Report of the Special Committee appointed to report on the navigability and fishery resources of Hudson Bay and Strait

4th Session, 13th Parliament, 10-11 George V., 1920.

THE SENATE OF CANADA

REPORT

OF THE

SPECIAL COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO REPORT ON THE
NAVIGABILITY AND FISHERY RESOURCES OF

HUDSON BAY AND STRAIT

PRINTED BY ORDER OF PARLIAMENT

5019--1

OTTAWA
THOMAS MULVEY
II=tlNTE1R TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY
1920

32 PE('IAL ('OM.IIITTEE

on your sensations, you probably would not notice any difference in the winter. You
would see of course, that the sun is lower, but I do not think you would notice nuch
difference in the temperature although the average temperature might be five degrees
lower and winter a little longer.
Iu tile Northwest territory west of the tree line, the grasses have plenty of time
to nmture aud that is the point, because after they once nmture they keep t.heir nourish-
ment the year.
The musk oxen are fatter in the early winter than in the sumlner. The fatness
of the caribou does not depend on feed, it deperds on the breeding habits of the
aninml for instance, tile bull caribou put about 50 pounds of fat on their back in
September. By the end of October they do not have an ounce of fat on their backs,
that is at the beginning of the rutting season they are fat, at the end they are lean, but
the cows are still very fat and at ('hristnms time the bulls have lost their fat but the
cows are still fairly fat. In February you find the old bulls begin to fatten while the
cows get thinner, so you see that it is not the feed that coutrols the fatness, it is really
the breeding habits of the animals.
The musk oxen keep fat throughout the whole year.
These grasses prevail throughout the whole northern territory, from the tree line
as far north as 80 north latitude--where the soil is suitable whenever it is not rocky.
Beginning at the intermtional boundary the tree line practically coincides with
the crest of the Endicott mountains, then running east the line goes to the Mackenzie
about fifty milcs above tile mouth across there, and it follows parallel to the coast,
within fifty miles frmn it for some distance, and then when you get in the vicinity of
Liverpool bay you find the trees ahuost down to the foot of the bay and the line runs
across tile neck of the Bathurst peninsula and near Melville mountains and strikes the
valley of the ]Iorton river. The tree line just about follows the valley of the Horton
river, there beiug only in a few places trees to the east of it, though there is a forest
to tile west, and when you come doxm within fifty miles of Bear lake you come to a
continuous forest; the tree lines run east there _to Dismal lake. There are trees on the
west cnd of Dismal lake and on the east end of it, but none in the middle. The tree
line runs a little south frmn Dismal lake aud then east to the Copper mine river. Then
it extends down the valley of the Copper mine river almost to the mouth and back
again : that is, just in the valley of the Copper mitre, but to the east of that, by Eskimo
information. I knw that the trees recede farther from the coast, and that the line runs
in a general south westerly direction towards Fort Churchill, and Hudson bay.
5:ow, the country that is most valuable for immediate development, in my opinion,
is that country which has no trees, or at least country that has trees only in the river
valleys, with the uplands bare. The IIorton river, the Coppermine river and the Dease
river are such rivers; that is, there are plenty of trees in the river valleys, but the
uplands are good grazing land, extending back. That is why there are so many wild
caribou there.
I think the grasses are mainly annual, but the main thing is that vegetation is
abundant. It is shown by the fatness of the animals that it is also nutritious. Turnips
are known as far as a little north of the Arctic circle. At fort Good Hope, which is
easily six miles south of the Arctic circle they have large crops of potatoes and vege-
tables. Fort Good Hope is four or five miles from the mouth of the Mackenzie river.
Moose are increasing in the forestry area. A herd of caribou passed our camp at
the head waters of the Dease river on Bear lake. The trail they made was four miles
wide and there was scarcely a square-foot in that whole area, unless it might be in the
shelter of a high rock, where it was not covered with foot prints. There were pro,bablv
over one nillion in the herd.

