EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 21 



avec vous rhommage d'une traduction a laquelle je me suis empresse 

 de consacrer mes veilles pour concourir a vos vues respectives d'utilite. 

 Puisse ce monument etre digne de vous deux ! 



" Lallemant, 

 " I'un des Secretaires de la Marine." 



Hearne intimates on page 32 that the map here reproduced 

 differs slightly from those which he had previously published, 

 a reference doubtless to the one in Cook's " Voyage," but he 

 claims that this one is the most accurate, since he had revised 

 it with great care. Both maps are here given ; further ex- 

 plorations in the northern country alone can determine which 

 is the more correct. 



Fort Prince of Wales, from which place Hearne started 

 on his expedition, was built by the Hudson's Bay Company 

 in the years 1733 to 1771. It is said to have been de- 

 signed by English military engineers, and, according to 

 Joseph Robson, was built under the direction of the resident 

 Governor, though Robson himself had much to do with its 

 construction. 



The fort, which is one of the most interesting military 

 ruins on the continent, stands on Eskimo Point, just west of 

 the mouth of Churchill River, and though some parts of the 

 walls have fallen, it was, when I visited it, in much the same 

 condition as when built, except that the houses within it had 

 been gutted by fire. It is 310 feet long on the north and 

 south sides, and 317 feet long on the east and west sides, 

 measured from corner to corner of the bastions. The walls 

 are from 37 to 42 feet thick, and 16 feet 9 inches high to the 

 top of the parapet, which is 5 feet high and 6 feet 3 inches 

 wide. On the outside the wall was faced with dressed stone, 

 except towards the river, while on the inside undressed stone 

 was used. The interior of the wall is a rubble of boulders, 

 held together by a poor mortar. In the parapet are forty 

 embrasures and forty guns, from six to twenty-four pounders, 

 are lying on the wall near them, now partly hidden by low 



