Slv i 
INTRODUCTION. 
other parts of the coaft, from latitude 62°, to the South Point 
of Main, within which limits hopes were alfo entertained 
of finding a paffage, have, of late years, been thoroughly 
explored. It is here that Piftol Bay is fituated; which the 
author who has writ laft in this country, on the probability 
of a North IVeJl pajfage % fpeaks of as the only remaining 
part of Hudfon’s Bay where this Weftern communication 
may exift. But this has been alfo examined; and, on the 
authority of Captain Chriftopher, we can allure the Reader, 
that there is no inlet of any confequence in all that part of 
the coaft. Nay, he has, in an open boat, failed round the 
bottom of what is called Piftol Bay, and, inftead of a paf¬ 
fage to a Weftern Sea, found it does not run above three 
or four miles inland. 
Befides thefe voyages by fea, which fatisfy us, that we 
muft not look for a paffage to the South of 67° of latitude ; 
we are indebted to the Hudfon’s Bay Company, for a jour¬ 
ney by land, which has thrown much additional light on 
this matter, by affording what may be called demonftra- 
tion, how much farther North, at leaft in fome part of their 
voyage, Blips muft hold their courfe, before they can pafs 
from one fide of America to the other. The Northern In¬ 
dians, who come down to the Company’s forts for trade, 
had brought to the knowledge of our people, the exiftence 
of a river; which, from copper abounding near it, had got 
the name of the Copper-mins River . We read much about 
this river in Mr. Dobbs’s publications, and he conftders the 
Indian accounts of it as favourable to his fyftem. The Com¬ 
pany being deilrous of examining the matter with precifton, 
* Printed for Jeffreys, in 1768. His words are, “ There remains then to be 
* fearched for the difcovery of a paffage, the opening called Piftol Bay, in Hudfon’s 
“ Bay.” P. 122. 
inftruffed 
