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Hudson Bay

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General Geography

          New York Harbour is sometimes called "Hudson's Bay".

   Hudson Bay, Canada.
   Enlarge
   Hudson Bay, Canada.
   In late spring (May), large chunks of ice float near the eastern shore
   of the bay, while to the west, the center of the bay remains frozen.
   Between 1971 and 2003, the length of the ice-free season in the
   southwestern part of the Hudson Bay—historically the last area to
   thaw—had increased by about 3 days.
   Enlarge
   In late spring (May), large chunks of ice float near the eastern shore
   of the bay, while to the west, the centre of the bay remains frozen.
   Between 1971 and 2003, the length of the ice-free season in the
   southwestern part of the Hudson Bay—historically the last area to
   thaw—had increased by about 3 days.

   Hudson Bay (French: baie d'Hudson) is a large (1.23 million km²),
   relatively shallow body of water in northeastern Canada. It drains a
   very large area that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan,
   Alberta, most of Manitoba, parts of North Dakota and Minnesota, and the
   southeastern area of Nunavut. A smaller offshoot of the bay, James Bay,
   lies to the south. The IHO lists Hudson Bay as part of the Arctic
   Ocean. On the east it is connected with the Atlantic Ocean by Hudson
   Strait, and on the north with the rest of the Arctic Ocean by Foxe
   Channel (which is not considered part of the bay) and Fury and Hecla
   Strait. Geographic coordinates: 78° to 95° W, 51° to 70° N.

   The Eastern Cree name for the Hudson and James bays is Wînipekw
   (Southern dialect) or Wînipâkw (Northern dialect), meaning muddy or
   brackish water. Lake Winnipeg is similarly named by the local Cree.

History

   Hudson Bay was named after Henry Hudson, who explored the bay in 1610
   on his ship the Discovery. On this fourth voyage he worked his way
   around the west coast of Greenland and into the bay, mapping much of
   its eastern coast. The Discovery became trapped in the ice over the
   winter, and the crew survived onshore at the southern tip of James Bay.
   When the ice cleared in the spring Hudson wanted to explore the rest of
   the area, but the crew mutinied on June 22, 1611.

   Sixty years later the Nonsuch reached the bay and successfully traded
   for beaver pelts with the Cree. This led to the creation of the
   Hudson's Bay Company, which bears its name to this day. The British
   crown awarded a trading monopoly on the Hudson Bay watershed, called
   Rupert's Land, to the Hudson's Bay Company. France contested this grant
   by sending several military expeditions to the region, but abandoned
   its claim in the Treaty of Utrecht (April, 1713).

   During this period, the Hudson's Bay Company built several forts and
   trading posts along the coast at the mouth of the major rivers (such as
   Fort Severn, Ontario, York Factory, Manitoba, and Churchill, Manitoba).
   The strategic locations allowed inland exploration and more
   importantly, facilitated trade with the indigenous people, who would
   bring fur to the posts from where the HBC would transport it directly
   to Europe (which incidentally is a shorter distance than from
   Montreal). The HBC continued to use these posts until the beginning of
   the 20th century.

   This land, an area of approximately 3.9 million km², was ceded in 1870
   to Canada as part of the Northwest Territories when the trade monopoly
   was abolished. Due to a change in naming conventions, Hudson's Bay is
   now correctly called Hudson Bay. As a result, both the body of water
   and the company are often misnamed.

Geography

Waters

   Hudson Bay has a salinity that is lower than the world ocean on
   average. This is caused mainly by the: 1) low rate of evaporation (the
   bay is ice-covered for much of the year), 2) the large volume of
   terrestrial runoff entering the bay (about 700 km³ annually; the Hudson
   Bay watershed covers much of Canada, with many rivers and streams
   discharging into the bay) and the annual melt of sea ice provides a
   significant source of fresher water to the surface layer (about three
   times as much as the rivers), and 3) limited connection with the larger
   Atlantic Ocean (and its higher salinity).

Shores

   The western shores of the bay are a lowland known as the "Hudson Bay
   Lowlands" which covers 324,000 km². The area is drained by a large
   number of rivers and has formed a characteristic vegetation known as
   muskeg. Much of the landform has been shaped by the actions of glaciers
   and the shrinkage of the bay over long periods of time. Signs of
   numerous former beachfronts can be seen far inland from the current
   shore. A large portion of the lowlands is part of the Polar Bear
   Provincial Park.

   In contrast, most of the eastern shores (the Quebec portion) form the
   western edge of the Canadian Shield in Quebec. The area is rocky and
   hilly. Its vegetation is typically boreal forest, and to the north,
   tundra.

Islands

   There are many islands in Hudson Bay, mostly near the eastern coast.
   All are part of the territory Nunavut. The main group of islands is
   known as the Belcher Islands.

Coastal communities

   The coast of Hudson Bay is extremely sparsely populated. There are only
   about a dozen villages. Some of these were founded in the 17th and 18th
   centuries by the Hudson's Bay Company as trading posts, making them
   part of the oldest settlements in Canada. With the closure of the HBC
   posts and stores in the second half of the 20th century, the coastal
   villages are now almost exclusively populated by Cree and Inuit people.

   Some of the more prominent communities along the Hudson Bay coast are:
     * Puvirnituq, Quebec
     * Churchill, Manitoba
     * Rankin Inlet, Nunavut

Military development

   Not until the Cold War was there any military significance attributed
   to the region. In the 1950s, a few sites along the coast became part of
   the Mid-Canada Line, defending North America against a potential Soviet
   attack over the North Pole.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Bay"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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