286 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
I was attached to the second expedition as a geologist, and 
performed some exploring duties on the southern coast of the 
strait in the late summer, having been on board the ship during 
her first passage through the strait. This experience in the 
navigation of these waters was further increased by a passage 
westward through the strait during the following summer in 
the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Erik, and still further 
by the four trips of the past voyage. 
Hudson strait has a length of nearly five hundred miles from 
Cape Chidley, on the south side of its eastern end, to Cape Wol- 
stenholme on the same side of its western end. The general 
trend of the strait is a little north of west, so that the western 
cape is about a degree and a half to the northward of the eastern 
one, and is in 62 30' n. latitude. At its eastern entrance the 
strait has a practical channel nearly thirty-five miles wide 
between the outermost Button island off Cape Chidley, and the 
shores of Resolution island on the north side. Gray strait is a 
narrower channel between the Button islands and the southern 
mainland. Immediately to the westward of Cape Chidley the 
southern shore falls away to the southward to form the great 
bay of Ungava, which is one hundred and forty miles wide, and 
somewhat more than that distance in length. The large island 
of Akpatok lies in this bay, but as its north end is to the south- 
ward of a line drawn across the mouth of the bay, it does not 
seriously interfere with navigation in the strait. 
From Cape Hopes Advance, the western point of Ungava 
bay, the southern shore of the strait has a northwest direction 
to Cape Weggs, situated one hundred and fifty miles beyond. 
The northern shore opposite has the same general trend, and 
the strait for this distance averages sixty miles across. Big 
island, situated on the north side in the western half of this 
portion, extends southward, so as to reduce the width to thirty 
miles. 
