← catalogue

The Fur Country: Or, Seventy Degrees North Latitude

by Jules Verne · English · Gutenberg #8991 · 742,310 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Fur Country: Or, Seventy Degrees North Latitude
    
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: The Fur Country: Or, Seventy Degrees North Latitude

Author: Jules Verne

Translator: N. D'Anvers


        
Release date: September 1, 2005 [eBook #8991]
                Most recently updated: January 2, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8991

Credits: Produced by N. Wolcott


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FUR COUNTRY: OR, SEVENTY DEGREES NORTH LATITUDE ***




Produced by N. Wolcott





THE FUR COUNTRY by Jules Verne [Redactor’s Note: The Fur
Country(Number V010 in the T&M numerical listing of Verne’s works) is
a translation of Le Pays de fourrures (1873) first published in England
by Sampson and Low and in the United States by James Osgood (1874). The
translation is by N. d’Anvers, a pseudonym for Mrs. Arthur Bell (d.
1933) who also translated other works of Jules Verne. Other translations
of this work are by Henry Frith (George Routledge, 1879) and Edward
Baxter (New Canada Press, 1987).

A listing of the illustrations in the original editions is provided
as well as a table of contents for each part. The illustrations are
assigned numbers which refer to the part of the book, chapter, and order
(a,b,c etc.) for use when an illustrated version is created.

This redaction is by N. Wolcott (nwolcott2@post.harvard.edu) who assumes
all responsibility for errors of omission or commission. ]


THE FUR COUNTRY or Seventy Degrees North Latitude Translated from the
French of Jules Verne

BY N. D’ANVERS

With One Hundred Illustrations

1874


TO MY NEPHEWS HERBERT, EDGAR, AND ROBERT

This Translation

is

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED,

N. D’ANVERS

Clapham, 1873


THE FUR COUNTRY. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I-01-a

“Mrs Joliffe served out slice after slice”

I-01-b

Lieutenant Hobson and Sergeant Long

I-01-c

“The Corporal, match in hand, awaited the order of his Captain”

I-02-a

The arrival of Thomas Black

I-02-b

A savant thawed

I-03-a

Thomas Black introduces himself

I-04-a

The start from Fort Reliancce

I-04-b

“Lieutenant Hobson and the Sergeant led the way,”

I-05-a

Corporal Joliffe proves his skill in driving,

I-05-b

The beginning of the thaw

I-05-c

The effects of the thaw

I-06-a

A wapiti duel

I-06-b

“To the icebergs! to the icebergs!”

I-06-c

“There were bears prowling in the pass”

I-07-a

The Hare Indians

I-08-a

A storm on the lake

I-08-b

“Hobson uttered a last despairing cry!”

I-08-c

Saved!

I-09-a

The mouth of the Coppermine River

I-09-b

“Thousands of birds were shot”

I-10-a

Traces of an encampment

I-11-a

The footprints of a dancer

I-11-b

A temporary encampment

I-12-a

“I promise you double pay”

I-12-b

The site of the fort

I-12-c

Collecting materials for the new factory

I-13-a

A hunting party

I-14-a

Sergeant Long and Madge fishing

I-14-a

“From this position they were able,” &c.

I-15-a

A Morse Hunt

I-16-a

Walrus Bay

I-16-b

Two shots

I-16-c

Rival claimants

I-17-a

“A new country was springing into being”

I-17-b

“A kind of fete was held”

I-18-a

“Mrs Barnett read aloud”

I-18-b

“The dogs rushed out” &c.

I-19-a

“The body was hauled up” &c.

I-19-b

Some living creatures came out of the hut

I-19-c

“She ran up to it” &c.

I-20-a

“It is more beautiful than an Aurora Borealis!”

I-21-a

“The bears were walking about on the roof”

I-21-b

“Mrs Barnett pressed the brave man’s hand”

I-21-b

“Mrs Barnett discharged the contents” &c.

I-21-d

“Mingled howls and screams were heard”

I-22-a

“Just look at our house now!”

I-22-b

“The ice burst” &c.

I-22-c

“Its waters were still sweet” &c.