HUD,qON B.tY AYD 2TR4IT 41

few halibut, 1)ut no cod. We caught sahnon further north. When I was north of
]3ainu Land I found that every river along there was teeming" with fish. I had the best
market in Quebec for the fish I brought from there--salmon trout. They weigh from
ten to fiften pounds. Some of them are spbcklcd. I wintered seven winters on those
Arctic islands.
There is plenty of grass on all. the low lands, any amount of vegetation and caribou.
On Ielville I saw many hundreds of caribou and musk-oxen. There is especially on
Melville, Banks and Victoria islands a great deal of animal life.
There are snow sqfialls in the straits in the summer. Sometimes I have gone
through a snow squall,' for four hours, and then all of a sudden the weather has cleared.
Probably in the latter part of October, if there is a strong northeast wind, and if
the ice is coming down, it may close the straits i'r a whaler, but for a steamer of the
ice-bre,king class, that would not stop t. Our experience for years has been with the
heavy vessels. I foun coal on mostly all the islands. I found coal on 5[elville island,
and Banks island, and at point ]arrow. It is a brow lignite of old formation. I have
been working there, at Ponds. inlet and Sahnon river and Miles inlet, from P, affin Land.
There is a large deposit of coal there, a vein seven feet thick. I took enough to coal my
ship back. It burns equally as well as Sydney coal. It has more gas in it. I might
describe the residue by saying that the engine and everythino" gets coated. It burns
well. The resid:ue i like the ashes of wood, or grass probably. It slacks as soon as it is
mined. We found no difficulty in burning it. You could mine it in the winter time and
get a vessel to go through the first thing in Aug,ust and shc would have to leave there
by the first of October, that is. at Baffin Land.
I should prefer port Churchill, because a ship can come 'n and she is in a harbour.
In Nelson you have to anchor away out; before you get a chance to come in you have
to contend with all that danger. Suppose you dredge there and next spring is an
exceptionally fine spring and there is a heavy thaw. Your channel is filled up with sand
and the channel is somewhere else. The work that you have done is lost. At Churchill
you have a big body of water. Of course, sonde dredging would have to be done. It is
land-locked. There (indicating Fort Churhill on the map) is the work of nature, and
when a ma has to work against nature there is no money in it.
Going into Nelson xvhen the weather is clear you ca go in at any time. When
the weather is foggy you have to wait out there for three or four days. The channel is
so far away that you can hardly see the land when you are anchored, and sometimes
when it is not very clear you nay be ashore before you see the land. From tile nautical
point of view, I prefer Churchill. The tide, too, is less at Churchill thal at Nelson.
There are good harbours in Hudson straits, useful as harbou.rs of refuge. Port ]3urwell
is a good port except in southerly winds. The gales there are squally. They are not
usually steady.
The strait of ]3elle-Isl, e is naviga.ble from June to December. The size of the ship
in Hudson bay does not matter. It depends on the port you are entering. I should say
4,000 tons, if you find a suitable place for loading and discharging. Any ordinary size
of ship couM navigate in Hudson bay and strait. The size would not matter, as long as
tile vessel was a sea-going ship and properly built for ice navigation, k large ship can
be used in the bay and strait.

EXTRACTS FROM EVIDENCE OF COL. WM. P. ANDERSON, MARINE
DEPARTMENT.

The concensus of the testimony gained from a study of tile reports and from
statements of experts is that tile Hudson bay and strait are navigable for a minimum
of three months and a maximum of four months in the year with specially protected
vessels. So far as I can judge, the navigation conditions of Hudson bay and strait
would be about the same as navigatio conditons in the White sel. Conditions

