HUDSON 



2859 



HUDSON BAY 



voyages on the same mission, which were also 

 fruitless, he sailed for North America in 1609 

 in a little vessel called the Half Moon, in the 

 employ of the Dutch East India Company, and 

 explored the Hudson River. In 1610 he 

 embarked in the Discovery, in search of a 

 northwest passage to Asia. It was on this trip 

 that Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay were dis- 

 covered. During the winter on Hudson Bay 

 the crew suffered many hardships and finally 

 mutinied. Hudson and his son were set adrift 

 in a boat with seven loyal sailors, and were 

 never heard from again. In 1909 the three 

 hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the 

 Hudson River was celebrated in New York 

 City. See NORTHWEST PASSAGE. 



HUDSON, N. Y., a city on the Hudson River, 

 and the county seat of Columbia County, situ- 



home, an orphan asylum and a home for the 

 aged. 



The industrial enterprises include two large 

 cement mills, one of which is among the largest 

 in the United States, and manufactories of knit 

 goods, car wheels, lumber, tobacco, iron, ice 

 machinery and tools, sash and blinds, and steel 

 springs. 



In 1783 the first settlement was made by 

 New England merchants and fishermen. The 

 present name was adopted in 1784 in honor of 

 Henry Hudson, and a year later the town re- 

 ceived a city charter. In the early days it 

 was engaged in foreign trade and the whaling 

 industry, but its shipping was destroyed by the 

 War of 1812. 



HUDSON BAY, formerly HUDSON'S BAY, is 

 Canada's great land-locked sea. It forms, with 



HUDSON BAY AND ITS RAILROAD 



ated in the southeastern part of the state, 114 

 miles north of New York City and twenty-nine 

 miles south of Albany. It is on the New York 

 Central & Hudson River and the Boston & 

 Albany railroads, and on the Albany & Hudson 

 electric railway. It is also served by ferries 

 which cross the river to Athens and is at the 

 head of navigation for river steamboats. The 

 population, which in 1910 was 11,417, was 12,- 

 705 in 1916, according to a Federal estimate. 



Hudson lies on the east side of the river, and 

 is partly built upon the slope of Prospect Hill, 

 which rises from a steep bluff above the boat 

 landing. The higher ground commands a fine 

 view of the Hudson Valley, the Catskill Moun- 

 tains west, and the Berkshire Hills east. Among 

 the more prominent buildings are a Federal 

 building, completed in 1913 at a cost of $75,000 ; 

 a county courthouse, city hall, state armory, 

 public library and a hospital. In the city are a 

 state training school for girls, a state firemen's 



its southern arm, called James Bay, a body of 

 water 900 miles long and 500 miles wide, and 

 has an estimated area of 400,000 square miles, 

 over four times that of all the Great Lakes. 

 It may be regarded as an arm both of the At- 

 lantic and of the Arctic Oceans, for it communi- 

 cates with the former through Hudson Strait 

 and with the latter through Fox Channel and 

 various other passages. In the past Hudson 

 Bay has been known principally as the last 

 discovery, in 1610, of the great Dutch navigator 

 whose name it bears, and as the starting point 

 of the fur-trading activities of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company. Now, however, its shores are 

 being brought into touch with civilization by 

 the building of railroads, and its waters are 

 becoming a great highway for ocean steamships. 

 Navigation in Hudson Bay, however, is sub- 

 ject to inconveniences and even dangers. For 

 more than half the year ice entirely prevents 

 navigation, and there is further difficulty in 



