NAVIGATION 289 
obliged to lay in the dangerous roadsteads usually several miles 
away from the nearest dry land. 
The approach to the harbour of Churchill, if aided by a few 
beacons and lights, would be comparatively safe, as the channel 
of approach is fairly deep and wide. Once inside the points of 
the mouth, the harbour extends up stream about a mile, and has 
an average width of half a mile, with a couple of shallow places 
in the upper part that might easily be removed by dredging; 
the general depth of the harbour being from four to four and a 
half fathoms. 
Some knowledge of the currents is desirable in discussing the 
navigability of Hudson strait and Hudson bay, for on them 
depend largely the character and amount of ice met with in 
these northern waters. Observations on the drift of the ice 
that covers the Arctic seas point to a general law governing 
the currents. This law, briefly stated, is, that no matter what 
the size, shape or direction of one of these northern bodies of 
water may be, the direction of flow of the current will be such 
that one facing with it will have the land on the right hand. 
This may be differently stated by saying that with bodies of 
water having a general north-and-south trend, the current will 
flow north on the east side and south on the west, while in east- 
and-west bodies the direction of flow will be west on the north 
side and east on the south side. This law has been found to 
apply to the waters of Hudson strait and Hudson bay as well 
as to those of the more northern bays and straits visited on the 
Neptune. The mere statement of this law is made here, as the 
discussion of the causes producing it, be they due to the earth's 
motion or wind action, is outside the province of this report. 
The current from the eastward along the northern side of 
Hudson strait was known to the early navigators of those 
Waters, who took advantage of it when passing through the 
strait from the Atlantic. The presence of icebergs in the north- 
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