[12] Dease was one of the Company’s chief factors; Simpson, who was a cousin of Sir George Simpson, was an accurate astronomical observer. [13] In all, 21,500 miles of coast line of which 5,780 miles were previously unknown, had been examined. (“Cruise of the ‘Neptune’.”) [Illustration: THE KEEWATIN AREA] CHAPTER II. THE KEEWATIN AREA. (Newest Ontario and Northern Manitoba.) Agriculture and Arable Land. Early Agricultural Experiments and Their Success.—Evidence before the Parliamentary Committee of 1749.—Testimony of Official Explorers and Residents.—Many Areas Fit For Agriculture Described.—Wild Fruits Grow in Profusion.—Successful Gardens. —Much Country Capable of Improvement by Drainage.—Climate Inland Warmer Than Further East.—Natural Hay Meadows.—The Clay Belt. The region west of James bay and southwest of Hudson bay, being the southern portion of the area known up to the time of the creation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan as the district of Keewatin, and comprising the territory recently (1912) annexed to the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, was the first part of the still unexploited northwest with which white men came into touch. Some years elapsed between its discovery by Henry Hudson and Sir Thomas Button in 1610 and 1612 and the establishment of the first posts therein by the Hudson’s Bay Company at the mouths of Albany, Severn, Nelson and Churchill rivers. These posts were established and have since been maintained entirely for the purpose of the fur trade, and consequently no settlements have sprung up around them, and there has been no systematic attempt to exploit the agricultural possibilities of the adjacent areas. Nevertheless, it was some of the older servants of the big fur company who first drew attention to the fact that this region had agricultural possibilities, and it was from the posts on the bay that the first explorations of the interior were made. Of recent years, much information as to the agricultural possibilities of this area has been obtained by explorers of the Geological Survey of Canada, and through the explorations attendant upon the surveys for the location of the Hudson Bay Railway, which is projected to run in a northeasterly direction across this region from The Pas to Port Nelson.