TKANSACTIONS OF SKCTION E. 745 



2. On the Commercial Importance of Hudson's Bay, with liemarJcs on 

 recent Surveys and Investigations. By Robeet Bell, M.D. 



Few people have any adequate conception of the extent of this great American 

 sea. Including its southern prolongation, James' Bay, it measures ahout 1,000 

 miles in length, and is more than GOO miles in width at its northern part. Its 

 total area is ahout 500,000 square miles, or upwards of half that of the Mediterra- 

 nean Sea in the ' old world ' hemisphere. It is enclosed hy the land on all sides 

 except the north-east, where it communicates by several channels with the outer 

 ocean. The principal or best known of these is Hudson's Strait, which is about 

 500 miles in length, and has an average width of about 100 miles. The resources 

 of Hudson's Bay and the country immediately around it are varied and numerous, 

 although as yet few of them are at all developed. The fur trade is the principal 

 and best known business which has hitherto been carried on in these regions ; but a 

 large amount of oil, derived from the larger whales, the porpoises, walruses, white 

 bears, and the various species of seals which frequent the northern parts of the 

 bay, has been carried to New England, and small quantities, principally of porpoise 

 and seal oil, have from time to time been brought to London by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. The other exports from the bay have been as yet but trifling. The 

 fisheries, properly speaking, of Hudson's Bay have not yet been investigated. Both 

 the Indians and Eskimos tiud a variety of fish for their own use, and fine salmon 

 ahoimd in the rivers of Hudson's Strait. Watei'-fowl are very numerous on both 

 sides of the bay, and larger game on the ' barren grounds ' in the northern parts, 

 so that the natives, with prudence, may always have a plentiful supply of food. 

 But perhaps the most important of the undeveloped resources of the country 

 around the bay are its soil, timber, and minerals. To the south and west of James' 

 Bay, in the latitude of Devonshire and ("ornwall, there is a large tract, in which 

 much of the land is good, and the climate sufficiently favourable for the successful 

 prosecution of stock and dauy farming. A strip of country along the east side of 

 James' Bay may also prove available for these purposes. To the south-west of the 

 wide part of the bay the country is well-wooded, and although little or no rock 

 comes to the surface over an immense area, still neither the soil nor the climate are 

 suitable for carrying on agriculture as a principal occupation until we have passed 

 over more than half the distance to Lake Winnipeg. This region, however, offers 

 no engineering difficidties to the construction of a railway from the sea-coast to the 

 better country beyond, and this, at present, is the most important point in reference 

 to it. Some of the timber found in the country which sends its waters into James' 

 Bay, may prove to be of value for export. Among the kinds which it produces 

 may be mentioned white, red, and pitch pine, black and white spruce, balsam, larch, 

 white cedar, and white birch. The numerous rivers converging tow^ards the head 

 of James' Bay offer facilities for 'driving' timber to points at which it may be 

 shipped by sea-going vessels. Minerals may, lioweA'er, become in the future the 

 gi-eatest of the resources of Hudson's Bay. Little direct search has as yet been 

 made for the valuable minerals of these regions. I have, however, found a large 

 deposit of rich u-onstone on the Mattigami River, inexhaustible supplies of good man- 

 ganiferous iron ore on the islands near the east main coast, and promising quantities 

 of galena around Eichmond Gulf and also near Little Whale Kiver, where a small 

 amount had previously been known to exist. I have likewise noted traces of gold, 

 silver, molybdenum, and copper. Lignite is met with on the Missinaibi, gypsum on 

 the Moose, and petroleum-bearing limestone on the Abittibi River. Small quan- 

 tities of anthracite, and various ornamental stones and rare minerals, have been 

 met with in the course of my explorations. Soapstone is abundant not far from 

 Mosquito Bay, on the east side, and iron pyrites between Churchill and Marble 

 Island, on the west. Good building stones, clays, and limestones exist on both 

 sides of the bay. A cargo of mica is said to have been taken from Chesterfield 

 Inlet to New York, and valuable deposits of plumbago are reported to occur on 

 the north side of Hudson's Strait. 



The author concluded by discussing the facilities of access to this district, point- 

 ing out that the formation of ice in the harbours during the winter was the main 

 obstacle to continuous commerce by sea. 



