HISTORICAL SUMMARY 87 
found it to end at a distance of 170 miles from its entrance^ 
in a fresh water lake seventy-two miles in length, and from 
twenty to twenty-five miles wide. In 1791 Captain Duncan 
examined, for the Hudson's Bay Company, Corbets or Rankin 
inlet, which proved to be a bay, and Chesterfield inlet, which he 
found to agree with Norton's description. 
Samuel Hearne, a clerk in the service of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, started, in 1770, with a party of Chipeweyan 
Indians, and travelled overland on foot to the mouth of the 
Coppermine river, where the Indians massacred a number of 
Eskimos. On his return journey he passed Great Slave lake, 
and reached FOrt Churchill in safety after one of the most 
remarkable journeys ever accomplished. 
This ended for many years the attempts of the Hudson's Bay 
Company at northern exploration, their undivided energies 
being required to maintain the trade struggle with their ener- 
getic rivals, the North-west Company. 
Previous to the conquest of Canada, the French fur traders 
had carried their trading posts beyond the great lakes, across 
the wooded country to Lake Winnipeg, and thence up the 
Saskatchewan to the foot of the Rocky mountains. Shortly 
after the cession, a number of Scotch and Canadian merchants 
acquired the rights of the old French company, and prosecuted 
the trade with such increased vigour as to greatly diminish that 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, who in self-defence were com- 
pelled to establish trading posts inland close to those of their 
rivals. In this manner the interior of British America was soon 
dotted with trading stations that extended over the whole 
territory from the bleak shores of the Atlantic to and beyond 
the Rocky mountains. The strong rivalry for furs soon led 
to collisions between the partizans of both companies, and blood 
was often shed; the natives were debauched with liquor, and 
general lawlessness continued until the amalgamation of the 
companies in 1820. 
