298 cruise OF THE NEPTUNE 
of sea navigation on the St. Lawrence. The distance from 
Churchill to Liverpool is almost the same as that from Montreal 
to Liverpool; consequently there is a saving in distance of a 
thousand miles of rail or river carriage in favour of the 
northern route. 
The question of the storage of the grain until the season fol- 
lowing the harvest, is at first sight a serious one, but when it is 
known that not twenty per cent of the grain at present reaches 
the seaboard before the opening of navigation of the year 
following that in which it is harvested, this objection practically 
disappears, for the grain may be as well stored on the shores of 
Hudson bay as in the elevators on the plains, or at Fort William. 
The question of storage is reduced to the length of time between 
the opening of navigation of Hudson strait, and the time 
required to transport grain from Fort William to Montreal 
after the opening of navigation on the great lakes, and this 
difference in time may be measured by days. 
The country through which a railway must run to reach the 
port of Churchill is known to offer no serious difficulties, and 
although the local freights between the bay and the head of Lake 
Winnipeg may be small, the district traversed is equal in fer- 
tility and natural resources to much of that through which the 
Canadian Pacific railway runs to the northward of the great 
lakes. Given a good harbour, such as that of Churchill, and an 
adequate number of tramp steamships, there will be no diffi- 
culty in removing from that port during the season of safe 
navigation all the grain and other supplies that can be drawn 
there by a single line of rails. 
The object of this article on the navigation of Hudson strait 
and Hudson bay is to point out the period of safe navigation, 
and the advantages and drawbacks of this route to Europe; 
other problems of transportation and usefulness being left to 
those in a better position to judge and pronounce upon them. 
