226 B. Bell — Rising of the Land around Hudson Bay. 



caused by the darkness, it is unlikely that all the other condi- 

 tions now necessary to enable a vessel to leave the river, con- 

 spired to aid the escape of these ships. It is much more 

 reasonable to believe that the water was deeper then than 

 it is now. The landing of Lepeyrouse with his guns on the 

 shore of Nelson River abreast of York Factory was a feat the 

 like of which could not be accomplished at the present day, 

 owing to the extreme shallowness of the water. 



The present Fort Churchill or "New- Fort," as it is still 

 called, was built in 1782 on the west side of the river about 

 four miles and a half above Fort Prince of Wales as soon as 

 the French had retired after destroying the latter establish- 

 ment. The residents now suffer much inconvenience on 

 account of the continued shoaling of the water and they have 

 been obliged to lengthen out their " launch " or long landing 

 tressel from time to time in order to be able to reach the outer 

 end of it with their coast boats. 



Off the western side of the lagoon within the mouth of 

 Churchill River is Sloop's Cove, a small elliptical pond con- 

 necting with the lagoon by a very narrow entrance, through 

 which the water barely passes at high tide. On the arkose 

 rocks beside this little cove many inscriptions have been cut 

 and some ring-bolts have been fastened, for mooring vessels, all 

 of which indicate that the cove was used for wintering ships 

 in old times. Indeed it is known that the " Furnace" and the 

 "Discovery," two small ships commanded by Captain Middle- 

 ton, passed the winter of 1741-42 in this cove. I have exam- 

 ined 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 

 sea-going vessel could now enter it, which would indicate an 

 elevation nearly equal to the draft of the ships formerly fre- 

 quenting it. It would be a boon to the agents of the Hudson's 

 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 leaving 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 Sloop's 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 equi- 



