204 J, B. Tyrrell— Rising of land around Hudson Bay. 



1767, two years before lie started on his memorable journey 

 to the Northern Ocean, appears to have sat here with hammer 

 and chisel, beguiling the long hours of his tedious solitude by 

 engraving his name among many others on this lonely promon- 

 tory. But other names are of more interest in connection with 

 the question of the rise or fall of the land. 



During the winter the bottom of the cove becomes filled 

 with ice, up to the level of the top of the highest spring tide of 

 that winter, probably a foot above the level of ordinary spring 

 tide, which is given on the Admiralty Chart at 15 feet 5 

 inches. At times extraordinary tides rise four feet highe-r 

 than this, the heights of these latter tides having been pointed 

 out to me on the wharf in front of Fort Churchill. On the 

 2d of November, 1893, the cove was filled with ice up to the 

 level of the last spring tide, about an ordinary one, and the 

 heights above the ice of the following names were measured 

 and are given opposite to them : — 



James Walker, May y" 27, 1753 _ . 7 ft. 



Guilford Long, May y^ 27, 1753 _.-7 ft. 



J. Marley, 1748 ._. 6^ ft. 



J. Horner, 1746 ...6 ft. 



J. Wood, 1757 6 ft. 



Furnace & Discovery, 1741 _ ..3 ft. 3 in. 



As the ice does not break up in Churchill Harbor, on an 

 average, until the 19th of June, the two names first mentioned 

 were doubtless cut while the ice was in the cove at its highest 

 winter level, which at the present time would not be more 

 than six feet below them, and the surface of the snow would 

 probably be still higher. Since the names would in all proba- 

 bility be cut not less than two feet above the surface of the 

 snow or ice, and could not be cut below it, they indicate that 

 the water was about as high then as now, and they prove quite 

 conclusively that it was not ten feet higher in 1753 than it is 

 now, as it would have been if there had been a rise of the land 

 of seven feet in a century. 



It does not appear in what months the names of the other 

 men were engraved, but probably in the long days of spring, 

 before the ice had gone out of the river, and the busy summer 

 of trade, fishing and building had begun. 



The Furnace and Discovery reached Churchill in the sum- 

 mer of 1741. Their names are cut in the almost vertical face 

 of the smooth rock, but whether they were cut before the bot- 

 tom of the cove was covered with ice or not is not known. 



Besides the evidence furnished by the above mentioned 

 names, a number of rings have been set in the rock at various 

 heights for the moorings of the ships or sloops. Those five 



