266 J. B. Tyrrell — StahUity of Land around Hudson Bay. 



V]II. — The Stability of the Land abound Hudson Bay. 

 Ey J. B. Tyrrell, F.G.S. 



IN a former number of this Magazine, and also in a Report 

 published by the Geological Survey of Canada, I showed 

 reasons for believing that while the land around Hudson Bay, ia 

 the northern part of Canada, had undoubtedly risen several hundred 

 feet in Post-Glacial times, it has now reached a condition of 

 stability similar to that of the land along the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 and on the eastern seaboard of Canada. 



In taking this position I was obliged to combat the views of my 

 friend. Dr. Robert Bell, of the Geological Survey of Canada, who 

 had stated, and who has since repeated the statement before the 

 Geological Society of America, that the land around Hudson Bay 

 is now rising at the rate of from seven to ten feet in a century. 



Some valuable historical light has just been thrown on this 

 interesting question by the publication of Jens Munck's account 

 of his expedition to Hudson Bay in 1619 a.d., translated from the 

 Danish and edited by C. C. A. Gosch, and published by the Hakluyt 

 Society in 1897. 



Jens Munck entered Hudson Bay eight years after it had been 

 discovered by Henry Hudson, and as far as is known he was the 

 first white man to enter Churchill harbour, on the west side of that 

 great Bay, or inland sea. Here he spent more than ten months, 

 from the 7th September, 1619, to the 16th of July, 1620; but as his 

 account of his expedition was written and published in Danish, 

 and has not previously been translated into English, it has remained 

 almost entirely unknown. 



His sailing directions for entering the harbour are as follows : — 

 " Whoever desires to enter the harbour must leave the beacons (on the 

 rocks to the west) to starboard and sail in, steering south-west. 

 A little way inside the entrance there is a sunken rock under the 

 water, but on the eastern side, so that one can pass it without 

 difficulty. One may then cast anchor in 7 or 8 fathoms." 



These directions were written nearly three hundred years ago, 

 and they describe the conditions exactly as they exist at present. 

 The sunken rock is still in the eastern side of the channel, so that 

 ships must keep along the western side. As that rock, in 1619, 

 was a menace to navigators, it could not have been more than 

 a few feet under water, and if the land had since then been rising 

 at any such rate as from 7 to 10 feet in a century, it would now be 

 high out of the water. A difference in the relative elevation of 

 land and water of even a few feet would have made a great difference 

 in the character of this channel, but instead it seems to have been 

 the same then as now. There can be no doubt as to the rock meant 

 by Munck, for there is only one conspicuously in the channel, and 

 the banks are otherwise very regular. 



After entering the outer channel the depths of 7 or 8 fathoms iu 

 the harbour are almost precisely the same as those shown on the 

 chart made by the officers of the Canadian Government in 1886, 

 namely 6 to 8i fathoms. 



