Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-09-23
hudson Is]HNY
COUNT RI e

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington, d. CO
UDSON BAY and its $500 miles
of coastline are having their
annual steamship contact with
the rest of the world at this
season. Except in the summer months
the people of the bay region live to
themselves, shut in by ice along their
water lanes, and, on the land side, by
rough and frozen terrain that the
transportation devices of the modern
world have not yet conquered.
There are more people and more ac-
tivity around Hudson bay and its sup
posedly dreary hinterland than is gen
orally supposed. For two and a half
centuries permanent settlements of
whites have been maintained along the
coast. The first, Rupert House, near
the sOuthernmost tip of the bay, was
established as post of the Hudson
Bay company soon after that cOrpOr
alton of romantic history came into
existence in 1870. Since then the
trading posts have grown in number,
=
the east and west coasts. At each of
the Hudson Bay company posts a Ca
madam English or Scotch factor" is
In charge. Assistant factors reside at
the larger posts, and many of the Off
Gals have families with them. In re-
pany, Revillon Freres, a French con-
Germ, have been established beside the
older posts or in entirely new Ioca-
tions, in charge Of French managers.
The typical trading post in the Hud-
son bay country consists Of a substan-
tial store stocked with food supplies,
fabrics, tools, guns ammunition and
miscellaneous goods the home or
homes of company officials; church;
a few cabins of settled Indians, and
perhaps a mission school building
where instruction in trades is given by
missionaries. AT the posts in spring
and early summer Indian and Eskimo
trappers and hunters gather to trade
the furs of their winter catch for need
ed supplies.
Hudson bay" is a misnomer. This
huge body of water, 900 miles long and
nearly coo wide, is more than a bay
or even a gulf. 1t is really a great
inland sea, an arm at once of the
Atlantic and Arctic oceans, which bites
deep into the vast bulk of the North
American continent. 1t is one of the
most characteristic features on the
map of the continent, sanding out
as strikingly as the Gulf of Mexico and
covering almost as great an area.
Early in August of each year steam
ers belonging to the fur companies,
from Newfoundland and the st. Law
ence ports, push through Hudson
strait north of Labrador and nose
their way down into the bay. They
are loaded with miscellaneous cargoes
of trade goods which they distribute to
several of the major posts There sail,
boats from the smaller posts meet the
steamers, bringing the past winters
accumulation OF furs, which are to be
replaced by cargoes of trade goods.
rounds and are ready to steam home
ward, they are loaded with furs worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars. The
visit of the steamers from the outside
world is the event of the year at the
posts where they touch. The posts are
not isolated at other times, however,
for there is considerable movement of
small boats along the coast in the open
season from post to post. Even in
winter sledge Journeys by dog teams
may be made to the nearer posts.
On the map, Hudson bay does not
appear to be exceedingly inaccessible
from the more settled parts of Canada
to the south. The Canadian National
railway, extending east and west,
passes only IT'S miles south of the
southern tip of the bay, a distance
roughly equal to that between New
York and Boston. From Cochrane, one
Of the stations on the Canadian Ma
tional rail line has been pushed down
the Abitibi river, nearly halfway to
the bay. 1t is extremely difficult to
construct a railway over the rough,
forested wilderness, however, and the
completion of the line at an early date
does not seem assured. This railway
will eventually reach Moose Factory,
near the mouth Of the Moose river, one
of the oldest and most important Of
the Hudson Bay company posts. Moose
Factory gains added Importance by
the fact that it is one of the few Hud-
son Bay communities that can 4om-
municate with the outside in winter.
After the Moose and Abitibf rivers are
frozen over early in December they
constitute highways along which dog
teams sometimes make the trip to