A Davis Strait Iceberg.
CHAPTER I.
VOYAGE TO THE BAY
The present report contains a narrative of the voyage of the D.G.S. Neptune, during the seasons 1903-04, to the northern parts of Hudson bay, and to the northeastern Arctic islands. Following this, under their respective headings, are a short historical account of earlier explorations and discoveries in northeastern Arctic America; a geographical sketch, together with summaries of what is at present known of the inhabitants and geology of the unorganized northeastern territories of the Dominion; short descriptions of the important whaling and sealing industries; and opinions as to the possible navigation of Hudson strait and Hudson bay.
The appendices contain the meteorological observations taken on the voyage, interesting notes on the thickness and growth of the ice; also lists of the birds, plants and fossils collected in these northern regions. All the collections, except that of the marine invertebrates, have been fully determined. The amount of new material in the latter required greater time for study than could be given before the publication of this report, and the results will be included in a future publication.
This report is based largely upon the knowledge obtained, during the voyage, by the scientific staff of the expedition; this has been freely supplemented by information taken from the reports of previous northern explorations. For the convenience of the reader, constant references are not made to these authorities in the text, a list of them being given in an appendix.
Special mention is here made of the indebtedness of the author to the valuable information contained in the works of Richardson, McClintock, Dawson, Bell and Sverdrup.
The accompanying map has been compiled by Mr. C. Frank King. It contains all the corrections to coastline made from his surveys. The ship’s track marked on the map will be found convenient in following the text of the narrative.
All bearings mentioned in the text refer to the true North, on account of the confusion arising from the great change in the variation of the compass at different localities included in the area covered by the report. For example, at Chesterfield inlet the compass points true North; while at Beechey island, in Lancaster sound, the variation amounts to 160 degrees, so that the north end of the needle points south-southwest.
The illustrations in the text of the report are from photographs taken by the author.