- bolts to which the vessels were secured may still be seen
leaded into the smooth glaciated granite shores. Besides the ring-bolts, many interesting carvings are to be seen cut on the surface of the smooth rocks. Amongst them are the following:—"Furnace and Discovery 1741," "J. Horner 1746," "J. Morley 1748," "James Walker May y^e 25 1753," "Guillford Long May y^e 27 1753," "J. Wood 1757," "Sl. Hearne July y^e 1 1767." In addition to many other names are several picture carvings, and notably one of a man suspended from a gallows, over which is the inscription, "John Kelley from the Isle of Wight." According to local tradition Mr. Kelley is said to have been hanged for the theft of a salt goose.
As yet during our stay at Churchill we had not been successful in reaching the ruins of old Fort Prince of Wales, but on the 3rd of November, the weather being cold and good for snowshoeing, we started off, and after an enjoyable five-mile tramp reached the memorable spot, now a scene of utter desolation. Not a tree or other sign of life could be seen on the long, low snow-driven point of rock, but there in all its solitary, massive grandeur stood the remains of what had more than one hundred years ago been a noble fortress.
The construction of this fortification—which appears to have been planned by the English engineer, Joseph Robson—was commenced in the year 1743 by the Hudson's Bay Company, which was then, as now, carrying on fur-trading business in northern Canada. So large and expensive a fortification was built probably not so much for the protection of the Company's interests as for the purpose of complying with a provision of its
