278 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



and peculiar at the best of times, and it is doubtful 

 whether ordinary steam vessels could be used, 

 and problematical whether a trade could possibly 

 be made to pay, requiring especially constructed 

 ships, which would be idle for eight or ten months 

 of the year. So much for the Straits — now as to 

 the rivers. 



Formerly the Hudson's Bay Company trans- 

 ported all the peltry — that is, furs and skins — 

 collected over a vast area, to Lake Winnipeg. 

 Over that lake it was taken in large boats to 

 Norway House, at the head of the Nelson, and 

 down that river to York Factory at the mouth of 

 it. And all supplies, all the necessaries and all the 

 luxuries of life, all that white men and Indians 

 required, were transported up the Nelson to 

 Norway House, thence carried to various parts 

 of the lake, and then disseminated through the 

 land by boats, canoes, and dog sleighs. 



Some time ago the Company abandoned the 

 Nelson, adopted Hayes River, and have used that 

 route ever since. Hayes River is not an outlet 

 of Lake Winnipeg. Properly speaking, it is a 

 small river flov^ng into Hudson's Bay close to the 

 mouth of the Nelson. But the name, Hayes 

 River, is generally given to that series of lakes 



