the route, where the move- 

 ments of the ice, "the direction of currents, and the rise and fall of tides 

 could be noted; also with the object of collecting full information bearing 

 upon the climatology of the neighbouring shores. These stations were 

 seven in number, five of which were in Hudson's Strait, and the observa- 

 tions, begun in the autumn of 1884, were continued uninterruptedly to the 

 autumn of 1886, the reports of the observers, containing much valuable 

 data, being published in the blue-books of the Department of Marine 

 and Fisheries. 



Although the Eskimo informed me that, with the exception of the 

 summer of 1884, which was unusually cold, the seasons during which the- 

 stations were maintained were normal, it is quite possible that had the 

 meteorological observations been continued for a much longer period the 

 averages deduced from them might have shewn a slight difference from 

 those found ; on the other hand, however, when considered with tiie 

 growth of plant life and other terrestrial changes, of which the Eskimo- 

 are keen observers and volunteered much information, a very fair 

 approximation of the weather obtaining during the seasons can be 

 arrived at. 



If a native of the tropics, and one say of Florida, and another of 

 Ontario, were transported for a year to Hudson's Strait, their verdict as 

 to its seasons would doubtless be very different. The former would 

 probably say, winter, everlasting winter, while the second might admit 

 that at least there was summer and winter, but I think the last 

 after due consideration would agree with me that in Hudson's Strait, 

 as in Ontario, we have the four seasons, though in a very much modified 

 form ; for who, after long watching, when he sees the first flowers, the 

 arrival of the first birds and other emblems of spring, will say there is no 

 spring? Who, too, will say, when seeds are ripening and the bee goes. 



