Hudson Bay

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of the Canadian Shield with Pre-Cambrian gneiss and granite, has a hinterland with the typical, flat ground-moraine landscape of Arctic tundra, stretching to the northern timber line far to the south in the James Bay area. Baffin Island, a remainder of the crystalline mountains of the Canadian Shield, rises to heights of 2000 m (6500 ft) in the north.

The harshness of the terrain has so far made it difficult to produce accurate maps.

Climate

The climate is subpolar-continental. During the long winter, with temperatures as low as -60°C (-76°F), Hudson Bay is covered with ice 1-2 m (3-61/2 ft) thick. When there are strong north-westerly winds, the pack-ice can tower as high as 8 m (26 ft). During the brief summer, when temperatures can reach 20°C (72°F), the permafrost on land thaws down to depths of 60 m (197 ft), transforming the landscape into a broad, impassable bog.

The constant process of freezing then thawing has led to the formation of special phenomena such as pingos, mounds of earth formed through pressure from a layer of water trapped between newly frozen ice and underlying permafrost.

Wildlife

Although the growing season is generally less than five months, there is still an astounding variety of Arctic vegetation. In fact, more than 800 plant species have been identified, including mosses, lichens, ferns, and flowers such as polar poppies, purple saxifrage, arctic campanulas and arctic lupins. However, the harsh climate also means there is less wildlife, although there are plenty of migratory birds and seals, as well as the polar bears that occasionally venture into the settlements in search of food. In summer the marshy landscape swarms with midges and flies. Hudson Bay has vast fish stocks, as yet largely untapped, and the occasional school of white Beluga whales.

History

Hudson Bay was discovered in 1610 by Henry Hudson and later named after him. The first European to reach Hudson Bay overland was Pierre Esprit Radisson, in 1662, and the first trading post followed, at the mouth of the Rupert River, in 1668.

Population

The area around Hudson Bay is very sparsely populated. The biggest sector of the population is the Inuit, who have largely given up their traditional way of life as hunters, living from fishing and handicrafts in the few small trading posts along the coast.

Economy

The Hudson Bay region is rich in natural resources, but their exploitation and transport have been so seriously curtailed by the nature of the terrain and the harsh living conditions as to make their extraction uneconomical. The fact that this potentially good waterway freezes over brings shipping to a standstill from October to June. It was 1929 before what is still the only railway line was opened between Winnipeg and Churchill, a newly created port for getting wheat out of the Canadian prairie provinces. There are no roads that are passable all year round. The most important means of transport is currently by plane. The fur trade, and cod and salmon fishing are still of economic importance.

Hudson's Bay Company

The oldest company still trading in North America, the Hudson's Bay Company can look back over a 300-year history. On May 2nd 1670, King Charles II granted a team of Englishmen led by his cousin, Prince Rupert of Bohemia, full mining and trading rights for the territories draining into Hudson Bay. The company thus acquired control of a territory of around 8 million sq. km (5 million sq. mi.), or 1/12 of the earth's surface, with rich mineral resources and fabulous fur-hunting grounds. The fur of the beaver, widespread here, was a sought-after luxury in Europe at that time, used for making beaver hats and other articles of clothing. The Hudson's Bay Company established a network of trading posts over the largely unexplored north of Canada, bases for the later settlement and development of the country. The English traders' almost total monopoly of the fur trade did not run into any serious competition until a century later, when the North West Company was founded in 1779. After a bitter struggle however, this new rival was forced into a merger in 1821. Nevertheless the changed technical, political and social circumstances meant the powerful company could no longer maintain its hegemony and, in 1870, it had to sell its land to the Canadian government. Other holdings, including the fur trading company, have been disposed of in recent decades. Nowadays the former fur traders own many big department stores throughout Canada and still employ over 38,000 people.