Navigation of Hudson's Bay and Strait. 241 



sive privileges. Hence they went to England and succeeded in 

 interesting English capitalists. The expedition was placed under 

 the command of Capt. Gillman. 



Now, from this movement, can be traced the first beginning of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company, and the competition between French 

 and English fur traders, resulting in a bitter warfare. Forts were 

 soon erected, and annual voyages became a matter of course. It is 

 not my purpose, however, to write a history of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, nor to give an account of the wars between their outposts 

 and rival traders. From the date of Gillman's expedition to the 

 present day/with some few interruptions, vessels have passed between 

 the mother country and the trading posts on the shores of Hudson's 

 Bay by means of which a regular traffic has been kept up. This 

 shows that for a certain season each year the navigation of Hudson's 

 Bay and Strait has been utilized for more than two centuries, with 

 a regularity that furnishes no insignificant recommendation of the 

 route. 



There are three entrances to Hudson Strait from the north 

 Atlantic, viz. : that between Cape Chidley and the Button Islands, 

 five or six miles wide ; that, the main channel, between those islands 

 and Resolution Island, about forty-five miles wide ; and that between 

 Resolution and the north main coast, about ten miles wide. The first 

 is called Grey Strait, and the latter Gabriel Strait. These are the 

 narrowest channels, except at the western extremity, where Not- 

 tingham, Salisbury and Mill Islands divide the Strait into four 

 channels. The main one, and that usually travelled between Not- 

 tingham and Cape Wolstenho'me, or Cape Digges, is about thirty-five 

 or forty miles wide ; that between Nottingham and Salisbury is not 

 more than twelve miles wide ; that between Salisbury and Mill, 

 about the same ; and that between Mill and the north main coast 

 (Fox Land) probably fifteen miles. Except at the points named, 

 and excepting also between North Bluff and Cape Prince of Wales, 

 in the centre of the Strait where the distance is about sixty-five 

 miles, the width of Hudson Strait is over one hundred miles. 



At the entrance from the North Atlantic the water is very deep, 

 over three hundred fathoms in the centre of the Strait. The shores 



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