JEFFREY. See DWARF.

Henry. Of this eminent naval discoverer we know nothing prior to the year 1607, when he was employed by some London merchants in a small vessel, for exploring a north-east passage to China and Japan. He set sail on the 1st of May with only ten men and a boy, and reached as high as 82° of N. Lat., where being stopped by the ice, he returned to England in the month of September following. In his next voyage he landed at Nova Zembla, but could make no farther east, and he returned in August next year. The Dutch East India Company fitted him out in 1609, with a crew of 20 men, English and Dutch, and after vain attempting to penetrate eastward, he steered for the American coast, and went as far as Chesapeake bay. His crew mutinying, he durst not attempt a westerly passage through Davis's strait, and therefore returned home.

His knowledge in consequence of these voyages increased his ardour for discovery, and he again made an offer of his services to the Dutch East India Company, which were not accepted; and for his last voyage, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, and some of his friends fitted him out. On the 17th of April he set sail, and came in sight of Greenland on the 4th of June. Sailing westward, he reached the mouth of the strait which bears his name, through which he advanced along the coast of Labrador, which he called Nova Britannia. Here he hoped he had discovered the long-wished-for passage; but he found he was only in a bay, in the southern part of which he determined to winter. After this he fitted out his shallop for farther discoveries, but as he had no means of revictualling his ship, he distributed his last remaining bread with tears in his eyes, among his people, and returned home. His mutinous crew entered his cabin by night, tied his hands behind his back, and set him ashore at the west end of the straits, with eight of the crew who were most attached to him. They were never more heard of, and it is probable they were swallowed up by the waves. Such was the unfortunate end of this adventurous mariner!

William, a celebrated English botanist, was born at Westmoreland about 1730. He was bound apprentice to an apothecary in London, whose business he took, and proved a friend to the widow and daughters. It appears from the testimony of Dr Pulsteney, that he had a residence in the British museum, but we are not informed in what capacity. He was also F. R. S., and died of a paralytic distemper in May 1793. He possessed a comprehensive knowledge of English plants, which induced him to undertake an arrangement of English botany according to the Linnaean classification, a task which had been previously attempted by Dr Hill, but the execution was very imperfect. Hudson's Flora Anglicana appeared in 1762, in one volume 8vo, the Latin preface to which was written by the ingenious Mr Stillington, and received with great applause, and contributed greatly to the adoption in England of the sexual system.

The merits of Mr Hudson are thus described by Dr J. E. Smith. "His memory requires no studied eulogium here, as every page of the present work is an index to his labours. May the writer of this leave no more errors behind him as an author, or as a man." Mr Hudson well understood the insects and shells of Great Britain, and always meditated a Fauna Britannica. His temper is said to have been gentle, rather close, but kind to those who gained his esteem.

Hudson's Bay, a large bay of North America, lying between 51 and 60 degrees of latitude, discovered in 1610 by Henry Hudson. This intrepid mariner, in searching after a north-west passage to the South seas, discovered three straits, through which he hoped to find out a new way to Asia by America. He had made two voyages before on the same adventure; the first in 1607, and the second in 1608. In his third and last, 1610, he entered the straits that lead into this new Mediterranean, the bay known by his name; coasted a great part of it; and penetrated to eighty degrees and a half into the heart of the frozen zone. His ardour for the discovery not being abated by the difficulties he struggled with in this empire of winter, and world of frost and snow, he staid here until the ensuing spring, and prepared in the beginning of 1611 to pursue his discoveries; but his crew, who suffered equal hardships, without the same spirit to support them, mutinied, seized upon him and seven of those who were most faithful to him, and committed them to the fury of the icy seas in an open boat. Hudson and his companions were either swallowed up by the waves, or gaining the inhospitable coast were destroyed by the savages; but the ship and the rest of the men returned home. Other attempts towards a discovery were were made in 1612 and 1667; and a patent for planting the country, with a charter for a company, was obtained in the year 1670. In 1746 Captain Ellis wintered as far north as 57 degrees and a half, and Captain Christopher attempted farther discoveries in 1761. But besides these and the late voyages, which satisfy us that we must not look for a passage on this side of the latitude 67 degrees north, we are indebted to the Hudson's Bay company for a journey by land; which throws much additional light on this matter, by affording what may be called demonstration, how much farther north, at least in some parts of their voyage, ships must go, before they can pass from one side of America to the other. The northern Indians, who come down to the company's factories to trade, had brought to the knowledge of our people a river, which on account of much copper being found near it, had obtained the name of the Copper-mine river. The company being desirous of examining into this matter with precision, directed Mr Hearne, a young gentleman in their service, and who having been brought up for the navy and served in it the war before last, was extremely well qualified for the purpose, to proceed over land under the convoy of those Indians, for that river, which he had orders to survey if possible quite down to its exit into the sea; to make observations for fixing the latitudes and longitudes; and to bring home maps and drawings both of it and the countries through which he should pass. Accordingly Mr Hearne set out from Prince of Wales's Fort, on Churchill river, latitude $58^\circ 47'_{10}$ north, and longitude $94^\circ 7'_{12}$ west from Greenwich, on the 7th of December 1770. On the 13th of June he reached the Copper-mine river, and found it all the way, even to its exit into the sea, encumbered with shoals and falls, and emptying itself into it over a dry flat of the shore, the tide being then out, which seemed by the edges of the ice to rise about 12 or 14 feet. This rise, on account of the falls, will carry it but a very small way within the river's mouth, so that the water in it had not the least backwift taste. Mr Hearne was nevertheless sure of the place it emptied itself into being the sea, or a branch of it, by the quantity of whalebone and seal skins which the Esquimaux had at their tents, and also by the number of seals which he saw upon the ice. The sea at the river's mouth was full of islands and shoals as far as he could see by the assistance of a pocket telescope; and the ice was not yet (July 17th) broken up, but thawed away only for about three quarters of a mile from the shore, and for a little way round the islands and shoals which lay off the river's mouth. But he had the most extensive view of the sea when he was about eight miles up the river; from which station the extreme parts of it bore north-west by west and north-east. By the time Mr Hearne had finished his survey of the river, which was about one o'clock in the morning on the 18th, there came on a very thick fog and drizzling rain; and as he had found the river and sea in every respect unlikely to be of any utility, he thought it unnecessary to wait for fair weather to determine the latitude more exactly by observation; but by the extraordinary care he took in observing the courses and distances, walking from Congecathawhachaga, where he had two very good observations, he thinks the latitude may be depended on with-

