The Beaver, Vol. 1, No. 10, July, 1921Hudson's Bay Company
History
The Beaver, Vol. 1, No. 10, July, 1921
Hudson's Bay Company
Canada -- History -- Periodicals; Canada, Northern -- History -- Periodicals; Hudson's Bay Company -- Periodicals
While the accompanying map is approximately correct, the feeding ground
was necessarily subject to food material. In such years, for instance,
as the grasshoppers spread devastation over large tracts of the
Northwest--when for miles and miles not a blade of grass could be
seen--it is only reasonable to expect that the buffalo changed his
regular stamping ground.
William T. Hornaday, the naturalist, estimated, January 1st, 1908, the
number of wild bison in the Rocky Mountains at 25, and the number in
Canada at 300. About 130 are captive in Europe, and 1116 in the United
States, bringing the total number of pure bred bison up to 2047. A large
herd is under the protection of the Canadian government in the park at
Wainwright, Alberta. The more notable American herds are found in
Corbin's game preserve, New Hampshire; in Oklahoma; in the Yellowstone
national park; and on various private ranches in the western part of the
United States.
FAMOUS H.B.C. CAPTAINS AND SHIPS
(Continued from the June issue)
By H. M. S. COTTER, Cumberland House
The "Pelican" once scraped the sunken ledges near Cartwright, but no
H.B.C. ship has left her "bones" to rot on that iron-bound shore.
Little is known of the wrecks that do take place on this coast, but I
have heard of appalling disasters amongst the hardy fishermen. On the
Nova Scotian coast, collision with ice and subsequent loss of life is
not infrequent. Every year there are wrecks of some kind. Ocean-going
steamers have been forced ashore and become total wrecks. And so it is
remarkable that H.B.C. ships have never met with disaster, especially
considering their many ports of call.
In 1908 I was a passenger on the "Pelican" (Captain Alex. Grey) bound
for Fort Chimo, Ungava. From the time we left Quebec till we passed Cape
Harrison, North of Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, we had enjoyed fair
weather. But the clouds and rising sea denoted a change.
We were then standing off the coast nearly twelve miles and steaming at
about seven knots. The wind kept veering between N. and N.E., finally
blowing straight down the coast about north. We stood farther out to
sea. At nightfall it was blowing half a gale with rain coming down--and
mist. Our speed then was not more than three knots and gradually getting
less till about 2 o'clock in the morning when the wind increased to a
living gale, screeching and howling through the rigging and stopping all
progress. It was then decided to run for shelter, but the nearest
harbour was forty miles south, a place named _Webek_. Captain Grey had
been in this harbour only once, about twenty-five years before, and no
one else aboard had ever anchored there. They turned the ship and we
came scudding south in the blackness of night, then lay-to till dawn,
and picking up the land approached at half speed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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