I-23-a

“He might be seen standing motionless and silent”

I-23-b

“All might watch the progress of the phenomenon”

I-23-c

“Please, sir, it’s because of the pay”

I-23-d

“He shook his fist at the sun”

II-02-a

“I think not”

II-02-b

“The carpenter fixed upon the beach” &c.

II-02-c

“Thomas Black would not even join the exploring party”

II-03-a

“They breakfasted” &c.

II-03-b

“Numerous furred animals” &c.

II-04-a

“He was able to look closely at the steep wall” &c.

II-04-b

“Keep hold!”

II-04-c

“Corporal Joliffe was extremely fond of him”

II-05-a

“Thanks to the Corporal’s unwearying exertions”

II-05-b

“We are sinking gradually”

II-06-a

“Hobson remained crouching” &c.

II-060b

“The Lieutenant promised” &c.

II-07-a

“Not that way”

II-07-b

“Sergeant! Where are you?”

II-07-c

“We saw their fire; they will see ours!”

II-08-a

“Look, Madge, look!”

II-08-b

“The bear seized Kalumah by the clothes”

II-08-c

“It was the young Esquimaux girl Kalumah”

II-09-a

She murmured, ‘Mrs Barnett’

II-09-b

“The waves dashed over her kayak”

II-09-c

“She covered him with kisses”

II-10-a

“The Lieutenant tied round their necks”

II-10-b

“Hobson was in dismay”

II-11-a

“The wolves came within musket range”

II-11-b

“We knew it, sir!”

II-12-a

“It was a Polar bear”

II-12-b

“Two large waggon sledges were built”

II-13-a

“Some of the icebergs assumed extraordinary forms”

II-13-b

“We must pass somehow”

II-14-a

“Marbre flung his running noose skilfully,”

II-14-b

“Everybody started back”

II-15-a

“It was dashed upon the ice-field with a fearful crash”

II-15-b

“I think it is time to retrace our steps”

II-16-a

“It is a frost-rime”

II-16-b

“He took the altitude”

II-17-a

“When an unexpected noise”

II-17-b

“It was like an army of icebergs” &c.

II-18-a

“Poor things! poor things!”

II-18-b

“And a figure appeared” &c.

II-19-a

“Examining the state of the sea” &c.

II-19-b

“Mrs Barnett sobbed aloud”

II-20-a

“The lower framework was already floating”

II-20-b

“He escaped with a ducking”

II-21-a

“The embarkation of provisions, &c., had to be put off”

II-22-a

“He tightened them,” &c.

II-22-b

“Mrs Barnett turned and looked Madge full in the face”

II-23-a

“A beam . . . sunk deep into the earth” &c.

II-23-b

“The colonists, falling on their knees, returned thanks to God”

II-24-a

Kalumah and the bear



CONTENTS Part I I

A Soirée at Fort Reliance

II

The Hudson’s Bay Fur Company

III

A Savant Thawed

IV

A Factory

V

From Fort Reliance to Fort enterprise

VI

A Wapiti Duel

VII

The Arctic Circle

VIII

The Great Bear Lake

IX

A Storm on the Lake

X

A Retrospect

XI

Along the Coast

XII

The Midnight Sun

XIII

Fort Hope

XIV

Some Excursions

XV

Fifteen Miles from Cape Bathurst

XVI

Two Shots

XVII

The Approach of Winter

XVIII

The Polar Night

XIX

A Neighbourly Visit

XX

Mercury Freezes

XXI

The Large Polar Bears

XXII

Five Months More

XXIII

The Eclipse of the 18th June 1860



CHAPTER I. A SOIRÉE AT FORT RELIANCE. On the evening of the 17th March
1859, Captain Craventy gave a fête at Fort Reliance. Our readers must
not at once imagine a grand entertainment, such as a court ball, or a
musical soirée with a fine orchestra. Captain Craventy’s reception
was a very simple affair, yet he had spared no pains to give it éclat.