HID,'O B iY A.VD NTIS.lIT 43

The Indians have told. me, natives who live at Port Burwell, that during tho
winter there is more or legs open water in the straits. Local ice never forms there,
except in the protected bays and coves on account of the current, but the ice comes
down through Davis strait and from Fox channeh The ice iu the Atlantic entrance
is principally frmn Barn bay and Davis strait and that the bay entrance is from Fox
channel principally.
I)ueks and aequatic birds are killed by the natives all during the wiuter at Port
urwell. They hunt seals in the winter and use their kayaks. I have been in the
straits as early as the first week in August but [ was never there after the cud of
September. If it is thc intentim to navigate the waters of lludson bay and strait,
I think aids to navigation like areqdanes, to discover the leads thr.ugh the ice, and
wireless telegraphy would I)e of great advantage. There is a very valuable sea trout
fishery at Port Burwell. Every river in that vicinity is teeming with large sea trout.
And in the past there was a considerable cod fishery carried on there by a steamer
from Nexvfoundland. ('od fishing is done hy the natives at Pm't Buruell. There are
halibut hanks there, but they are some distauce off the ('oast. I never heard .f any
herring. The only other sea animals are the zeal, the walrus and the white fish, that
is the white whale, numbers of which m'e emght. They ,fitch caWh the white whales,
in the seal nets. They get enormous q,uanrities ,f seals there. White whales run
from 15 to 25 feet in length.

EXTRA('T FROM TIlE EVIIIEN('E OF EI)WAi-,'I) E. I'RIN('E, I)OMINIOX
COMMISSIONER OF FIStlERIES.

I have for twenty-five years paid special attention to Huds,)n bay fishery
resources. I have been to Nelson river, ,qaskatehewan, north nf the Pas, aud west, in
what you might call the basin of I[udson bay. I weut overland, not by Iludson
strait.
On the western shore of Hudson bay and James bay, the shallowness is extreme,
and the large mnount of ice which forms and breaks up and moves about backwards
and forwards there is rather a menace both to fish life and to the food of fishes. One
would not expect to find very large fishery resources there, but on the eastern coast of
Hudson bay conditions are different. You have deeper water and high shores aud
a great number of islands, which shelter the water, and [ have evidence that there
is a real abundance of" fish on the east side of IIudson bay.
There are three sections to the fisheries; first, those of the open sea, second, the
estuary fisheries or the fisheries of the mouths of rivers, and then there are the
fisheries of the rivers proper and the lakes. Fish occur there, undoubtedly )f the cod
family, and the food of the cod occurs. I got from Dr. Bell specimens of eapeliu,
caught at lIoose Factory. Cod always follow the eapelin, and the scientific man would
say that where there are eapelin, cod should occur.
There are several kinds of cod. The Arctic cod and the true cod d, not extend
vdry far into the bay. They are around cape Wolstenhohne. The west of Ungava
bay is, I think, about the last locality where nue cod are got--the large" cod. But
there are several species of cod in the Arctic. One is called the Ogac; another is the
Saida.
The true salmon does not appear to be frequent in Hudson bay. Its northern
limit is, I think, Ungava bay. The Hudson Bay sahuon is called Hearn's sahnon,
after the British explorer Hearn, which runs from 2 to 1.q pounds weight.
They are very abundant; they are a migratory fish and go in and out into the bay
and up the rivers agaiu. T.h.e famous explorer Ross said that the fish were so ahun-
dant that he could ahnost walk upon the backs of them in Big" Whale river.
Then there is a sea-trout aud flat fish: There is also the large vhite fish. White
fish are typical fresh water fish, but iu Hudsou bay quantities come down and haug

HUD,ON BAY A-D ,TRAIT 45

bushels of wheat could be diverted to the Hudson Bay railroad, then you would have
a traffic of 3,000,000 tons. T,his wheat will be taken to Liverpool. Assuming that the
freight rate is equal to that of the C.P.R. between Regina and Fort William you would
have these 3,000,000 tons to transport on that basis, that is, carried at the rate of
.6,90 cents per ton per mile--that is the exact equivalent of 24 cents per 100 pounds
between Fort William and Regina. :Now on that basis if this railroad should be
fortunate enough to transport 100,000,000 bushels it would earn $7,890,000 in round
figures.
Now, as to the cars coming back. On the C.P.R. 35 per cent of all cars that are
moved eastward are taken back enpty. All railroads have th-at problem of the empty
car, but this railway has it exaggerated to a very high degree, there would be so little
return traffic. Of course that same condition has already arisen in every new country
through which a railroad is being projected. This is true of the C.P.R. We have
only a small percentage of the railways of Canada paying their way. Assuming that
these cars all go back empty, this makes a very serious traffic situation. The railway
must compete with the other railways to get this wheat, and you have three railwa.s
competing for it, and they are able to get 65 per cent of their cars filled on the return
trip westward.
If you are depending on wheat supply for your traffic, when you consider the cost
of storage, the cost of the railway, the investment in ships, you are really spending
$10 to do a certain definite thing which you would be accomplishing just as easily
by spending $3.
The engineers are in our own department and I have asked them what was the
expectation for local traffic, and they have always shaken their heads and said there
did not seem to be any. The facilities for traffic often create traffic. I think it would
be unreasonable to expect that the road would be utterly barren.

