Bay of Tragedy

• Main Author: McGhee, Robert
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 2006
• Subjects: Arctic; Hudson Bay
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192807304.003.0011; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/51979714/isbn-9780912807304-book-part-11.pdf

Abstract Hudson Bay is a Vast, Frozen Sea that plunges like an icy wedge towards the heart of north america. its waters carry arctic seals and whales, ice and polar bears, deep into the forests of central canada. its southern tip lies less than 700 kilometres north of where I am writing, on the Ottawa River at the edge of urban North America. The geese resting on the autumn river before continuing their southern migration may have left its freezing shores only yes-terday. Dropping out of the northern sky towards the first cornfields they have seen all summer, the wavering lines of tired and quiet birds form a tangible link with that distant northern world.The Bay plays a vital role in the Arctic mythology of Canadians, reflecting the essential part that it occupied in history as the focus of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the fur trade and two centuries of western exploration.