510 Our North Land. 



let, would be wealth added to the Dominion as a whole, not only 

 from the increase of commerce at the port itself, but by attracting 

 trade and commerce and navigation to that great inland sea, and 

 developing and increasing the tax-paying power of the country as a 

 whole. 



" I wish to say a word with regard to the means to be adopted 

 to carry out these objects. The appointment of a committee is no 

 doubt an advisable and necessary step, but it can hardly be a con- 

 clusive one, because all it can do is to obtain the best possible 

 evidence now in existence with regard to the navigability of the 

 Bay ; and I think it will be admitted that that evidence is not 

 conclusive. The experience of the steamers which have plied upon, 

 the Hudson's Bay was not conclusive, because they were not provided 

 with modern appliances for such a service ; and I do not think there 

 has been any systematic attempt at the steam navigation of the Bay. 

 In this direction is to be sought the only conclusive settlement of 

 this question. During the debate on the Estimates, I ventured to 

 urge on the Government that they should take early means to 

 secure a vessel, built perhaps in the same way as those which ply 

 from Newfoundland and Scotland, and manned by a crew accus- 

 tomed to cruising in the ice. This vessel should be kept cruising in 

 and out of Hudson's Bay through the Straits ; it should be allowed 

 to be frozen up until the navigation is impracticable in the spring, 

 and the days and months during which navigation is practicable 

 should be reported. By keeping this up for a whole year we would 

 have a conclusive test of the navigability of the Bay ; because it is 

 not certain that the greatest obstacles exist in winter. In fact, many 

 scientific men think that it is more easily navigable in other seasons 

 than in summer — that is to say, before the ice and icebergs become 

 loosened from the shore. This, at first sight, seems a reasonable 

 idea, and it is certainly endorsed by scientific men of the greatest 

 experience with regard to that region. 



" I am sorry that the Government have not seen fit to carry out 

 the suggestion which was made, not by myself alone, but by others, 

 that they should adopt a practical means of finding out how long 

 the Bay is navigable. I think the importance of the question would 