In fact, under the auspices of Corporal Joliffe, the large room on the
ground-floor was completely transformed. The rough walls, constructed of
roughly-hewn trunks of trees piled up horizontally, were still visible,
it is true, but their nakedness was disguised by arms and armour,
borrowed from the arsenal of the fort, and by an English tent at each
corner of the room. Two lamps suspended by chains, like chandeliers,
and provided with tin reflectors, relieved the gloomy appearance of the
blackened beams of the ceiling, and sufficiently illuminated the
misty atmosphere of the room. The narrow windows, some of them mere
loop-holes, were so encrusted with hoar-frost, that it was impossible
to look through them; but two or three pieces of red bunting, tastily
arranged about them, challenged the admiration of all who entered. The
floor, of rough joists of wood laid parallel with each other, had been
carefully swept by Corporal Joliffe. No sofas, chairs, or other modern
furniture, impeded the free circulation of the guests. Wooden benches
half fixed against the walls, huge blocks of wood cut with the axe,
and two tables with clumsy legs, were all the appliances of luxury
the saloon could boast of. But the partition wall, with a narrow door
leading into the next room, was decorated in a style alike costly and
picturesque. From the beams hung magnificent furs admirably arranged,
the equal of which could not be seen in the more favoured regions of
Regent Street or the Perspective-Newski. It seemed as if the whole fauna
of the ice-bound North were here represented by their finest skins. The
eye wandered from the furs of wolves, grey bears, polar bears, otters,
wolverenes, beavers, muskrats, water pole-cats, ermines, and silver
foxes; and above this display was an inscription in brilliantly-coloured
and artistically shaped cardboard—the motto of the world-famous
Hudson’s Bay Company—

“PROPELLE CUTUM.”

“Really, Corporal Joliffe, you have surpassed yourself !” said
Captain Craventy to his subordinate.

“I think I have, I think I have !” replied the Corporal; “but
honour to whom honour is due, Mrs Joliffe deserves part of your
commendation; she assisted me in everything.”

“A wonderful woman, Corporal.”

“Her equal is not to be found, Captain.”

An immense brick and earthenware stove occupied the centre of the
room, with a huge iron pipe passing from it through the ceiling,
and conducting the dense black smoke into the outer air. This stove
contained a roaring fire constantly fed with fresh shovelfuls of coal by
the stoker, an old soldier specially appointed to the service. Now and
then a gust of wind drove back a volume of smoke into the room, dimming
the brightness of the lamps, and adding fresh blackness to the beams of
the ceiling, whilst tongues of flame shot forth from the stove. But the
guests of Fort Reliance thought little of this slight inconvenience; the
stove warmed them, and they could not pay too dearly for its cheering
heat, so terribly cold was it outside in the cutting north wind.

The storm could be heard raging without, the snow fell fast, becoming
rapidly solid and coating the already frosted window panes with fresh
ice. The whistling wind made its way through the cranks and chinks of
the doors and windows, and occasionally the rattling noise drowned every
other sound. Presently an awful silence ensued. Nature seemed to be
taking breath; but suddenly the squall recommenced with terrific fury.
The house was shaken to its foundations, the planks cracked, the beams
groaned. A stranger less accustomed than the habitués of the fort to
the war of the elements, would have asked if the end of the world were
come.

But, with two exceptions, Captain Craventy’s guests troubled
themselves little about the weather, and if they had been outside
they would have felt no more fear than the stormy petrels disporting
themselves in the midst of the tempest. Two only of the assembled
company did not belong to the ordinary society of the neighbourhood,
two women, whom we shall introduce when we have enumerated Captain
Craventy’s other guests: these were, Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson,
Sergeant Long, Corporal Joliffe, and his bright active Canadian wife,
a certain Mac-Nab and his wife, both Scotch, John Rae, married to an
Indian woman of the country, and some sixty soldiers or employés of
the Hudson’s Bay Company. The neighbouring forts also furnished their
contingent of guests, for in these remote lands people look upon each
other as neighbours although their homes may be a hundred miles apart.
A good many employés or traders came from Fort Providence or Fort
Resolution, of the Great Slave Lake district, and even from Fort
Chippeway and Fort Liard further south. A rare break like this in the
monotony of their secluded lives, in these hyberborean regions, was
joyfully welcomed by all the exiles, and even a few Indian chiefs, about
a dozen, had accepted Captain Craventy’s invitation. They were not,
however, accompanied by their wives, the luckless squaws being still
looked upon as little better than slaves. The presence of these natives
is accounted for by the fact that they are in constant intercourse with
the traders, and supply the greater number of furs which pass through
the hands of the Hudson’s Bay Company, in exchange for other
commodities. They are mostly Chippeway Indians, well grown men with
hardy constitutions. Their complexions are of the peculiar reddish black
colour always ascribed in Europe to the evil spirits of fairyland.
They wear very picturesque cloaks of skins and mantles of fur, with a
head-dress of eagle’s feathers spread out like a lady’s fan, and
quivering with every motion of their thick black hair.

