DAYS IN THE WOODS 279 



and streams which constitutes the route for canoe 

 and boat navigation between Norway House on 

 Lake Winnipeg and York Factory on the sea. In 

 referring to the line of water communication at 

 present in use between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson's 

 Bay, I shall therefore call it Hayes River. The 

 Hudson's Bay Company use large boats capable 

 of carrying ten tons burden ; so I assume that 

 Hayes River is the better river of the two, and the 

 more easily navigated by vessels of any size. 



Hayes River has a course of somewhere about three 

 hundred miles in length. In the course of that three 

 hundred miles there are twenty or thirty portages. 

 That is to say, obstructions occur at average inter- 

 vals of ten or fifteen miles, so serious as to necessi- 

 tate the immense labour of dragging over land boats 

 capable of carrying ten tons, and the merchandise 

 within them. That does not sound like a water- 

 way that could be navigated by steamers of any 

 kind — as a matter of fact, Hayes River is a mere 

 boat route. There remains, then, the great Nelson 

 River, the outlet of Lake Winnipeg. The Nelson 

 or Saskatchewan is a first-class river in point of 

 size and volume of water, but it is not navigable. 

 Although the average depth of water for about 

 ninety miles is said to be twenty feet, yet it is 



