490 Our North Land. 



Fort Prince of Wales, which is probably the largest ruin in North 

 America. Although occupying a commanding position and mounting 

 about forty large guns, it was surrendered, without firing a shot, 

 to the French Admiral La Perouse, who destroyed it in 1782. 



" Along the west coast the rise and fall at spring tides amounts 

 to about eleven or twelve feet, on an average, and is pretty uniform, 

 diminishing somewhat towards the south. It is greatest at the 

 mouth of the Nelson River, where it amounts to about fifteen feet. 

 The tides are lower all along the east side of the bay. In Hudson's 

 Strait there is a very good tide, amounting to thirty-eight and one- 

 half feet at Fort Chimo, according to the reports we have received 

 of Acting Staff-Commander J. G. Boulton's reconnaissance during 

 the past summer. 



" Geologically the basin of Hudson's Bay, excluding the western 

 or Winnipeg division, lies within the great Laurentian area of the 

 Dominion. Silurian rocks resting almost horizontally upon these, 

 form an irregular border along the south-western side of the Bay, 

 and in the valleys of some of the rivers they extend inland from 

 one hundred to two hundred miles. To the south and west of 

 James' Bay, the Silurian are overlaid by Devonian rocks, which 

 here occupy a considerable area. The long chains of islands which 

 fringe the east coast for nearly three hundred miles to the north- 

 ward of Cape Jones, and also the mainland in the vicinity of 

 Richmond Gulf, are composed of igneous and almost unaltered 

 sedimentary rocks, resembling the Nipigon series of the Lake 

 Superior region, which may be of Cambrian age. On the western 

 side of the Bay, from Churchill northwards, quartzites and other 

 rocks, which may also belong to the Cambrian system, appear to 

 be largely developed. Valuable minerals may be looked for on this 

 part of the coast. The extensive level region around the south- 

 western side of the Bay is overspread with a great sheet of boulder 

 clay, which is generally covered by the modified drift. The rocks 

 of the outlying, or Winnipeg division of the basin, comprise an 

 extensive series, ranging from the Laurentian to the Tertiary. 



" The resources of Hudson's Bay and the country immediately 

 around it are varied and numerous, although as yet few of them are 