Such was the company to whom the Captain was doing the honours of Fort
Reliance. There was no dancing for want of music, but the “buffet”
admirably supplied the want of the hired musicians of the European
balls. On the table rose a pyramidal pudding made by Mrs Joliffe’s
own hands; it was an immense truncated cone, composed of flour, fat,
rein-deer venison, and musk beef. The eggs, milk, and citron prescribed
in recipe books were, it is true, wanting, but their absence was atoned
for by its huge proportions. Mrs Joliffe served out slice after slice
with liberal hands, yet there remained enough and to spare. Piles of
sandwiches also figured on the table, in which ship biscuits took the
place of thin slices of English bread and butter, and dainty morsels of
corned beef that of the ham and stuffed veal of the old world. The sharp
teeth of the Chippeway Indians made short work of the tough biscuits;
and for drink there was plenty of whisky and gin handed round in little
pewter pots, not to speak of a great bowl of punch which was to close
the entertainment, and of which the Indians talked long afterwards in
their wigwams.

Endless were the compliments paid to the Joliffes that evening, but they
deserved them; how zealously they waited on the guests, with what easy
grace they distributed the refreshments! They did not need prompting,
they anticipated the wishes of each one. The sandwiches were succeeded
by slices of the inexhaustible pudding, the pudding by glasses of gin or
whisky.

“No, thank you, Mr Joliffe.”

“You are too good, Corporal; but let me have time to breathe.”

“Mrs Joliffe, I assure you, I can eat no more.”

“Corporal Joliffe, I am at your mercy.”

“No more, Mrs Joliffe, no more, thank you!”

Such were the replies met with on every side by the zealous pair, but
their powers of persuasion were such that the most reluctant yielded in
the end. The quantities of food and drink consumed were really enormous.
The hubbub of conversation increased. The soldiery and employés became
excited. Here the talk was of hunting, there of trade. What plans were
laid for next season! The entire fauna of the Arctic regions would
scarcely supply game enough for these enterprising hunters. They already
saw bears, foxes, and musk oxen, falling beneath their bullets, and
pole-cats by hundreds caught in their traps. Their imagination pictured
the costly furs piled up in the magazines of the Company, which was this
year to realise hitherto unheard of profits. And whilst the spirits thus
freely circulated inflamed the imagination of the Europeans, the large
doses of Captain Craventy’s “fire-water” imbibed by the Indians
had an opposite effect. Too proud to show admiration, too cautious to
make promises, the taciturn chiefs listened gravely and silently to the
babel of voices around them.

The captain enjoying the hurly burly, and pleased to see the poor
people, brought back as it were to the civilised world, enjoying
themselves so thoroughly, was here, there, and everywhere, answering all
inquiries about the fête with the words

“Ask Joliffe, ask Joliffe !”

And they asked Joliffe, who had a gracious word for every body.

Some of those employed in the garrison and civil service of Fort
Reliance must here receive a few words of special notice, for they were
presently to go through experiences of a most terrible nature, which no
human perspicacity could possibly have foreseen. Amongst others we must
name Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson, Sergeant Long, Corporal and Mrs Joliffe,
and the two foreign women already alluded to, in whose honour Captain
Craventy’s fête was given.

