RiSlKG OF THE LAND AliOUND HUDSON BAY. 367 



If anytliiiio' farther were wanting to show that an elevation of the 

 land is now going on in this region we have some direct personal evi- 

 dence in the lifetime of the witness himself in support of the facts 

 already cited. About twenty years ago a very aged Indian, who was 

 said to have "seen more than a hundred winters," and who was quietly 

 passing the last years of his extraordinarily long life at ]S[orway House, 

 told me in presence of the factor, Mr. Eoderick Eoss, and the other 

 gentlemen of that establishment that he had, when a boy, witnessed 

 the landing of Lepeyrouse and the destruction of Fort Prince of Wales. 

 He gave graphic details of every circumstance, which agreed perfectly 

 with Lepeyrouse's own account, and he answered all my questions on 

 other ijoints entirely satisfactorily and without a moment's hesitation. 

 Among other things, he mentioned that the spot where the French- 

 men's boats landed was quite close to that portion of the western wall 

 which they undermined and blew up with gunpowder. He said that 

 when all was ready they laid a "rope" (train) of gunpowder across the 

 beach and, setting fire to the end of it, ran off to a safe distance to 

 witness the effect. It is now a considerable distance from this spot to 

 the nearest point of water at high tide. 



The proofs of the rising of the land around Hudson Bay in post- 

 glacial times would be admitted by any geologist, and the question of 

 the continuance of the movement at the present time is, I think, 

 answered in the affirmative by the actual general shoaling of the 

 water which is going on, and the encroachment of the land on all sides, 

 some proofs of which have been given in the foregoing pages. All the 

 facts which have been mentioned (and many more might be added) 

 point in the same direction, while there appears to be no evidence of 

 a contrary character. The officers of the Hudson Bay Company are an 

 intelligent set of men, and their universal opinion, based upon life- 

 times of observation, is that the land all around the bay is rising. The 

 following is part of a letter recently received from Mr. Joseph For- 

 tescue, lately a chief factor in the Hudson Bay Company, in answer to 

 my request for his opinion on this subject: 



"Eegarding the rising of the shores of Hudson Bay I have no doubt 

 whatever. When I was at York Factory I heard several Indians say 

 that the sea or tide had retired 2 miles from places they remembered 

 when they were young, and my own observations during twenty years 

 there would lead me to entertain the same opinion. When I revisited 

 Moose Factory, after nearly forty years' absence, I found a great change 

 in the appearance of the coast and river. Channels which were navi- 

 gable at all times of the tide formerly could now only be used at high 

 water." 



