Commercial Importance of Hudson's Bay. 487 



ties of seeing both sides of Hudson Strait, and of acquiring much 

 valuable information in reference to its navigation. 



" In the popular mind, Hudson's Bay is apt to be associated with 

 the polar regions, yet no part of it comes within the Arctic circle, 

 and the southern extremity is south of the latitude of London. Few 

 people have any adequate conception of the extent of this great 

 American sea. Including its southern prolongation, James' Bay, it 

 measures about one thousand miles in length, and it is more than 

 six hundred miles in width at its northern part. Its total area is 

 approximately five hundred thousand square miles, or upwards of 

 half that of the Mediterranean Sea of the old world. It is enclosed 

 by the land on all sides except the north east, where it communi- 

 cates by several channels with the outer ocean. The principal or 

 best known of these is Hudson Strait, which is about five hundred 

 miles in length, and has an average width of about one hundred 

 miles. 



" Hudson's Bay, which might have been more appropriately 

 called Hudson's Sea, is the central basin of the drainage of North 

 America. The limits of this basin extend to the centre of the 

 Labrador peninsula, or some five hundred miles inland on the east 

 side, and to the Rocky Mountains, or a distance of one thousand 

 three hundred miles on the west. The Winnipeg basin constitutes 

 a sort of outlier of the region more immediately under notice, since 

 the waters drain into it from north, south, east, and west, and dis- 

 charge themselves by one great trunk, the Nelson River, into 

 Hudson's Bay. The southernmost part of this basin, namely, the 

 source of the Red River, extends down nearly to latitude 45°. The 

 head waters of the southern rivers of James' Bay are not far to the 

 north of Lake Huron ; while one of the branches of the Albany rises 

 within twenty-five miles of the north shore of Lake Superior. 

 Including the Winnipeg system, the basin of Hudson's Bay has a 

 width of about two thousand one hundred miles from east to west, 

 and a length of about one thousand five hundred miles from north 

 to south, and its dimensions approach the enormous area of three 

 million square miles. Over a great part of this region there is a 

 temperate climate, and although much of the surface is compara- 