Jaspar Hobson was a man of forty years of age. He was short and slight,
with little muscular power; but a force of will which carried him
successfully through all trials, and enabled him to rise superior to
adverse circumstances. He was “ a child of the Company.” His father,
Major Hobson, an Irishman from Dublin, who had now been dead for some
time, lived for many years at Fort Assiniboin with his wife. There
Jaspar Hobson was born. His childhood and youth were spent at the foot
of the Rocky Mountains. His father brought him up strictly, and he
became a man in self-control and courage whilst yet a boy in years.
Jaspar Hobson was no mere hunter, but a soldier, a brave and intelligent
officer. During the struggles in Oregon of the Hudson’s Bay Company
with the rival companies of the Union, he distinguished himself by his
zeal and intrepidity, and rapidly rose to the rank of lieutenant. His
well-known merit led to his appointment to the command of an expedition
to the north, the aim of which was to explore the northern shores of
the Great Bear Lake, and to found a fort on the confines of the American
continent. Jaspar Hobson was to set out on his journey early in April.

If the lieutenant was the type of a good officer, Sergeant Long was
that of a good soldier. He was a man of fifty years of age, with a
rough beard that looked as if it were made of cocoa-nut fibre.
Constitutionally brave, and disposed to obey rather than to command.
He had no ambition but to obey the orders he received never questioning
them, however strange they might appear, never reasoning for himself
when on duty for the Company-a true machine in uniform; but a perfect
machine, never wearing out; ever on the march, yet never showing signs
of fatigue. Perhaps Sergeant Long was rather hard upon his men, as he
was upon himself. He would not tolerate the slightest infraction
of discipline, and mercilessly ordered men into confinement for the
slightest neglect, whilst he himself had never been reprimanded. In a
word, he was a man born to obey, and this self-annihilation suited
his passive temperament. Men such as he are the materials of which a
formidable army is formed. They are the arms of the service, obeying a
single head. Is not this the only really powerful organisation? The two
types of fabulous mythology, Briareus with a hundred arms and Hydra
with a hundred heads, well represent the two kinds of armies; and in
a conflict between them, which would be victorious? Briareus without a
doubt !

We have already made acquaintance with Corporal Joliffe. He was the busy
bee of the party, but it was pleasant to hear him humming. He would have
made a better major-domo than a soldier; and he was himself aware of
this. So he called himself the “ Corporal in charge of details,” but
he would have lost himself a hundred times amongst these details, had
not little Mrs Joliffe guided him with a firm hand. So it came to pass,
that Corporal Joliffe obeyed his wife without owning it, doubtless
thinking to himself, like the philosopher Sancho, “a woman’s advice
is no such great thing, but he must be a fool who does not listen to
it.”

It is now time to say a few words of the two foreign women already
alluded to more than once. They were both about forty years old, and
one of them well deserved to take first rank amongst celebrated female
travellers. The name of Paulina Barnett, the rival of the Pfeiffers,
Tinnis, and Haimaires of Hull, has been several times honourably
mentioned at the meetings of the Royal Geographical Society. In her
journeys up the Brahmaputra, as far as the mountains of Thibet,
across an unknown corner of New Holland, from Swan Bay to the Gulf of
Carpentaria, Paulina Barnett had given proof of the qualities of a great
traveller. She had been a widow for fifteen years, and her passion for
travelling led her constantly to explore new lands. She was tall, and
her face, framed in long braids of hair, already touched with white, was
full of energy. She was near-sighted, and a double eye-glass rested upon
her long straight nose, with its mobile nostrils. We must confess that
her walk was somewhat masculine, and her whole appearance was suggestive
of moral power, rather than of female grace. She was an Englishwoman
from Yorkshire, possessed of some fortune, the greater part of which was
expended in adventurous expeditions, and some new scheme of exploration
had now brought her to Fort Reliance. Having crossed the equinoctial
regions, she was doubtless anxious to penetrate to the extreme limits of
the hyperborean. Her presence at the fort was an event. The governor of
the Company had given her a special letter of recommendation to Captain
Craventy, according to which the latter was to do all in his power to
forward the design of the celebrated traveller to reach the borders of
the Arctic Ocean. A grand enterprise! To follow in the steps of Hearne,
Mackenzie, Rae, Franklin, and others. What fatigues, what trials, what
dangers would have to be gone through in the conflict with the terrible
elements of the Polar climate! How could a woman dare to venture where
so many explorers have drawn back or perished? But the stranger now shut
up in Fort Reliance was no ordinary woman; she was Paulina Barnett, a
laureate of the Royal Society.

