CHAPTEE VII. 



In Hudson Strait. 



geography of the strait — looking for a harbour in heavy 

 weather — a blinding august snow-storm — resolution 

 island temporarily abandoned — running the ice-floes 

 near big island. 



Where the tide-race, meeting the north-west gale, 



Roars, and lashes, and foams ; and the wail 



Of perpetual snow-squalls moves not the soul 



Of the ancient gneiss cliffs. Where deep waters roll 



And the oil-bearing; mammals abound. 



feN the 8th of August the Expedition left Port Burwell, at 

 the entrance to Ungava Bay, and steamed out into Hudson 

 Strait. We had already established one of the six observing 

 stations to be located on the shores of the Strait ; and it 

 was determined to push across to Resolution Island in hope of 

 finding a suitable place there for locating the second. The distance 

 is about forty-five or fifty miles. 



Before following the narrative of the experiences of the Expedi- 

 tion farther, we may as well take a hurried glance at Hudson Strait. 

 Its length, from Cape Chidley on the North Atlantic to the outer 

 Digges Island off Cape Wolstenholme at the entrance to Hudson's 

 Bay, is four hundred and fifty miles. From the outer Button Island, 

 off Cape Chidley, to Cape Best on Resolution, it is forty-five miles 

 wide, but its narrowest channel is at the western extremity, where 

 between Cape Wolstenholme on the south shore and Nottingham 

 Island, the distance is not more than thirty-five miles. The tides 

 in the Strait rise and fall from fifteen to thirty-five feet, and the 

 tide race runs at from four to ten miles an hour, at half- tide, 

 according to location. Its principal islands are Resolution on the 



