vi. Preface. 



In a description of the habits and customs of the native inhabitants, 

 and an account of the adventures of traders, whalers, navigators and 

 missionaries, I have not avoided a certain degree of romance, with which 

 these narratives are necessarily interwoven. But the reader must not 

 mistake this for fiction, which has been rigidly excluded. 



In a discussion of the question of the practicability of the proposed 

 Hudson's Bay route as a commercial highway, I have brought to bear upon 

 the subject all the evidence obtainable, and left the reader to judge for 

 himself, whether or not, in the near future, the necessities of trade will 

 find a successful channel of transportation from China and Japan to 

 Europe across the American Continent by way of the waters of Hudson's 

 Bay and Strait ; and whether or not these waters will become a successful 

 outlet for the products of the Canadian North- West. 



I have been actuated by the belief that the information conveyed in 



these pages will be a contribution, more or less valuable ; that the work 



will aid in bringing the vast resources and future possibilities of the 



Dominion to the attention of the world ; and serve, also, to entertain and 



amuse, as well as to extend, in a limited degree, the knowledge of the- 



reader. 



Chas. R. Tuttle. 

 Winnipeg, January, 1885. 