We must add that the celebrated traveller was accompanied by a servant
named Madge. This faithful creature was not merely a servant, but
a devoted and courageous friend, who lived only for her mistress. A
Scotchwoman of the old type, whom a Caleb might have married without
loss of dignity. Madge was about five years older than Mrs Barnett, and
was tall and strongly built. The two were on the most intimate terms;
Paulina looked upon Madge as an elder sister, and Madge treated Paulina
as her daughter.

It was in honour of Paulina Barnett that Captain Craventy was this
evening treating his employés and the Chippeway Indians. In fact,
the lady traveller was to join the expedition of Jaspar Hobson for the
exploration of the north. It was for Paulina Barnett that the large
saloon of the factory resounded with joyful hurrahs. And it was no
wonder that the stove consumed a hundredweight of coal on this memorable
evening, for the cold outside was twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit below
zero, and Fort Reliance is situated in 61° 47’ N. Lat., at least four
degrees from the Polar circle.

CHAPTER II. THE HUDSON’S BAY FUR COMPANY. “Captain Craventy?”

“Mrs Barnett?”

What do you think of your Lieutenant, Jaspar Hobson?”

“I think he is an officer who will go far.”

“What do you mean by the words, Will go far? Do you mean that he will
go beyond the Twenty-fourth parallel?”

Captain Craventy could not help smiling at Mrs Paulina Barnett’s
question. They were talking together near the stove, whilst the guests
were passing backwards and forwards between the eating and drinking
tables.

“Madam,” replied the Captain, “all that a man can do, will be done
by Jaspar Hobson. The Company has charged him to explore the north of
their possessions, and to establish a factory as near as possible to the
confines of the American continent, and he will establish it.”

“That is a great responsibility for Lieutenant Hobson !” said the
traveller.

“It is, madam, but Jaspar Hobson has never yet drawn back from a task
imposed upon him, however formidable it may have appeared.”

“I can quite believe it, Captain,” replied Mrs Barnett, “and we
shall now see the Lieutenant at work. But what induces the Company to
construct a fort on the shores of the Arctic Ocean?”

“They have a powerful motive, madam,” replied the Captain.

“I may add a double motive. At no very distant date, Russia will
probably cede her American possessions to the Government of the United
States. [*1] When this cession has taken place, the Company will find
access to the Pacific Ocean extremely difficult, unless the North-west
passage discovered by Mc’Clure be practicable. [*1 Captain
Craventy’s prophecy has since been realised.] Fresh explorations will
decide this, for the Admiralty is about to send a vessel which will
coast along the North American continent, from Behring Strait to
Coronation Gulf, on the eastern side of which the new-Art is to be
established. If the enterprise succeed, this point will become an
important factory, the centre of the northern fur trade. The transport
of furs across the Indian territories involves a vast expenditure of
time and money, whereas, if the new route be available, steamers will
take them from the new fort to the Pacific Ocean in a few days.”

“That would indeed be an important result of the enterprise, if this
North-west passage can really be used,” replied Mrs Paulina Barnett;
“but I think you spoke of a double motive.”

“I did, madam,” said the Captain, “and I alluded to a matter of
vital interest to the Company. But I must beg of you to allow me to
explain to you in a few words how the present state of things came
about, how it is in fact that the very source of the trade of this once
flourishing Company is in danger of destruction.”

The Captain then proceeded to give a brief sketch of the history of the
famous Hudson’s Bay Company.

In the earliest times men employed the skins and furs of animals as
clothing. The fur trade is therefore of very great antiquity. Luxury in
dress increased to such an extent, that sumptuary laws were enacted to
control too great extravagance, especially in furs, for which there
was a positive passion. Vair and the furs of Siberian squirrels were
prohibited at the middle of the 12th century.

