Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/242

228 As will be gathered from the above, the observers' duties, while not onerous, were sufficiently varied and responsible to impart variety and purpose to the otherwise necessarily monotonous and depressing round of existence.

It was intended to place station No. 2 on the lower Savage Islands, at the northern entrance to the strait, and nearly opposite to station No. 1, but a succession of stormy weather prevented success in doing so. The expedition proceeded up the strait to Big Island, North Bluff, where station No. 3 was established, and the place christened Ashe Inlet. The Eskimos in the neighborhood seemed highly delighted at the prospect of having white men near them. Station No. 4 was established at Stupart's Bay, Prince of Wales Sound, across the strait from Ashe Inlet; station No. 5 at Port de Boucherville, Nottingham Island. Other calls were made at Digges Island, near Cape Wolstenholme; at Marble Island, south of Chesterfield Inlet, which was found marked by the presence of nineteen graves and a monument to six other persons who had been drowned; at Churchill, the future Liverpool of the region; at York Factory, the present commercial metropolis of the bay, whence, after a stay of only one day, the return journey was taken up. The several stations were visited in turn, and the finishing touches were given to the preparations for the long Arctic winter. A second attempt was made to establish a station on Resolution Island. Two bays were examined, in both of which the vessel ran unwarned immediately from deep soundings upon the rocks, and the idea was given up. Finally, the Neptune arrived at Port Burwell, on the 27th of September, where, as at all the other stations, it found the observers well, pleased with their work, and satisfied with their provisioning. Thence the expedition returned to St. John's, Newfoundland, where the Neptune was given up to her owner, while the men took passage for Halifax.

The course of this expedition having thus been briefly outlined, it now remains to examine into the results so far as they have been detailed, and consider their bearing upon the important problem sought to be solved; and, first of all, with regard to the navigation of Hudson Strait and Bay. The ice has hitherto been supposed to be the most formidable barrier to the navigation of these waters, but Lieutenant Gordon assures us that under investigation its terror very largely disappears. The ice' met with during the cruise of the Neptune could be divided into three classes—each class having a distinctly separate origin—namely, icebergs from the glaciers of Fox Channel, heavy Arctic ice from the channel itself, and ordinary field-ice, being that formed on the shores of the bay and strait. No icebergs were encountered in Hudson Bay, nor were any reported as having been seen there in the past; but in the strait a good many were seen, principally along the northern shore, where a number were stranded in the coves, while others were met with in mid-channel. Of those seen in the eastern