in $20'$ at the utmost. It appears from the map which Hudson's Bay.

Mr Hearne constructed of this singular journey, that the mouth of the Copper-mine river lies in latitude $72^\circ$ north and longitude $25^\circ$ west from Churchill river; that is, about $119^\circ$ west of Greenwich. Mr Hearne's journey back from the Copper-mine river to Churchill lasted till June 30th 1772; so that he was absent almost a year and seven months. The unparalleled hardships he suffered, and the essential service he performed, met with a suitable reward from his masters, and he was made governor of Prince of Wales's Fort on Churchill river. But though the adventurers failed in the original purpose for which they navigated this bay, their project, even in its failure, has been of great advantage to this country, as is shown under the article COMPANY (Hudson's Bay).

The country lying round Hudson's bay is called New Britain, or the country of the Esquimaux; comprehending Labrador, now North and South Wales. The entrance of the bay from the ocean, after leaving to the north Cape Farewell and Davis's straits, is between Resolution islands on the north, and Button's islands on the Labrador coast to the south, forming the eastern extremity of the straits distinguished by the name of its great discoverer. The coasts are very high, rocky, and rugged at top; in some places precipitous, but sometimes exhibit large beaches. The islands of Salisbury, Nottingham, and Digges, are also very lofty and naked. The depth of water in the middle of the bay is a hundred and forty fathoms. From Cape Churchill to the south end of the bay are regular soundings; near the shore shallow, with muddy or sandy bottom. To the north of Churchill the soundings are irregular, the bottom rocky, and in some parts the rocks appear above the surface at low water. From Moose river or the bottom of the bay to Cape Churchill the land is flat, marshy, and wooded with pines, birch, larch, and willows. From Cape Churchill to Wager's Water the coasts are all high and rocky to the very sea, and woodless, except the mouths of Pockerekefko and Seal rivers. The hills on their back are naked, nor are there any trees for a great distance inland.

The mouths of all the rivers are filled with shoals; except that of Churchill, in which the largest ships may lie; but ten miles higher, the channel is obstructed with sand banks; and all these rivers, as far as has been navigated, are full of rapids and cataracts from ten to sixty feet perpendicular. Down these rivers the Indian traders find a quick passage; but their return is a labour of many months. As far inland as the company have settlements, which is six hundred miles to the west, at a place called Hudson House, lat. $53^\circ$, long. $106^\circ$. 27. from London, is a flat country: nor is it known how far to the eastward the great chain seen by our navigators from the Pacific ocean branches off.

