Navigation of Hudson's Bay and Strait. 265 



This arctic ice is the worst of all impediments to the navigator 

 in the waters of the Strait, and from its presence a vessel will always 

 suffer more or less delay. It is said to have existed this year to a 

 greater extent than in any of the past twenty; but, notwithstanding, 

 it would not have caused us much delay had we been bound through 

 without having to make an anchorage at Nottingham Island. On 

 the homeward journey I put this question to Capt. Sopp, commander 

 of the Neptune : — " Supposing you had been bound from Cape 

 Chidley to Churchill, or from Churchill to Cape Chidley, with a 

 cargo, how long, in your opinion, considering all the obstacles we 

 met with, ice and otherwise, would you have been delayed V 



The captain, after careful consideration, answered : " Not more 

 than twenty-four hours." Lieut. Gordon, I believe, answers this 

 question by saying " forty-eight hours ;" but I am sure that Captain 

 Sopp does not understate it. My own opinion is that, had we kept 

 well to the south, hugging pretty close to Cape Wolstenholme in a 

 through voyage, our delay occasioned by the ice would not have 

 exceeded ten hours. However, Capt. Sopp's judgment is certainly 

 entitled to exceptional reliance. There is no man to whose opinion 

 concerning this navigation I would attach more weight than to his. 



If it should turn out to be correct that the Fox Channel ice 

 makes its appearance in the Strait about three years consecutively 

 only every twenty or twenty-five years, it will prove a less formid- 

 able obstacle to navigation than it appeared to us on the outward 

 voyage of the Expedition. But, in any event, continued investiga- 

 tion will discover a channel, nearly always open, or partly open, 

 well to the south of Nottingham Island, through which steam vessels 

 will be able to pass without much, if any, delay. 



The records of sailing vessels are very misleading. We have 

 accounts of their being frequently detained, helplessly fast, in the 

 ice, two and even three weeks at a stretch, in July, and even in 

 August. This is very easy of explanation. Suppose the vessel to 

 be beating against a north-west wind on her southerly tack, she 

 may run in between two stretches of ice, approaching her but not 

 yet visible. On her northerly tack, as also on her southerly, she 

 is sailing close to the wind, and of course making a decided western 