EXTRACT FROM TIIE EVIDENCE ()F TIIE IION. MR. COCIIF, ANE, I:).C., M.P.

I was at one time Minister of Railways for the Government of Canada. It was
during my term of office that the Port of Nelson was selected as the terminal of the
Hudson Bay railroad. The selection was fhmlly decided by ne largely on the report of
engineers. I went myself to both places, _N-elson and Churchill. The port of Xelson was
nearer and the railroad would be shorter. The engineer" reported that it would be
necessary to cross the bad lands for a long distanee where the bottom was all the way
down from six to ten feet before you got to anything like hard stuff, and I thought the
building of the road would be a very difficult proposition.
The tenders to go to Churchill was four mill'ion dollars more than to go to
Nelson, and while the harbour at. Churchill would be easier to develop for a small
harbour, yet the difference would not .be as much as the difference in cost of building
the railroad. Xeither one of them was at that time very much of a harbour. But before
I was there a boat drawing 2'20 feet of water went up to Xelson to where the harbour has
been developed. Xo work had been done when I was there.
When I came into offiee the contract for the first seetion had been let; there was
not much work done; but the contract, for the first section was let, an4 supplies had
been sent to Xelson.
The seleetion of a terminal had not been final'ly made then, but I think if you will
look up Hansard you will find that Ir. Graham, my predecessor, said his reeords from
the engineer had been in favour of Nelson, the same as mine. I questioned the engineer
and satisfied myself. Of course, I saw both ptaees, but my opinion as to a harbour
would not amount to anything. I am not an engineer and it would only be a guess.
The surveys were made to Split lake, and that is where the change would have
taken place, at Split lake.

HUD,ON BAY AND STRAIT 49

the mouth of that lagoon at say eight or ten miles an hour at spring tide. M'y idea
of the proper method of enlarging that basin, if it needs to be enlarged--and of course
it would need to be if it were used as a harbour for any num.ber of ships--would be
to shatter the stony clay with charges of dynamite. Each time that a blast was
fired with the outgoing tide, the current would carry the greater portion of the
blaste material out into the operr ocean--all except the boulders--and the large
masses. There would be no difficulty dredging the remainder with a heavy bucket
or dipper dredge. There are very few boulders that could not be handled with an
ordinary dipper dredge. At Churchill the tide might be allowed to do a lot of
dredging work for you, because the water is a hundred anc twenty feet deep at the
entrance.
When I was looking over the ground at. these two harbours I was acting as
geologist on the staff of the Geological Survey of Canada.
At spring tides it would be difficult for steamers to go in for about four hours
out of the twenty-four.
:Nelson, I thirrk, can be made a harbour. That is, I thirrk it can be made so that
ships can lie quite safely in it, and that freight can be loaded int'o ocean-going ships;
but it will take very much more money to nmke a harbour at :Nelson than it will at
Churchill. If the same money had been spent at Churchill that is said to have been
spent at :Nelson, a large basin could have been dredged, which would have been a
rock-protected and absolutely lan-locked harbour, one of the finest harbours in the
world.
I am a mining engineer, not. a civil engineer, but I should say that the extra
cost of building the railroad from :Nelson to Churchill would be a very small frag-
ment of the huge expenditure necessary to make a harbour at Nelson. That is the
huge extra expenditure over what would be required to make a harbour out of
Churchill.
] may say here that I have the utmost confidence in th.e railway to ttudson bay
being" of definite economic value to the country. I believe firmly, and I have made
a study of the matter ?or . great many years, that when that railroad is completed
to the bay and a harbour is constructed, either at :Nelson or Churchill, or at both, it
will be of great service in both export from and import to the :Northwest.
It is largely due to the fact that the Hudson ]ay railway was under construction,
that new mining areas were discovered to the west of the road, and it looks as if
branches might have to be built from the road before the road itself is completed to
the terminals. The minerals already discovered are gold, copper and zinc.
One copper mine, the [andy, had a beautiful vein of copper ore, one of the finest
I have seen in the northern portion of :North America. It ran about 20 per cent pure
copper.
Tlmre is quite a considerable stretch of very fine arable land. along the railway.
'rom Le Pas northward for twenty or thirty miles linestone comes close to the surface
and the land is not of very great value. 'rom there for a hundred and fifty or two
hundred miles is a stretch of beautiful clay land, just as fine land, as far as I could
see, as any in Manitoba. It is partly wooded. I think there is coal in this district.
I estimated, the area of this arable land in :Northern ][anitoba, adjacent to this
railway at 5,000 square miles. Afterwards ][r. William McInnes, of the Geological
Survey, reported that my estimate might be raised to 10,000 square miles. That is
land fit for settlement. It is not a grass covered country for it is largely covered with
poplar and spruce; it is much like the Dauphin district. t is better land than that
near Selkirk, which is chiefly a stony clay; near Winnipeg and from there west, the soil
is underlain by stratified deposits laid down in glacial lake Agassiz, similar to those
of northern Manitoba. It is an undulating country; there is abundant rainfall and
there are many beautiful lakes and streams. The clinmte is suitable for grain raising;
the soil very similar to the clay 1,and in :Northern Ontario.

