“At seven miles before joining the Attawapiskat, Boulder river falls into a lake three miles long, which the Indians call Sturgeon lake, from the abundance of this fish to be found in it. While in the act of setting our gill net, the evening we camped on its shores, a sturgeon, measuring upwards of five feet in length, was caught in it.”
Doctor Bell reports that several lakes abounding in fish are said to occur on the course of Henley river, which flows into the Albany ten miles below the Forks.
Doctor Bell, in his evidence before the Senate committee of 1887, said he had seen wild fowl in the region about Hudson bay in large numbers, and if one were close enough up to them, and surprised them in a marsh, they would rise in such clouds that
They Obscured the Sky
for a few moments until they got away. They would not darken the land in their flight, but they would prevent one seeing the sky or the sun for a few seconds. On the shores of Hudson bay and straits are found nearly all the sea birds that live in the northern part of this continent, and some of those of Europe. Some species are abundant; surf ducks, scoters, eider ducks, etc. The eider duck is valuable on account of its down. Of geese, the grey goose and the blue and the white wavies are very abundant in the spring and autumn on the shore of Hudson bay—and especially towards the southern parts of James bay. Swans are common. They breed on the islands, and some on the shores of Hudson bay, and their skins are an article of trade. In former years swans’ down was used for trimming ladies’ garments, and swans’ skins formed an item of export for the Hudson’s Bay Company. White bears are found in the northern part of Hudson bay, and there are plenty of black bears around the southern part.
There are valuable fisheries, too. There are codfish in Hudson bay. The variety the witness had seen is called the ‘rock cod,’ which is not of so good a quality as the common variety of the Atlantic, but he understood that it is the same species.
The variety of fish known as sea trout is found in the mouths of the rivers running into Hudson bay and James bay. They do not go far up the stream; they are never found beyond the first fall in a river. There are sea trout in both Hudson bay and James bay, at the mouths of the rivers. They are the same variety as that found on the Atlantic coast. They have the same habits. There is also the speckled trout. The marine animals—fishes and mammals of Hudson bay—have precisely the same habits as similar species have on the Atlantic coast.
The fur seal is not found here, but the seals of Hudson bay are valuable for their oil. They are tolerably abundant. There are
Six Species of Seal in the Bay.
There is the bearded seal, for instance, which grows to the length of thirteen feet, the ringed seal, the Greenland seal in Hudson strait, the grey seal, and the harbour seal, which is quite common in those waters, also the spotted or fresh-water seal. The latter run up the rivers after salmon and whitefish. It is a large spotted species with an almost white or light grey coat, with distinct black spots thickly scattered over its body. This seal ascends the rivers for long distances inland, sometimes as much as two hundred miles. They live on fish, and they sometimes remain in the lakes in the interior. The skins of these seals are valuable, making very good coats.