Navigation of Hudson's Bay and Strait. 275 



of Churchill does not freeze up until the end of November. This 

 fact is recorded by the Danish Captain, John Monck, who wintered 

 here in 1619-20, or two hundred and sixty-one years ago, and it has 

 been verified by observations extending up to the present year. 

 More than one hundred years' experience of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company has shown that the average duration of the voyage of a 

 sailing ship from York Factory to London is four weeks, or to the 

 Land's End about three weeks. From Churchill, the time required 

 would be a little less.* 



" If the grain crop of the North-West cannot be sent to Europe 

 via Hudson's Bay the year it is harvested, neither can it be by the 

 St. Lawrence ; and if sent by rail to Halifax, St. John or New York, 

 the price which could be paid for the grain would necessarily be 

 so low that it could with more profit be stored in elevators and 

 exported the next summer by way of Churchill. Owing to the 

 coldness of the climate, there would be no risk of damage to the 

 grain by thus storing it over winter. Even should grain in the 

 North-West prairie country always bring lower prices than in the 

 older provinces of Canada, it may still be grown at greater profit, 

 owing to the saving of years of time and the great labour necessary 

 to clear the land of timber in the latter ; and, as Colonel Dennis 

 remarked in his pamphlet : ' Should there prove to be even a four 

 months' navigation on this (Hudson's Bay) route, and especially 

 should such period extend sufficiently into the fall to permit of 

 moving to market the preceding harvest, it would be difficult indeed 

 to take an over-sanguine view of the future of the magnificent 

 territories now lying dormant in the North- West.' -f* 



" The comparatively new business of exporting live stock to 

 Europe may in future be largely carried on in the North-West ; but 

 in order that this may be successfully accomplished, an easy route 

 to the seaboard is almost indispensable. The great system of inland 

 navigation formed by the rivers and lakes of the Winnipeg basin 



* For a steamship, Captain Sopp estimates from twelve to fourteen days as the aver- 

 age time required from Liverpool to Churchill. 



t It is now known that navigation continues late enough to move most, if not all, of 

 the year's crop over the Hudson's Bay route. 



