The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-14
TO EUROPE BY HUDSON BAY.


WI IA tIo AuitlO w A1Oo VI NV
States and western Canada has given great
impetus to the agitation for a short route to
Europe by way Of Hudson Bay.
Within the last six months, says the
Repiev of ReUievs, six different charters
have been taken out for different railroad
schemes connecting with Hudson Bay.
One Of these was obtained by Mr.. Hill.
who used to ridicule a Hudson Bay road
as a venture that would be showed up for
ten months Of the year and iced up the other
two"
The Hill charter plans to feed the freight
OF Dakota and Minnesota into the Saskat-
chewan valley and from the Saskatchewan
TO Hudson Bay. Builders are at work on
the southern end OF this project now.
Another Of these six Hudson Day charters
is owned by the new Canadian trans
continental line-the Mathematician road.
OF the 100 miles needed to connect Churchill
with the railroads Of the Saskatchewan
the Mack nzie-M Mann road has already
eighty built, a railroad with rains running.
not Just an iron tonic for the cows" as the
funny papers have always described roads
90 Hudson Bay.
Two other projects nave been galvanized
into life by the schemes for a Hudson Bay
TOuDo. TIT ytdTb Shhdud iiho VI "
deep water canal up the Ottawa from the
st. Lawrence to the Great Lakes. Suddenly
surveyors are set to work estimating the
cost Of a canal that would connect Lake
Superior with ocean traffic. The cost. it
may be said, is estimated at SIPS, 900 900.
Then around Hudson Bay is a vast UNI
organized territory-Keewatin, abou the
size of Germany The western provinces
r N4-.lu onl Coalrakchapan anAdanlxy
awaken TO the fact that each wants an ex-
tension Of it's boundaries across Keewatin
for a seaport on Hudson Bay. ~.
Roughly speaking, Churchill, which will
be the seaport of the Hudson Bay routes,
is Just 900 miles from the grain areas OF
Hills roads. New, York IL 1000 miles.
Churchill is 500 miles from oregon New
York is nearly 5000.
Saws Premier Laurier in answer to a
request for a road from ex-Premier Green
way of Manitoba. Il agree the time has come
for the railroad to Hudson Bay; me
statute books contain a standing orer OF
IL. 600 acres of land a mile along the line
of this railroad. and if this is not sufficient
encouragement for promoters other means
must be found"
Of the Churchill harbor, the writer quotes
records showing that il has always an
open season of five months. In favorable
seasons this is extended to seven months.
The harbor itself could not have been
better if II had been made to order Ii is
a direct $50 mile plain, open, deep, water
sail from the west end OF the straits-no
shoals, no reefs, deep enough for the deepest
draught keel that ever sailed the sea. This
as captains of the big warships knows
true of neither Montreal nor New York.
At NewYork deep draught ships have to
wait the tide both for approach and de-
parture; and on the st. Lawrence ships
are always taking a mud bath on the sand
bars.
Over against this advantage, tt il be
stated frankly, Churchill summer and win
ter ia subject TO just as furious gales as
ever battered the iron rocks of Newfound-
land. One other danger peculiar 70
Churchill must be noted. Five miles out
the bay ia open all the year round, but as
the cold becomes intense what is known
as frost fog" lies thick as wool on the
sea, obscuring everything.
The entrance between the two head
lands is not a half mile wide. against the
tremendous current Of river and b tide
but the depth is untouchable. Port
Churchill ia the harbor inside, a ma gnif-
cent expanse of and locked water. with
the fur post five miles up stream.
But all railroad projects to Hudson Bay
hinge not on Churchill Harbor but on the
straits. Can they be navigated? How
long are they open? Even il they can be
navigated by slow oceangoers, will hey be
of any avail for a fast Atlantic route?
nuUtOn otThtb u iVohy " NNVP eoh 80
which the ice Of the Arctic world-the ice
OF the prehistoric ages-has cut and grooveo
and torn forcibly out of the solid rock, find
ing egress from Fox Channel Of the Arctic
TO open water OF the Atlantic Into tins
funnel Of rock. $50 miles long. is damned
from the west and pounded and contracted
the area Of an ice continent. and up this
channel from the east runs a tiderip thirty
five feet high. When tiderip and ice NEE
there occurs what the old navigators OF
.ho updaop Pa fur trad call "the furious
overfan."
two special expeditions lin 1885 and 1897
10 test the navigation of the Straits, ano
one general expedition TO navigate the
northern waters Q909-4I, but the question
has become so terribly political-so much
a question of east versus wesr-that the
official reports on the expedition are more
noteworthy for what they leave unsaic
thar for what they say.
The Gordon expedition OF 1885 and thu
Nakeham of 1897 definitely established
these facts: Hudson Bay is open all tho
year round; an open current flows through
the Straits winter as well as summer, bu'
Straits Is closed 70 navigation after Novem
Der, and not open again till June-that Is,
there are always five months when the
Straits can be navigated. sometimes six
There was also discovered Just inside tn,
eastern entrance TO the Straits a splendiC
landlocked harbor, or haven OF refuge
Port Burweil sheltered from oil wind
but the south.
A. P. Lows expedition Of 1850
made a still more important contribution
10 the data on the Straits. From actua
experience and from the testimony of OK
Hudson Bay navigators Mr.. Low estab
llshed the fact Of vwo. open currents Away
flowing in the Straits; one along the nortl
shore. inland westward, bearing the ic'
drift Of Greenland. so that the ships enter
ing can go with the ice drive; one alonl
the south shore, outward eastward. bearing
the raft ice of Hudson Bay. so that TN
ships going to sea can also go with the ic
= drift: in both cases ships can navigati
the Straits with the Zoe drift. not against il
In fact, the difficulties of the old navigator
seemed TO have been that they did not know
these currents and attempted 10 sail agains
the drive. But wrecks or no wrecks, TN
Hudson Bay route Ia coming. II tn
Straits are not Mt for navigation they vii
no made M