Show A DREAR COUNTRY interesting account of the hudon nay bay region mid and its inhabitants those who have never seen life as it exists aifong among C the inhabitants of the hudson bay B ay iy country would be astonished it at the alio extent of civilization amon a class of people generally supposed to be savil savages cs is as well as 13 at the awful grandeur of the scenery and forbidding aspect of the graveyard coasts alon along the shores of that nort ficen liei n sm sea in all all the uninhabitable re region ion of north america there is ia nowhere to be found a more bleak desolate or dreary waste than that between un c gava bay off the east coast of labrador on oil tile the cast and fa fort rt churchill on the gestand west and southern part of hudson budson bay proper although although h little is known yet regarding this weird and frozen rec region 0 rion it lias has had a growth within tile the last half century which has been something a been measured accordia according to its needs bythe by the god of nature has has r gone one on oil advancing avancing 0 from ae a ago 0 e to ne n age 0 e until nt at the present time no not alone the more fertile islands but the extent of land back from the coast on either eitnier side is ia alii tk ly populated by a people who hurit hunt ant and lish and talk and chatter even ain among otio the misery and destitution which life in a region of perpetual frost and snow in must bring hudson bay itself is really y vil sin island sea extend extending a between latitude 51 and 61 coith and longitude 77 0 and 95 0 west adf and while about 1000 wiles miles 1011 long at its it s greatest distance is only about GOO COO miles in breadth covering an area oi of over square wiles miles itis nafiz navigable only for about three months in the year from the ini mid tIlle lie of june to the middle of Septen september iber and for the remainder of the year is filled with drift ice which renders navigation even fox foi a short distance an absolute impossibility tile the eastern bastein coasts coast of the 1 lay are arc sights to be admired cliffs rising in many cases ton to a height beight of from to feet abruptly from the Is edge and bein being composed of a glacier like substance which being beciri ever coated with ice and froen snow shine in the ilie sunlight ht until it is almost impossible to look it at them for any length of time the residents of this section are not properly but it a cross between this race and the french and indians N lie ho have come in for the purpose of hunting and fishing and finally settled down among the natives to live as they do and share with them in tile the privations no other life af lords on an average in uio the summer months the thermometer stands at aboud 45 0 above while the temperature in the winter runs as low as 60 0 below zero and will avera average 0 about 25 below fish ire are scarce and ami can be caught only iu in the rivers river of shirli on the east there then is only the great whale while on tile the west there are the haves nelson churchill moore Llo orel Al albany bally Weck Wee nish knish main and Abbi tibbe seal abound in plenty but ire efti extremely shy and hard bard for the nati natives ves to get it at while porpoise and walrus ire are equally illy difficult to get hold of were il ic not for the small fur tearing animals which itie ere iti e about the shores the poor half balf breeds would stand a v cry good chance of perishing by hunger as they can call expect nothing in in tile the lay ay of favors from tile alic hudson hudsoll day bay companas Comp anys stores a few 0 of which are arc along e tho the coast the natives live in little villages villa 0 es composed of from fifty to one hundred rude huts each community has its place ol of worship and its church burial ground which is consecrated by the moravian missionaries a few of whom are arc to be found wandering in about from village to villa village from th the e eastern extent of the settle merits ments down as far fair as fort churchill on the lio west these faith faithful fal beloved men expect no recompense for their services and if they did they t get it for chete is not in ill all ille the co country uch a thing a as money the only elchan exchange C being in lish fish oil or furs whenever one of a tribe lies dies the rest of his family ni meaning carilu by that tile the entire settlement stop work for the day and prepare to bury him if the settlement possesses such a thin thing as a dinner bell and the most of them do the oldest man mail in ill the village 0 goes about from hut but to lint hut and ring rings 0 s the bell in front of each until the occupants come out both bi big and little and fallin falling into line march after him when the alic circuit has been made and big and little are all collected a march is made for the girote as it is called the village church which consists of about an acre of ground round simply by a wall of stones near the middle of the clio community into this little field go the entire populace and after chanting v the virtues of the dead for some hours the corpse is taken away on a skin rack and covered with willi ice and snow in the common man burial plot the rest of tile day is spent in re rejoicing joicin g arid and the next day it if the deceased was married his better half makes another choice and at the end of a aleek week if nn all agreement bo be conic come to the lead is forgotten ind and the no longer sorrowing borrowing ones begin life over again cor pittsburgh post I 1 |