HUD,ON BAY AND STRAIT 53

In view of the difference in the tender" costs there was a strorg preference for
:Nelson--there were other reasons. The expenditure on the Hudson bay system is not
for the purpose of furnishing protection for vessels, but to get the grain overseas as
cheaply as possible, and the extra length of line to Churchill, with its consequent
extra cost of maintenance, would offset a very considerable capital expenditure at
Nelson. For 10,000,000 bushels development Churchill would not be cheaper than
elson; but for twenty-five or thirty millions Nelson terminals wo,uld cost less than
Churchill. The railway has an advantage of four millions and operating preference
is all in favour of Nelson.
This route is not adding to our congestion on the seaboard but is really giving
us an addition to the spout from the western provinces, it is of real advantage to the
west and relieves the transcontinental roads of a substantial amount of traffic during
the season of congestion. A very moderate volume of traffic would pay operating
expenses if the full existiug thro,ugh rate was equitahly divided between the railway
and the steamships.
Local traffic won't amount to very nmch along the road. The mines are unfortu-
nately not immediately contigu6us to the line. I think copper ore might be shipped
over the road.
There is no reason why a vessel of a certain type cannot run as safely to Port
Nelson as she can to l'Iontreal, duriug a certain season of the year, and during that
particular time insurance rates shouhl be no higher thau to Montreal. I would say
that curing the month of September navigation to Port :Nelson is as safe as to
][ontreal.
Our experience with regard to insurance was this, we put thirty-eight vessels
through the straits during the season of 1914 and had no serious accidents of any
kind. In 1913 the two vessels that were lost, their loss had nothing whatever to do
with the ice or the merits or demerits of the harbour. One of them vas several miles
out of her course; the other was deliberately run aground.
I think August 1st would be a better date to consider as the opening of navigatiou,
rather than July 10th as suggested by Captain Gordon and Commander Wakeham,
closing not later than :November lst--how much later than that we do not know. A
wireless station established on the northern shore of 2[ansell island to form a base
for aviators who might fly over that western end of the strait, giving information as
to the nature progress and location of the ice floes, would I think materially extend the
length of the navigation season. Through the straits themselves there is no menace
to navigation, whatever, other than the shoaling on the western end of Charles
island. This is not a distinct shoal but shoal water. This menace would
be wholly removed at the western end by the installation of an ordinary
light together with a fog-signal. Apart from that, the strait is free from navigation
difficulties. The feasibility of the route might well be determined by the operation, for
a few years, of vessels by the Government. I think twelve vessels, six to be owned
by the Government,--which might 'have five per cent extra expenditure for ice
strengthening--and six ordinary tramp steamers to be chartered. This would form
the basis of the experiment. A vessel working in ice is generally given a considerable
dead rise so that the ice pinch will lift her up. We have operated ordinary tramp
steamers during three nonths of the year. We think it can be continued with boats
of a larger size, of the same type. A two million bushel elevator would be ample, the
rest of the ain would .be stored in the interior of the country. I would not store iu
large quantities at the bay.
Twelve vessels would carry a traffic of about eight million bushels. These would
be used only as an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of the route. We could
use one hundred vessels on the route, but that is a thing of the future.
The Government vessels would make three trips in the year, that is why we would
have them ice strengthened. From 7,500 to 8,500 tons would be the size of the vessels
I would recommend, when speaking of deadweight capacity of vessels entirely.

