HUDSON BAY A NATIONAL ASSET 



suitably arranged propellers with attachable blades, will be 

 able to force their way through. 



As to the occurrence of fog in Hudson Strait, a compari- 

 son of carefully kept observations shows less than one-third 

 the number of hours that are recorded in the Straits of Belle 

 Isle. 



As to icebergs, they are occasionally met with in Hudson 

 Strait, being sometimes carried in along the north shore by 

 the prevailing current from Davis Strait, but they are by no 

 means of frequent occurrence, and not one-tenth as numer- 

 ous as off the Straits of Belle Isle. 



The strait can, in my opinion, be relied upon for unob- 

 structed navigation from the 15th of July to the 1st of 

 November, with a possible extension of two weeks at either 

 end. 



In looking through a volume of the European Magazine 

 and London Beview for the year 1797 — one of the many 

 rare old volumes in the Toronto Public Library — ^the writer 

 was interested to notice, in a brief sketch of Fort Prince of 

 Wales, in the June number of that year, the following refer- 

 ence to the navigation of Hudson Bay : " The ships em- 

 ployed in the trade pass the Straits the beginning of August 

 and return in September. The navigation is very safe, not 

 a ship being lost in twenty years. It is supposed that were 

 the trade to be laid open, the exports thither might be ex- 

 ceedingly enlarged." 



In conclusion, I would say that the proposition to open 

 up a route for commerce through Hudson. Bay and Strait 

 is, in my opinion, a wise and perfectly feasible move, both 

 because of the service it will render in developiilg the local 

 resources of the country, and because of the additional 

 transportation facilities it will afford for the products of 

 Western Canada. 



I am indebted to Mr. Charles Mair, of Lethbridge, our 

 distinguished western poet, and author of the recently pub- 



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