From the Pacific to Hudson's Bay. 291 



August, of 521°. In the narrower inlets of the coast, the tempera- 

 ture of the sea falls, owing to the quantity of cold water mingled 

 with it by the entering of the rivers. 



The coast about Port Simpson and the mouth of the Skeena is 

 not very well sheltered from the rain-bearing winds. When these 

 winds come in contact with the mountainous mainland the heaviest 

 rain-fall occurs, in exact correspondence with the height to which 

 the moist air is forced up into the higher regions of the atmosphere, 

 and cooled there by its expansion and loss of heat by radiation. 

 Owing to these causes the heavy rain-fall is not found to be main- 

 tained in travelling eastward by the Skeena. 



Our journey is from Port Simpson to Churchill. We travel first 

 to the mouth of the Skeena, to the village of Port Essinofton, or 

 Spuksute, a native hamlet. The surface of the country here is low, 

 level and swampy, and rough with stumps and logs, the remains of 

 an originally dense forest growth. Behind the little flat on which the 

 village stands is a ridge rising in one place to a remarkable peak. 



As we are going over this route with a view to its practicability 

 for railway location, I must observe that, from the Skeena, Port 

 Simpson may be easily reached by the iron horse. Mr. Crombie, 

 C.E., in his report in 1877, says : " The distance to Port Simpson 

 (from the Skeena) is probably eight miles greater than to a point 

 on the mainland opposite Cardena Bay ; but the obstacles to the 

 construction of a railwaj 7 line are not so great, and the cost of build- 

 ing it would probably be less." 



The mouth or entrance to the Skeena was first explored by Mr- 

 Whidbey of Vancouver's staff in July, 1793. He appears to have 

 gone no further up than the mouth of the Ecstall, and to have 

 been too easily convinced that the inlet was one of no particular 

 importance. To Vancouver the name Port Essington is due, and 

 was by him originally applied to the whole estuary. It is singular 

 that, notwithstanding the diligence and skill of Vancouver in his 

 exploration of the west coast, he passed the mouths of the three 

 largest rivers, the Fraser, the Skeena, and the Nasse, without speci- 

 ally noting them.* 



* Prof. Dawson's Report, 1879. 



