366 EISING OF THE LAND AROUND HUDSON BAY. 



winter of 1741-42 in this cove. I liave examined the place on various 

 occasions and have copied most of the sketches and inscriptions on the 

 rocks, and it always appeared to me that the conditions which we 

 observe indicate a rise in the land since the last ship wintered there. 

 At the present time the tide does not rise high enough to allow of the 

 passage into it of crafts larger than ordinary row boats. No seagoing 

 vessel could now enter it, which would indicate an elevation nearly 

 equal to the draft of the ships formerly frequenting it. It would be a 

 boon to the agents of the Hudson Bay Company at Churchill if they 

 could now winter their small schooner in this cove instead of being 

 obliged to send her every autumn to winter at York Factory. The 

 captain who commands her happens to be the person now in charge of 

 the company's post at Churchill, and both he and his crew are obliged 

 to walk back 150 miles through the mud from York Factory after leav- 

 ing their vessel there in the autumn, and to walk the same distance 

 again to bring her back in the spring. Mr. J. B. Tyrrell visited Sloops 

 Cove in the autumn of 1893, and in a paper published in the Geological 

 Magazine for August, 1894, says he thinks the land is here in a state of 

 equilibrium. Two inscrii)tions which he saw on the rocks, namely, 

 " May 25 and May 27, 1753," were about 7 feet above the present high 

 tide, and he thinks these were cut by men standing on the ice. This, 

 however, does not prove much, for the men w^ere quite as likely to have 

 sat as stood while engraving these inscriptions. As the tide still enters 

 the cove and keeps it full of water the average relative level of its ice 

 to the rocks surrounding it may not have differed much from what it is 

 now. When I visited Fort Prince of Wales in 1879 oak planks brought 

 from England while the fort ^vas still occupied, as Avell as timbers of 

 native wood, all charred by Lepeyrouse's fire, were found stranded far 

 out of reach of the i)resent tides and still in perfect preservation. On 

 the occasion referred to I met at the " New Fort" children of some of 

 the people who were living at the "Old Fort" when it was captured 

 by the French, and from them some information could be obtained as 

 to the conditions at that time. We have, besides, the description and 

 illustrations in the book by Samuel Hearne, who was then in charge of 

 the place. Any light which these accounts may throw on the state of 

 matters then as compared with the present time points in the direction 

 of some elevation having taken place. 



Among the photographs which I took around Fort Prince of Wales 

 in 1879 is one which shows strips of dry land grasses alternating with 

 little parallel ridges of gravel thrown up by the waves and now above 

 the highest tide mark, but below the level of the spot which was 

 pointed out to me as the landing place of Lepeyrouse. The ground on 

 which the fort stands was an island during high tide at the time the 

 place was occupied, and a bridge was thrown across the narrowest part 

 of the little separating channel to connect the island with the mainland. 

 This channel is now entirely dry. 