58

SPECIAL COMMITTEE

] am very strongly o[ tim oI,iniom and always have been, since-I surveyed tem
both, that Churchill vas decidedly p-c2"crz.ble.
I consider, and have always considered that the expense of making a harbour at
the mouth of the :Nelson was prohibitive.
I have absolutely no financial interest of any kind i Churchill or ih :Nelson.
I think a basin suciently large to accommodate an enormous quantity of ships
could be made at the mouth of the Churchill at very much less than it costs to build
a harbour at :Nelson. I think that Churchill is by far the preferable harbour from any
point of view.
Ships have diiiculty in getting into the mouth of the elson. I have been
stranded thirty miles off the mouth of the river in a little boat on the flats.
Coming dowu on my last trip in just  little shallow boat we went aground out of
sight of land. We had a crew of Eskimo who were supposed to know the river like
a book and they undertook to take me in by the best channel they knew of, but we
went aground about ten miles off the land and had to stay there until the tide lifted
us off some ten hours later, and 'hen surveyiug tim harbour in the Arlette, we were
anchored thirty miles off the mouth of the river and the whole district there is so
shallow that terrific seas got up rapidly. Our anchors began to slip and we let our
oil tanks run to prevent the sea breaking over us, and even with that we had to cut
loose and go out to sea to avoid being cfirried on shore. That is the condition of things
at the mouth of the :Nelson and I do uot thiuk these conditions can ever be entirely
removed.
We did not find that :Mr. :Bowden has said, the side shoals break the orce of
the waves. We found it extremely roug'h in the shallow water. When we were out
on board the Arlette Conmmnder :Bowden did not care to bring this ship into the
narrow channel. For three hundred years the IIudson :Bay ships have been anchored
out 'here we had. To this day they lighter their goods in little boats. I was there
in 1905.
At that thne the Iludson :Bay people were still loading and unloading their car-
goes by means of lighters. The Hudson :Bay people make Churchill their main ship-
ping point and distribute their good. from there to a great extent, because it is the
natural harbour of the western coast.
Churchill is a perfectly land-locked harbour. I believe the Hudson :Bay route
for the transportation of western grain is perfectly feasible and very desirable.
think Churchill ,harbour is open for five months in the year. Observations have been
taken for over one hundred years, and from my observations I believe that the straits
are navigable for five months in the year. I think that is all you could safely rely
upon. In some years it would be more, because the year Captain Guy came there on
the 5th June he did not see a pan of ice. I would not count on navigation in June,
but I think you could safely rely on navigation during July, August, September,
October and :November. There would be some new ice met with ix .November. That
would bring it to the first of December. There would be new ice, of course, in the
straits during the month of :November, but the new ice is only light and does not
endanger navigation, although it might delay it.
The land northeast of lake Winnipeg and down around Split lake is quite fit for
settlement, and I observed not only in one place but in many places natural features
of the country what geologists would call moraines, I think, immense gravel ridges
constructed by the force of nature. They had much the appearance of great railroad
embankments, principally they were constructed by the action of glaciers. I observed
them particularly marked in the vicinity of Churchill. The sandy gravel part is such
that it would not support timber. In many cases it was overgrown with timber. It
would make ideal railway valleys.
The current in the Churchill river cleans out the ice as soon as it breals up. It
has no chance of remaining there.

Bound