In Hudson Strait. 69 



In certain seasons of the year the navigation of Hudson Strait 

 is greatly interrupted by ice — ice formed in the Bay and Strait, and 

 that which comes down Fox Channel in the summer. It is estimated 

 that these ice-floes were heavier this and last year than for the 

 previous twenty seasons ; " and yet the Neptune," says Capt. Sopp, 

 *' if she had been bound for Churchill with a cargo, or from that 

 port outward, this year, would not have suffered more than twenty 

 hours' delay on account of ice, or anything else." But more of this 

 anon. 



The shores of the Strait are high, bold and barren, consisting of 

 the Laurentian gneiss formation. The waters abound in whales, 

 porpoise, walrus, seal, and many kinds of fish, while on the shores 

 and the borders of the lakes and streams of the interior, fur-bearing 

 animals, deer, white bears and a great variety of small game, are 

 plentiful. The Eskimos inhabit both the north and south shores, 

 and the borders of the rivers and lakes inland. 



Friday night, August the 8th, was calm and pleasant, and 

 Saturday morning found us in sight of Resolution Island. There 

 was a light fog early in the morning, but by eight o'clock it was all 

 gone, and the morning was cold and clear and bright. We spent 

 the whole day looking for a harbour on the shores of Resolution, 

 among the Lower Savages and on the north main coast to the west 

 of the islands, but without success. By one o'clock a north-west 

 breeze sprang up and the waters were lashed into a heavy sea, so 

 that the Neptune's boat was sent ashore with great difficulty, on 

 two occasions, in a fruitless search for an anchorage. We met with 

 plenty of icebergs, and the coast was well decorated with large 

 sheets of perpetual snow, while the higher ranges of rocks were 

 completely covered. 



About four o'clock in the afternoon, a heavy storm with a north- 

 west gale set in, and we were compelled to steam out from the rocks 

 toward the centre of the Strait, there to roll and pitch, and dodge 

 about during the night. It was indeed a dark, rough, gloomy night, 

 the Neptune riding the heavy seas which rolled in lumpy, uneven, 

 and rapid succession, sometimes breaking over the decks with 

 great violence. A good many of the men — and conspicuously the 



