270 



Expedition of the Alert to 



the bear. We thou proceeded with our survey of the Digges Islands, 

 and returned to the ship about six P. 31. 



a sportsman's paradise. Of large animals there are., besides the bears, 

 cariboo, or reindeer, in great numbers, and walrus and seals by the hun- 

 dreds. Of birds there are the beautiful ptarmigan, various species of 

 ducks, murres, sea-pigeons, geese, swans, and curlews ; of fishes, ac- 

 cording to locality, cod, sea-trout, speckled trout, salmon, grayling 

 and white-fish. 



From Digges Islands we sailed across Hudson's Bay to Ft. Churchill, 

 one of the large posts of the Hudson's Bay Company. Near this post 

 are the well-preserved ruins of old Fort Prince of Vales, which was 

 captured by the famous French Admiral, Laperouse, in the last cen- 

 tury, its guns spiked and its walls partly destroyed. 



From Fort Churchill Ave returned over the same route, revisited the 

 various stations, and thence proceeded to Halifax, where we landed on 

 a bright, sunny Sabbath morning, the 18th of October. 



I will now give some of the results of our work. Of course I can 

 give you only a few general facts as pertaining to the main objects of our 

 cruise. An almost indefinite number of papers might be written as to 

 the geology, zoology, entomology, botany, meteorology and all the 

 other ologies of that region. Of these I will not attempt to speak. 



"Hudson's Bay, situated between 51° and 63° of north latitude, is a 

 vast sheet of salt water, measuring 1,300 miles in length with an aver- 

 age of about 600 miles in width. It is more properly a sea, having an 

 area of over 500,000 square miles, or considerably more than one-half 

 the area of the Mediterranean. It has aptly been called the Mediter- 



"It drains an expanse of cnuntrv spreading out more than 2,000 

 miles from east to west and 1,500 from north to south, or an area of 

 3,000,000 square miles."* It lies entirely south of the Arctic Circle, 

 and its southern extremity is about the latitude of London. Its waters 

 are never frozen, except near the shores; it is navigable the entire 

 year. In the summer months its waters are warmer than those of 

 Lake Superior, the temperature of the water sometimes rising as high 

 as 59° Fahr., and people bathe in it with comfort. Hudson's Strait, 

 which is the gateway to this vast sheet of water, is about 500 miles in 

 length, with an average width of 100 miles. The narrowest part is 

 about the center, and at the outlet into the Atlantic, where the breadth 

 is only about 45 miles. The depth of water in the Strait, so far as 