In 1553 Russia founded several establishments in the northern steppes,
and England lost no time in following her example. The trade in
sables, ermines, and beavers, was carried on through the agency of the
Samoiedes; but during the reign of Elizabeth, a royal decree restricted
the use of costly furs to such an extent, that for several years this
branch of industry was completely paralysed.

On the 2nd May, 1670, a licence to trade in furs in the Hudson’s Bay
Territory was granted to the Company, which numbered several men of high
rank amongst its shareholders : the Duke of York, the Duke of Albemarle,
the Earl of Shaftesbury, &c. Its capital was then only £8420. Private
companies were formidable rivals to its success; and French agents,
making Canada their headquarters, ventured on hazardous but most
lucrative expeditions. The active competition of these bold hunters
threatened the very existence of the infant Company.

The conquest of Canada, however, somewhat lessened the danger of its
position. Three years after the taking of Quebec, 1776, the fur trade
received a new impulse. English traders became familiar with the
difficulties of trade of this kind; they learned the customs of the
country, the ways of the Indians and their system of exchange of goods,
but for all this the Company as yet made no profits whatever. Moreover,
towards 1784 some merchants of Montreal combined to explore the fur
country, and founded that powerful North-west Company, which soon became
the centre of the fur trade. In 1798 the new Company shipped furs to the
value of no less than £120,000, and the existence of the Hudson’s Bay
Company was again threatened.

We must add, that the North-west Company shrank from no act, however
iniquitous, if its interests were at stake. Its agents imposed on their
own employés, speculated on the misery of the Indians, robbed them
when they had themselves made them drunk, setting at defiance the Act
of Parliament forbidding the sale of spirituous liquors on Indian
territory; and consequently realising immense profits, in spite of the
competition of the various Russian and American companies which had
sprung up—the American Fur Company amongst others, founded in 1809,
with a capital of a million of dollars, which was carrying on operations
on the west of the Rocky Mountains.

The Hudson’s Bay Company was probably in greater danger of ruin than
any other; but in 1821, after much discussion, a treaty was made,
in accordance with which its old rival the North-west Company became
amalgamated with it, the two receiving the common title of “The
Hudson’s Bay Fur Company.”

Now the only rival of this important association is the American
St Louis Fur Company. The Hudson’s Bay Company has numerous
establishments scattered over a domain extending over 3,700,000 square
miles. Its principal factories are situated on James Bay, at the mouth
of the Severn, in the south, and towards the frontiers of Upper Canada,
on Lakes Athapeskow, Winnipeg, Superior, Methye, Buffalo, and near the
Colombia, Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, and Assiniboin rivers, &c. Fort York,
commanding the course of the river Nelson, is the headquarters of the
Company, and contains its principal fur depôt. Moreover, in 1842 it
took a lease of all the Russian establishments in North America at an
annual rent of £40,000, so that it is now working on its own account
the vast tracts of country between the Mississippi and the Pacific
Ocean. It has sent out intrepid explorers in every direction: Hearne,
towards the Polar Sea, in 1770, to the discovery of the Coppermine
River; Franklin, in 1819 to 1822, along 5550 miles of the American
coast; Mackenzie, who, after having discovered the river to which he
gave his name, reached the shores of the Pacific at 52° 24’ N. Lat.
The following is a list of the quantities of skins and furs despatched
to Europe by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1833-34, which will give an
exact idea of the extent of its trade:—

Beavers . . . . . . . . . . . 1,074

Skins and young Beavers,. . 92,288

Musk Rats,. . . . . . . . . 694,092

Badgers,. . . . . . . . . . 1,069

Bears,. . . . . . . . . . . 7,451

Ermines,. . . . . . . . . . 491

Foxes, . . . . . . . . . . . 9,937

Lynxes, . . . . . . . . . . 14,255

Sables, . . . . . . . . . . 64,490

Polecats, . . . . . . . . . 25,100

Otters, . . . . . . . . . . 22,303

Racoons,. . . . . . . . . . 713

Swans, . . . . . . . . . . 7,918

Wolves, . . . . . . . . . . 8,484

Wolverines, . . . . . . . . 1,571

Such figures ought to bring in a large profit to the Hudson’s Bay
Company, but unfortunately they have not been maintained, and for the
last twenty years have been decreasing.

