274 Expedition of the Alert to Hudson's Strait and Bay 



vessels. The "Alert" was the second and last steamer to plow the 

 waters of Hudson's Bay, 



To what extent artificial aids might improve that navigation is now 

 a problem. Undoubtedly correct charts of that region, light-houses, 

 buoys, telegraph stations, to signal ships where open water might be 

 found, etc.. would improve it very greatly. 



To illustrate how carefully we should form an opinion in the matter, 

 1 would state that in 1716, Captain Vautrou wrote, that of all known 

 countries, the navigation of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was the most 

 difficult and the most treacherous. Of three expeditions fitted out 

 by England to seize upon New France, and sailing through the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, only two were able to cast anchor in the harbor of 

 Quebec. Only one voyage each year was made, and it was alleged that 

 the St. Lawrence River was frozen solid in winter. What a contrast 

 between the navigation then and now. Much of the change has been 

 wrought through artificial aids to navigation, including, of course, im- 

 proved motive power. 



Yet, in the very year that Captain Vautrou condemned the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence as the navigator's bite noire, the Hudson's Bay Company's 

 sailing vessels were threading their devious way in and out of Hud- 

 son's Bay. 



to-morrow. The man who proposes any new and strange project, if 

 successful, is regarded by the world as a genius, otherwise, a fool. 



The wise men of England were demonstrating the utter impossi- 

 bility of running a train of cars by steam power, on the very day that 

 George Stephenson hauled a very substantial and material train on his 

 tramway by means of his little locomotive. 



Wise men proved conclusively that a ship could not be propelled by 

 steam across the Atlantic, while the first ocean steamer was ploughing 



It seems to me that we should form an opinion with great care and 

 deliberation as to the practicability of this Hudson's Bay route. It is 

 still an open question. Many able and impartial men advocate it; 

 many others oppose it as being utterly impracticable. Other g i 

 render their verdict in the convenient and old-fashioned Scotch style, 

 "Not proven/' 



