586 Our North Land. 



year, and I feel convinced that much of the ice which we encount- 

 ered was the accumulation of several years." 



Lieutenant Gordon is incorrect in saying that a steamship of the 

 power of the Neptune is perfectly helpless in this ice. To be sure, 

 in entering a harbour where it is jammed sometimes so as to be 

 almost heaped up, the statement will apply correctly; but out in the 

 Strait, where the tidal currents are moving, it would not so 

 greatly reduce the speed of such a craft, and it certainly did not, 

 although it was as heavy as he says, reduce the speed of the Nep- 

 tune more than fifty per cent, while in the thickest of it. 



Lieutenant Gordon gives considerable space to the question of the 

 weather, but as that subject is fully exhausted in another part of 

 this volume, and as there is no disagreement between his remarks 

 and my own on it, further reference to the question here is 

 unnecessary. 



In connection with the resources of the region he says that 

 " during the eleven years preceding 1874 about fifty voyages were 

 known to have been made by whaling vessels from New England to 

 Hudson's Bay, and their returns amounted to at least $1,371,000, an 

 average of $27,420 per voyage, which, as most of the vessels engaged 

 in the trade are comparatively small sailing vessels, shows a large 

 margin for profit to those engaged in the business ; and, if we allow 

 an average of three vessels per annum since the date of the returns 

 up to the present year, we have $822,600 as the value of the oil and 

 bone taken by our neighbours from the waters of Hudson's Bay 

 since the date of the report above quoted, making a grand total of 

 $2,193,600. Of the fisheries carried on by the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany that of the porpoise is the most extensive. Last year the 

 Company secured nearly two hundred in one tide at Churchill, and 

 a much larger number at Ungava Bay. They have established 

 extensive refineries at several of their northern stations, and instead 

 of exporting the blubber in bulk, as formerly, refine it, shipping the 

 pure oil in casks." Further on he says : " I am satisfied that the 

 walrus and porpoise fisheries may be developed to almost any 

 extent ; and as increased attention is sure now to be given to this 

 industry, we may rely upon its almost immediate extension. We 



