From Marble Island to Churchill. 123 



relieving Eskimo Point of its dull outline, to some extent, and pre- 

 senting a strangely interesting feature. On the left were the beacon, 

 the flag-staff, the ruins of an old discarded battery, three common 

 looking storehouses, and a high, long trestle pier, scattered along on 

 Battery Point. Passing between the two headlands, where the 

 entrance to the harbour is less than half a mile wide, and where it 

 required full speed from the Neptune's engines to overcome the 

 combined strength of the ebbing tide and river currents, we steamed 

 into one of the grandest harbours on the North American Continent. 

 Dr. Bell, who was familiar with the mouth of the river, was the 

 Neptune's pilot, and right well he performed the office. 



Port Churchill is a beautiful basin, from a mile to a mile and a 

 half in width, and from two to two and a half miles in length ; and 

 averaging from* five to twenty fathoms of water throughout ; but 

 beyond this magnificent harbour the Churchill is not navigable for 



even the smallest craft. 



» 



From the harbour, the present Fort Churchill, as it is improperly 

 called, is not visible. The trading post is some four and a half miles 

 farther up the river, hid by the intervening high rocks. The only 

 attractions observable in the harbour are the old fort on the north, 

 and on the south the remains of the old battery, three storehouses, 

 and the high, long trestle landing pier. 



There was considerable rain throughout the whole of Saturday, 

 so that but little progress was made in making examinations on 

 shore. The men were put to work obtaining ballast, and it was 

 decided that the trip up the river would not be undertaken until 

 Sunday morning. 



I had almost forgotten to state that while we were yet steaming 

 into the harbour, the smoke of the Neptune was observed by Mr. 

 Spencer, chief trader, Mr. MacTavish, chief clerk, and their half-breed 

 servants who were at the lower storehouses attending to some 

 work. This brought them over the point in great surprise. They 

 had been watching and waiting, long, anxious weeks, for the arrival 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company's vessel, but as yet they had waited 

 and watched in vain, and were beginning to become greatly dis- 



