could be procured before their return in the following spring. The
Governor, however, undertook to forward to us, next season, the only
one amongst them who understood English, if he could be induced
to T20h.e Governor selected one of the largest of the Comp/any’s boats
for our use on the journey, and directed the carpenters to commence
refitting it immediately; but he was only able to furnish us with a
steersman; and we were obliged to make up the rest of the crew
with the boatmen brought from Stromness, and our two attendants.
York Factory, the principal dep6t of the Hudson’s Bay Company,
stands on the west bank of Hayes’ River, about five miles above its
mouth, on the marshy peninsula which separates the Hayes and
Nelson Rivers. The surrounding country is flat and swampy, and covered
with willows, poplars, larch, spruce, and birch-trees; but the
requisition for fuel has expended all the wood in the vicinity of the
fort, and the residents have now to send for it a considerable distance.
The soil is alluvial clay, and contains imbedded rolled stones.
Though the bank of the river is elevated about twenty feet, it is frequently
overflown by the spring-floods, and large portions are annually
carried away by the disruption of the ice, which grounding
in the stream, have formed several muddy islands. These mterrup-
tions together with the various collection of stones that are hid at
high water, render the navigation of the river difficult; but vessels
of two hundred tons burthen may be brought through the proper
channels as high as the Factory.
The principal buildings are placed in the form of a square, having
an octagonal court in the centre; they are two stories in height, and
have flat roofs covered with lead. The officers dwell m one portion
of this square, and in the other parts the articles of merchandise are
kept: the workshops, storehouses for the furs, and the servants
houses are ranged on the outside of the square, and the whole is surrounded
by a stockade twenty feet high. A platform is laid from
the house to the pier on the bank for the convenience of transporting
the stores and furs, which is the only promenade the residents have
on this marshy spot during the summer season. The few Indians, who
now frequent this establishment, belong to the Swampy Crees. There
were several of them encamped on the outside of the stockade. Their
tents were rudely constructed by tying twenty or thirty poles together
at the top, and spreading them out at the base so as to form a cone;
these were covered with dressed moose-skins. The fire is placed in
the centre, and a hole is left for the escape of the smoke. The inmates
had a squalid look, and were suffering under the combined
afflictions of hooping-cough and measles; but even these miseries did
not keep them from an excessive indulgence in spirits, which they
unhappily can procure from the traders with too much facility; and
they nightly serenaded us with their monotonous drunken songs.
Their sickness at this time, was particularly felt by the traders, this
being the season of the year when the exertion of every hunter is
required to procure their winter’s stock of geese, which resort in immense
flocks to the extensive flats in this neighbourhood. These
birds, during the summer, retire far to the north, and breed in security;
but, when the approach of winter compels them to seek a more
southern climate, they generally alight on the marshes of this bay,
and fatten there for three weeks or a month, before they take their
final departure from the country. They also make a short halt at
the same spots in their progress northwards in the spring. Their
arrival is welcomed with joy, and the goose hunt is one of the most
plentiful seasons of the year. The ducks frequent the swamps all
the summer.
The weather was extremely unfavourable for celestial observations
during our stay, and it was only by watching the momentary appearances
of the sun, that we were enabled to obtain fresh rates for the
chronometers, and allow for their errors from Greenwich time. The
dip of the needle was observed to be 79° 29' 07 ", and the difference
E