200 J. B. Tyrrell — Rising of land around Hudson Bay. 



Akt. XXY. — 7^ the land around Hudson Bay at present 

 rising f by J. Burr Tyrrell, of the Geological Survey of 

 Canada. 



In the March number of this Journal, Dr. Robert Bell has a 

 paper entitled " Proofs of the rising of the land around Hud- 

 son Bay," in which he criticises a statement made by me in the 

 Geological Magazine for September, 1894:, " that at Fort 

 Churchill the land and sea have reached conditions of compar- 

 ative equilibrium," and in which he endeavours to prove that 

 "the elevation (of the land) is still going on," and to 

 strengthen the statements in his " various official reports on 

 the geology of those regions from 1875 to 1886," which are 

 "that the waters of Hudson's Bay are receding between 5 

 and 10 feet in a century,"^ and particularly " that the relative 

 level of the sea and land in this vicinity (Port Churchill) is 

 changing at the rate of about 7 feet in a century." f 



As my previous paper was rather a brief statement of re- 

 sults, published in advance of an official report, than a full 

 account of post-glacial and recent phenomena at Churchill, it 

 may be interesting to consider, a little more in detail, some 

 observations which seem to me to bear on the question of the 

 present rising or stability of the land to the west of Hudson 

 Bay. 



That there has been an elevation of the laud of several hun- 

 dred feet in post-glacial times is just as clearly apparent on the 

 shores of Hudson Bay as it is in the valley of the St. Lawrence 

 River, and the evidences in favor of that elevation will not 

 here be discussed. 



Fort Churchill, situated near the mouth of Churchill River, 

 which flows into the west side of Hudson Bay in north lati- 

 tude 58° 47', has been occupied as a trading port of the Hud- 

 son Bay Company for 180 years, and it is reasonable to expect 

 to find here some evidence of the relative position of land and 

 sea a reasonably long time ago. 



In 1733 the Hudson Bay Company began building the mas- 

 sive stone fortification, which they called Fort Prince of Wales, 

 on the summit of the low point west of the entrance to 

 Churchill River. It is 250 feet square between the angles of 

 the bastions, and its stone walls are 42 feet thick. It is sur- 

 rounded by a gravel-covered terrace, and the base of its walls 

 are now 17 feet above ordinary spring tides, and 6 feet above 

 the top of the shingle beach that is now regularly washed by 



*Rep. of Prog. Geol. Sur. Can., 18t7-Y8, pp. 25 CC. and 33 C. 

 f Ibid., 1878-79, p. 21 C. 



