242 Our North Land. 



on both sides throughout are high, rugged and barren, with deep 

 waters close to the cliffy, rock-bound coast. As you proceed west- 

 ward toward Hudson's Bay the water becomes shallower. In the 

 centre of the Strait, say between Cape Prince of Wales and North 

 Bluff, it is a little less than two hundred fathoms, while at the 

 western end, in the centre of the channel between Nottingham 

 Island and the south shore, it is less than one hundred fathoms, 

 while between Nottingham and Salisbury it is not twenty -five 

 fathoms. The average depth of the water in Hudson's Bay is about 

 eighty fathoms, except in the southern portion, where it does not 

 much exceed sixty. 



The distance from Cape Chidley, at the eastern end of the Strait, 

 to Cape Digges at the western end, is about four hundred and fifty 

 miles ; the distance from Cape Digges across the Bay to Churchill 

 Harbour is not more than five hundred and fifty miles, and that from 

 Cape Digges to the mouth of the Nelson is about the same. The 

 whole distance, therefore, from Churchill, or York, to the borders of 

 the North Atlantic at Cape Chidley is one thousand miles, or a little 

 less, and not thirteen or fourteen hundred miles as has been previ- 

 ously stated. 



In discussing the question of the navigation of the Bay and 

 Strait, we must consider the currents, the fogs, the winds and 

 storms, the character of the ice, the temperature of the air and water, 

 the depth of the water, absence or presence of dangerous reefs, 

 rocks, etc., etc. 



I should say that the currents met with between Cape Chidley 

 and Churchill are the tides, the general flow of the waters towards 

 the ocean, and that portion of the arctic current flowing southward 

 through Fox Channel. The tidal current runs at the rate of from 

 five to eight miles an hour, according to location ; and in narrow 

 channels along the coast, through islands, and at the mouth of the 

 rivers it is often hard to overcome. For instance, in entering Churchill 

 Harbour at half ebb-tide, a current is met with in which full steam 

 power is required to make headway. 



The general movement of the waters from the west towards the 

 North Atlantic, by which the vast territory through which the 



