J. Macdonald Oxley

“ The skin of the polar bear is quite valuable, a good one bringing twelve dollars with the agents of the Hudson Bay Company. These animals, although reported by the Eskimos to be very savage, will not, as a rule, attack human beings unless first wounded or rendered desperate by hunger, under which circumstances any beast of prey becomes an undesirable neighbor. The Eskimos on the south side of the strait stated that, at certain times of the year, there were large numbers of these animals seen. Their meat is not unpalatable, but the liver is said to be poisonous. ”

“ Now, the question as to the origin of this ice, and whether it will be frequently met with in-the strait, is one of paramount importance. Lieutenant Gordon does not consider it possible for ice to form in Fox Channel to a greater thickness than ten feet in a single year, and consequently feels convinced that much of the ice encountered was the accumulation of several years. Ice is well known to be a very poor conductor of heat, and therefore, when once a certain thickness has been formed, the subsequent rate of thickening must be very slow. ”

“ In the harbor at Ashe Inlet the ice came in with the flood-tide, and set so fast that the Eskimos were able to walk off to the ship, although she was at least three quarters of a mile from the shore. On the south shore, also, it was much the same; but still no ice was met with through which the steamer could not easily and safely force her way. In the center of the strait, to the east of North Bluff, no field-ice was seen at all, while between Stupart Bay and Salisbury Island long strings of ice were frequently seen ”

“ And even if the answer, deduced from the observations taken at the stations now established, be that these months are too few to make the route pay, Lieutenant Gordon's expedition will not have been undertaken in vain, for it has thrown a flood of light upon a region hitherto comparatively unknown, and has opened Canadian eyes to the fact that here, right in the heart of their own territory, they possess sources of wealth, both in the seas and on the land, requiring nothing but a little enterprise and capital to yield the most satisfactory returns. ”

“ In the matter of animals, the Hudson Bay region is quite as scantily supplied as it is in human inhabitants, the list of terrestrial mammalia comprising only four species, namely, the polar bear, the fox, the hare, and the reindeer. ”

“ The company's agent informed Lieutenant Gordon that the ice takes over the harbor of Nachvak, which is in latitude 59° 10' north, and longitude 63° 30' west, about the middle of November in each year, and, curious to note, has, for the last seven years, at all events broken up within a day of the 26th of June in each year. Off Cape Chudleigh, which is just at the mouth of Hudson Strait, the Neptune was enveloped in a dense fog, which compelled her to lay-to from Sunday until Tuesday morning. ”

“ The translation of miles into dollars and cents is an easy process nowadays, and it has been estimated that the difference in freight in favor of the Hudson Bay route is at least thirty-two cents on each bushel of grain, or, in other words, means an additional profit of over six dollars an acre to the farmers of the West. ”

“ The skins are in good demand; but the animals are not at all numerous. As to the red fox, its sole value consists in the fact that its presence indicates the "possibility of that most precious of all pelts—a black fox's—being somewhere in the vicinity. ”

“ The missions are so well managed as to be self-supporting, the modus operandi being for the missionaries to supply the Eskimos on loan with the very best traps, fishing-lines, and other gear, and then to purchase from them all their catch, whether it be seals, cod, salmon, furs, or anything else. A vessel which comes out from London every year transports the stock thus accumulated to London, where it is sold for the benefit of the mission, and in this way a considerable income is secured annually. ”

“ These people have no farinaceous food of any kind, and, as a consequence, the children are not weaned until they reach the age of three or four years. The families are small, there rarely being more than two or three children, and, although early marriages are the rule, their numbers must be diminishing, because signs of their presence were met with everywhere, while the people themselves were found at only three places along the straits, and there are only some five or six families known to be between Cape Chudleigh and Nachvak. ”

“ Along the Labrador coast the Eskimos gather in small settlements around the Moravian mission-stations. Nain is considered the largest settlement, and its Eskimo population does not exceed two hundred souls. Those at the stations are all educated, being able to read and write in their own language, and, according to the missionaries, are regular attendants at church, and very fond of music—two excellent and hopeful traits certainly. ”

“ This species is met with on the south side of the strait, and black foxes are annually shot or trapped in the country south of Cape Chudleigh. The most important and beneficent of all the animals of the country, however, is the reindeer, which furnishes food and clothing, and much more, too, for its Eskimo master. ”

“ There is one matter to which Lieutenant Gordon draws attention that will require the serious consideration of mariners navigating these waters, namely, that in working through the strait, especially at the western end, he found the ordinary compass so sluggish as to be practically useless. ”

“ Every possible precaution is to be taken against fire, and, as it is anticipated that the temperature can be maintained considerably above the freezing-point inside the houses, two buckets full of water are always to be kept ready for instant use. ”

“ The rest of the party comprised a photographer, eight observers, three carpenters, and twelve station-men. As the observers and station-men were to be left for the winter, they had each of them been carefully examined by medical authority, and pronounced physically well fitted to withstand the rigors of an Arctic climate. ”