2:2 



Expedition of the Alert to 



northern part. Further south on this coast, the range is lower and 

 there may also have been more ice in this direction. Here the valleys 

 and the hills, up to the height of one thousand feet, at any rate, have 

 been planed by glacial action, the course followed by the ice on the 

 eastern slope having been down the valleys and fjords directly into the 

 sea. In the southern part of the Labrador peninsula, the general 

 course of the ancient glaciation appears to have been southward, vary- 

 ing to the eastward or westward with the courses of the rivers and 

 valleys, and coming to the north shore of the G-ulf of St. Lawrence, 

 in a general Avay, at right angles to the coast line. On the island of 

 Newfoundland, the glaciation appears to have been from the center 

 toward the sea on all sides." 



In the vast region, included in the water-shed of Hudson's Bay and 

 Hudson's Strait, there are boundless stores of wealth awaiting the 

 magic wand of enterprise, pluck and capital. 



In the country south and south-west of the Bay are untrodden forests, 

 which will one day be an important factor in the lumber supply of the 

 world. The varieties of wood found there are white and red pine, 

 cedar, spruce, tamarack and the Banksian pine ; and I am informed 

 that the trees grow to a good size. 



In many places on the shores of Hudson's Bay and Strait, valuable 

 economic minerals are found in good deposits. These co mprise gold 

 silver, lead, copper, several kinds of iron ore, including the valuable 

 manganiferous variety, asbestos, pyrites, and a great variety of coarser 

 mineral products and ornamental stones. 



The value and importance of these mineral deposits can only be 

 determined by further search, but they are undoubtedly great. 



The waters" of the Bay and Strait and the inflowing streams abound 

 in marine mammalia and fishes. Between the extremes of the scale, 

 the huge whale and the tinycapelin. myriads of seals, white porpoises, 

 walrus, cod, salmon, sea-trout, speckled rroitr. white-fish, grayling and 

 other fishes swim uudisturhed lev the fisherman or hunter. Occasionally 

 that rare creature, the narwhal, the unicorn of the sea, is found. 



In the north-western part of the Bay, the whale-fishery is carried on 

 to a limited extent by the enterprising whalers from New Bedford and 

 New London. It has been officially stated that the returns from this 

 source during the years 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1866, were about $1,000,- 

 000 worth of whale-oil and whale-bone, and this was the product of 

 only four or five comparatively small whaling barques and schooners. 



The white porpoise, though not very large, yields the best of oil, 

 yielding on an average a barrel of oil to each one. At one of the 



