228 R. Bell — Rising of the Land around Hudson Bay. 



close to that portion of the western wall which they under- 

 mined 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 dis- 

 tance 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 

 postglacial 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's Bay Com- 

 pany are an intelligent set of men, and their universal opinion, 

 based upon lifetimes of observation, is that the land all around 

 the bay is rising. The following is part of a letter recently 

 received from Mr. Joseph Fortescue, lately a chief factor in 

 the Hudson's Bay Company, in answer to my request for his 

 opinion on this subject : 



" Regarding 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 two miles from places 

 they remembered when they were young, and my own observa- 

 tions 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 navigable at all times 

 of the tide formerly, could now only be used at high water." 



