Nelson River

   Rises in the Rocky Mountains, at the headwaters of Bow River, a branch of the South Saskatchewan. Length to Lake Winnipeg, 390 miles; to headwaters of the Bow, 1660 miles. The mouth of the river was discovered, and named, by Sir Thomas Button in 1612. He wintered there, 1612-1613. Captain Luke Foxe spent eleven days at Port Nelson in 1631. The river itself was explored by David Thompson in 1792. Pierre Radisson visited the mouth of the river in 1669, and built the first trading-fort there. In later years the post was repeatedly captured by the French, and recaptured by or restored to the Hudson's Bay Company, in whose hands it finally remained, under the name of York Factory (q.v.).

   Bib.: Bryce, Hudson's Bay Company; Laut, Pathfinders of the Westand Conquest of the Great North-West.