The climate even about Haye's river, in only lat. $57^\circ$, is during winter excessively cold. The snows begin to fall in October, and continue falling by intervals the whole winter; and when the frost is most rigorous, in form of the finest sand. The ice on the rivers is eight feet thick. Port-wine freezes into a solid mass; brandy coagulates. The very breath fell on the blankets of the beds in the form of a hoar frost, and the bed-clothes often were found frozen to the wall. The sun rises in the shortest day at five minutes past nine, and sets five minutes before three. In the longest day the sun rises at three, and sets about nine. The ice begins to disappear in May, and hot weather commences about the middle of June, which at times is so violent as to force the face of the hunters. Thunder is not frequent, but very violent. But there must be great difference of heat and cold in this vast extent, which reaches from lat. 50° to lat. 63° north.—During winter the firmament is not without its beauties. Mock suns and halos are not unfrequent; they are very bright, and richly tinged with all the colours of the rainbow. The sun rises and sets with a large cone of yellowish light. The night is enlivened with the Aurora Borealis, which spreads a thousand different lights and colours over the whole concave of the sky, not to be defaced even by the splendour of the full moon; and the stars are of a fiery redness.

The eastern boundary of the bay is Terra di Labrador; the northern part has a straight coast facing the bay, guarded with a line of isles innumerable. A vast bay, called the Archiwinipny sea, lies within it, and opens into Hudson's bay by means of Gulf Hazard, through which the beluga whales dart in great numbers. Here the company had a settlement for the sake of the fishery, and for trading with the Esquimaux; but deserted it as unprofitable about the year 1758 or 1759. The eastern coast is barren past the efforts of cultivation. The surface is everywhere uneven, and covered with masses of stone of an amazing size. It is a country of fruitless valleys and frightful mountains, some of an astonishing height: the first watered by a chain of lakes, formed not from springs but rain and snow, so chilly as to be productive of only a few small trout. The mountains have here and there a blighted shrub, or a little moss. The valleys are full of crooked fluted trees, pines, fir, birch, and cedars, or rather a species of juniper. In lat. 60° on this coast, vegetation ceases. The whole shore, like that on the west, is faced with islands at some distance from land. The inhabitants among the mountains are Indians; along the coasts Esquimaux. The dogs of the former are very small; of the latter large, and headed like a fox. Notwithstanding they have rein-deer, they never train them for the fledge; but apply the dogs to that use. Walrus visits a place called Nuchunk, in lat. 60° during winter; from thence the natives purchase the teeth with which they head their darts. Davis suspected that he had found a passage on this coast in 1586, to the Western ocean; but it proves no more than a deep bay.

The laudable zeal of the Moravian clergy induced them to send, in the year 1752, missionaries from Greenland to his country. They fixed on Nisteb's harbour for their settlement; but the first part was partly killed, partly driven away. In 1764, under the protection of our government, another attempt was made. The missionaries were well received by the Esquimaux, and the mission goes on with success.

The animals of these countries are, the moose deer, flags, rein-deer, bears, buffaloes, wolves, foxes, beavers, otters, lynxes, martins, squirrels, ermines, wild cats, and hares. The rein-deer pass in vast herds towards the north in October, seeking the extreme cold. The male polar bears rove out at sea, on the floating ice, most of the winter, and till June: the females lie concealed in the woods, or beneath the banks of rivers till March, when they come abroad with their twin cubs, and bend their course to the sea in search of their comforts. Several are killed in their passage; and those which are wounded show vast fury, roar hideously, and bite and throw up into the air even their own progeny. The females and the young, when not interrupted, continue their way to sea. In June the males return to shore, and by August are joined by their consorts, with the cubs, by that time of a considerable size. The feathered kind are, geese, bustards, ducks, partridges, and all manner of wild-fowls. Indeed multitudes of birds retire to this remote country, to Labrador and Newfoundland, from places most remotely south, perhaps from the Antilles; and some even of the most delicate little species. Most of them, with numbers of aquatic fowls, are seen returning southward with their young broods to more favourable climates. The savages, in some respects, regulate their months by the appearance of birds; and have their goose month from the vernal appearance of geese from the south. All the grouse kind, ravens, cinereous crows, titmouse, and Lapland finch, brave the severest winter; and several of the falcons and owls seek shelter in the woods. Of fish, there are whales, morse, seals, cod-fish, and a white fish preferable to herrings; and in their rivers and fresh waters, pike, perch, carp, and trout.

All the quadrupeds of these countries are clothed with a clove, soft, warm fur. In summer there is here, as in other places, a variety in the colours of the several animals; when that season is over, which holds only for three months, they all assume the livery of winter, and every fort of beasts, and most of their fowls, are of the colour of the snow; every thing animate and inanimate is white. This is a surprising phenomenon. But what is yet more surprising, and what is indeed one of the most striking things, that draw the most inattentive to an admiration of the wisdom and goodness of Providence, is, that the dogs and cats from Britain that have been carried into Hudson's bay, on the approach of winter have entirely changed their appearance, and acquired a much longer, softer, and thicker coat of hair than they had originally.

Hudson's-Bay Company. See COMPANY.

Hudson's-River, a large river of North America which rises on the east of Lake Ontario, and running by Albany, and on the back of the south part of New-England through part of New-York, falls into the bay of the sea beyond the west end of Long-Island, and below the town of New-York.