In 1767, two whaling vessels, cruising about the now well-known passage of the Welcome, came to the entrance of a harbor never before noticed, and, entering it, their captains and crews were astonished to find its shores strewn with guns, anchors, and other European relics. When they landed to examine this phenomenon, further evidence of the place having been the scene of a great catastrophe was found in the ruins of a house, and a little later in the discovery of the remains of ships under water. There could be little doubt now that Knight and all the members of his expedition had met their death at the very commencement of their journey; and, two years later, the explorer Hearne met some natives near the Welcome, who told him how, long years before, some white men like himself had come in two ships, and, landing, put together a wonderful house, the pieces of which they had brought with them. These white men, added the Esquimaux, soon became sick, and though they went on working all the same, most of them died. In the winter, the survivors were glad to buy train-oil, blubber, and seal-flesh, as all their own provisions failed them; and some of them, who had been a long time without food, died of eating too greedily of the strange diet supplied to them. In the following spring, but five remained alive, and these died one by one, the last survivor falling over the last but one in a vain attempt to dig his grave. As may be supposed, the news of this awful catastrophe, of which the worst horrors were probably even then unknown, did not encourage further efforts on the desolate northern shores of Hudson’s Bay. Before the sad fate of Knight and his comrades was discovered, however, several attempts were made at the navigation of the various rivers flowing from the west into the vast inland sea, with a view to ascertaining if any of them led to the Pacific Ocean. In 1737, a Captain Middleton entered the mouth of Churchill River (N. lat. 56°, W. long. 30°), spent the winter on its shores, and in the ensuing spring sailed through the Welcome, up the Wager Sound, opening on to it on the west, and thence by way of the northern inlet of the Welcome, into Fox’s Channel, thus completing the circuit of the bay all but accomplished by his predecessors, Fox and James. Convinced that no passage from Hudson’s Bay existed on the west, Middleton returned to England to announce that conviction, but all his assertions were met with scorn; and, a few years later, yet another fleet, this time under the command of Captains Moore and Smith, started in the vain quest. Hudson’s Straits were entered in July, 1746, and the northern half of the bay being found impassable from ice, it was resolved to winter at the mouth of Nelson’s River (N. lat. 56° 35′, W. long. 95°), and start on the exploring expedition early in the ensuing year. Illustration: SLEDGE-DRIVING.