488 Our North Land. 



tively barren, yet large tracts possess a very fertile soil. The 

 numerous large rivers and lakes embraced within these limits will 

 prove of great value in the settlement of the country. 



" Both the Bay and Strait are remarkably free from rocks and 

 shoals, which might interfere with their free navigation. The groups 

 of islands near the east side of the Bay are surrounded by deep water, 

 and a wide channel leads up the centre of James' Bay. Fortunately 

 the main body of the Bay, which is the portion likely to be hereafter 

 frequented by shipping, is entirely without shoals, reefs, or islands. 

 The depth is very uniform over most of the Bay, and nowhere does 

 it present any great irregularities. It averages about seventy 

 fathoms throughout, deepening to one hundred and upwards in 

 approaching the outlet of Hudson Strait ; while in the Strait itself 

 the soundings along the centre vary from about one hundred and 

 fifty to upwards of three hundred fathoms. The bottom appears to 

 consist almost everywhere of boulder clay and mud. Near the 

 shores a stiff clay, affording good holding ground for anchors, is 

 almost invariably met with on both sides. 



" James' Bay begins at Cape Jones on the east side and Cape 

 Henrietta Maria on the west, and runs south about three hundred 

 and fifty miles, with an average breadth of about one hundred and 

 fifty miles. The east side of Hudson's Bay, including its southern 

 prolongation, is known as the Eastmain Coast. Between Cape 

 Jones and Cape Dufferin on the Portland Promontory, and again in 

 approaching Cape Wolstenholme, at the northern termination of this 

 coast, the land is high and bold, some parts attaining an elevation 

 of nearly two thousand feet above the sea. The country on the 

 south-west side of the main Bay, as well as that lying to the west of 

 James' Bay, is low and generally level, with shallow water extending 

 a long distance out from the shore. Both sides of Hudson's Strait 

 are high and rocky, but the northern is less precipitous than the 

 southern. « 



" Of the numerous rivers which run into Hudson's Bay from all 

 sides, about thirty are of considerable magnitude. All those which 

 enter on the Eastmain coast appear to flow with a uniform course 

 directly west or parallel to one another, and as the height of land 



