aow.] JAMES' BAY. 21 J 



different rivers in the southern part of the bay meet the requirements 

 of modern shipping only to a very moderate degree, and that to im- 

 prove them sufficiently to admit of their being used as ports by large 

 ocean steamers would entail an expenditure hardly likely to be 

 warranted by the trade development of the future in this region. 



The most important harbour in this part of the bay is that at the Mouth of 

 ,.,__-. . , .,.„•.,. . n , r+ l i Moose River. 



■mouth of Moose Kiver. A descnptiou of it is given in Capt. Coate s 

 notes on the geography o Hudson Bay, 1727-51, and as it has changed 

 but little since then, his sailing directions may here be quoted : "From the 

 Oaskitt fifty-eight miles S. by W. you come to Moose Eiver Eoad, eight 

 miles from Sand Heads, North Point W.N.W. six miles in lat. 51° 34', 

 where you wait for the tide to go into that wide mouthed river which 

 is not less than twelve miles over from North Point to the opposite 

 side; which opens with three channels, but the north and east are so 

 •choked with banks and shoals, there is no using them ; the mid channel 

 will admit of a ship of twelve feet. Observing the tide over a bar one 

 mile broad and one mile within Sand Heads is a little place which 

 affords water for a ship to be afloat, called Little Ship Hole, to dis- 

 tinguish it from another four miles above Sand Heads, called Ship 

 Hole, in three fathoms low water, where we moor and do our business. 

 Eight miles below the factory on Koberson's Islands from Middle- 

 borough (Island) another island runs a shoal within half a mile of the 

 ship, which cuts the river and prevents the ship going to the factory, 

 which has plenty water all above that place. 1 ' 



From this it will be seen that a ship while awaiting the tide to cross 

 the bar, has to lie six miles from the mouth of the river, in a very dan- 

 gerous position with a north-east gale. The channel on the bar is not 

 over four hundred 3'ards wide, and the Hudson Bay Company's ship, 

 •drawing fourteen feet of water, last summer, ran aground while cross- 

 ing it, and had to remain in that exposed place until the next high 

 tide. 



The eight miles from the Ship Hole to Moose Factory is in places Railway 

 very shoal, and is rapidly tilling in its upper part, so that the Com- terraimi3 ' 

 pany's schooner, drawing eight feet of water, can only come within 

 about two miles of the Factory, whereas a few years ago her cargo was 

 •discharged close alongside that place. If a railway should be built to 

 this harbour its terminus will need to be at Ship Hole; and to reach it 

 a long and expensive line of embankment will have to be built from 

 the South Shore, across sand and mud flats, partly bare at low water, 

 and, owing to its exposed position, it would need to be correspondingly 

 strong to withstand the force of water during the late fall gales. If 

 .approached from the north side, a large bridge will be required to cross 

 •the channel to the " Ship Sands," a low, flat, muddy island, partly eov- 



