Immigration and the Hudson's Bay Route. 557 



the same merciless waves. He seeks his berth, or lounges in his 

 unhappy quarters from like sea-sickness, and suffers equally severe 

 from it, but beyond this there is no similarity between the two 

 voyages. His first sea-sickness is scarcely over, when on the 

 morning of the third or fourth day his eyes are gladdened by the 

 glory or grandeur of " Greenland's Icy Mountains." All day long 

 the scene is one of beauty, and the hardships of the ocean voyage 

 are forgotten in the study and admiration of the great rugged snow- 

 bound cliffs of that wonderful north land. 



Scarcely a night is passed after leaving picturesque Greenland, 

 when the bold hills of Resolution, or the precipitous cliffs of Cape 

 Chidley break into view, and the heart of the immigrant is glad- 

 dened, while his eyes refuse to believe that he is entering the waters 

 of the Dominion of Canada. As the ship passes the sixtieth merid- 

 ian of west longitude, and while yet considerably less than two 

 thousand miles from Liverpool, the Atlantic is left behind. One 

 shore or the other of Hudson Strait will pretty much always be in 

 sight throughout the whole voyage of its length, four hundred and 

 fifty miles ; and when lost to view, the cliffs of Charles' Island, or the 

 Savages, or Nottingham or Salisbury will be in sight, while the 

 very waters themselves will hold converse with the voyagers. On 

 one hand the sporting whale sending the water high into the air 

 will afford a scene of much attraction and amusement. Women and 

 children will come on deck now to enjoy the sights, for the water is 

 nearly always comparatively level and the ship will press forward 

 without apparent motion. Yonder on a stretch of field-ice may be 

 seen dozens of great fat walrus sleeping or lounging in the sun, and 

 as some bold coast is neared, where the great cliffs rise like a 

 mighty wall before the eye, vast schools of porpoises with their backs 

 partly out of the water, in a sort of Indian file, will be seen 

 stretching .over the surface as far as the vision can be extended. 

 Now and then the long ivory horn of the sea unicorn will be lifted 

 out of the water as if some strange submarine boat-man were hail- 

 ing the ship from beneath the surface, while away on the rocks of 

 the shore the polar bear, lonely and strange, will appear like a huge 

 white monster, cantering away from fear of the ship. , 



