ACEOSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA 



lished and very interesting and valuable narrative of the 

 Government Treaty Expedition of 1899 through the Peace 

 and Athabasca river valleys,* for permission to insert here 

 his noble poem, " Open the Bay," an eloquent and effective 

 protest against the efforts of certain affected interests to 

 cultivate the idea that navigation of Hudson Strait is 

 impracticable. 



OPEN THE BAY. 



Open the Bay, which o'er the Northland broods, 



Dumb, yet In labor with a mighty fate! 

 Open the Bay! Humanity intrudes, 

 And gropes, prophetic, round its solitudes. 

 In eager thought, and will no longer wait. 



Open the Bay which Cabot first espied 



In days when tiny bark and pinnace bore 

 Stout pilots and brave captains true and tried — 

 Those dauntless souls who battled far and wide. 



With wind and wave in the great days of yore. 



Open the Bay which Hudson — doubly crowned 

 By fame — to science and to history gave. 



This was his limit, this his utmost bound — 



Here, all unwittingly, he sailed and found, 

 At once, a path of empire and a grave. 



Open the Bay! What cared that seaman grim 



For towering iceberg or the crashing floe? 

 He sped at noonday or at midnight dim, 

 A man! and, hence, there was a way for him. 

 And where he went a thousand ships can go. 



Open the Bay! the myriad prairies call; 



Let homesteads rise and comforts multiply; 

 Give to the world the shortest route of all, 

 Let justice triumph though the heavens should fall! 



This is the voice of reason — manhood's cry. 



•" Through the Mackenzie Basin," William Briggs, Toronto, 1908. 



250 