The cause of this decline was the subject of Captain Craventy’s
explanation to Mrs Paulina Barnett.

“Until 1839, madam,” said he, “the Company was in a flourishing
condition. In that year the number of furs exported was 2,350,000, but
since then the trade has gradually declined, and this number is now
reduced by one-half at least.”

“But what do you suppose is the cause of this extraordinary decrease
in the exportation of furs?” inquired Mrs Barnett.

“The depopulation of the hunting territories, caused by the activity,
and, I must add, the want of foresight of the hunters. The game was
trapped and killed without mercy. These massacres were conducted in the
most reckless and short-sighted fashion. Even females with young and
their little ones did not escape. The consequence is, that the animals
whose fur is valuable have become extremely rare. The otter has almost
entirely disappeared, and is only to be found near the islands of the
North Pacific. Small colonies of beavers have taken refuge on the shores
of the most distant rivers. It is the same with many other animals,
compelled to flee before the invasion of the hunters. The traps, once
crowded with game, are now empty. The price of skins is rising just
when a great demand exists for furs. Hunters have gone away in disgust,
leaving none but the most intrepid and indefatigable, who now penetrate
to the very confines of the American continent.”

“Yes,” said Mrs Paulina Barnett, “the fact of the fur-bearing
animals having taken refuge beyond the polar circle, is a sufficient
explanation of the Company’s motive in founding a factory on the
borders of the Arctic Ocean.”

“Not only so, madam,” replied the Captain, “the Company is also
compelled to seek a more northern centre of operations, for an Act of
Parliament has lately greatly reduced its domain.”

“And the motive for this reduction?” inquired the traveller.

“A very important question of political economy was involved, madam;
one which could not fail greatly to interest the statesmen of
Great Britain. In a word, the interests of the Company and those of
civilisation are antagonistic. It is to the interest of the Company to
keep the territory belonging to it in a wild uncultivated condition.
Every attempt at clearing ground was pitilessly put a stop to, as
it drove away the wild animals, so that the monopoly enjoyed by the
Hudson’s Bay Company was detrimental to all agricultural enterprise.
All questions not immediately relating to their own particular trade,
were relentlessly put aside by the governors of the association. It was
this despotic, and, in a certain sense, immoral system, which provoked
the measures taken by Parliament, and, in 1837, a commission appointed
by the Colonial Secretary decided that it was necessary to annex to
Canada all the territories suitable for cultivation, such as the Red
River and Saskatchewan districts, and to leave to the Company only
that portion of its land which appeared to be incapable of future
civilisation. The next year the Company lost the western slopes of the
Rocky Mountains, which it held direct from the Colonial Office, and you
will now understand, madam, how the agents of the Company, having lost
their power over their old territories, are determined before giving up
their trade to try to work the little known countries of the north,
and so open a communication with the Pacific by means of the North-west
passage.”

Mrs Paulina Barnett was now well informed as to the ulterior projects of
the celebrated Company. Captain Craventy had given her a graphic sketch
of the situation, and it is probable he would have entered into further
details, had not an incident cut short his harangue.

Corporal Joliffe announced in a loud voice that, with Mrs Joliffe’s
assistance, he was about to mix the punch. This news was received as it
deserved. The bowl—or rather, the basin—was filled with the precious
liquid. It contained no less than ten pints of coarse rum. Sugar,
measured out by Mrs Joliffe, was piled up at the bottom, and on the top
floated slices of lemon shrivelled with age. Nothing remained to be
done but to light this alcoholic lake, and the Corporal, match in hand,
awaited the order of his Captain, as if he were about to spring a mine.

“All right, Joliffe !” at last said Captain Craventy.

The light was applied to the bowl, and in a moment the punch was in
flames, whilst the guests applauded and clapped their hands. Ten minutes
afterwards, full glasses of the delightful beverage were circulating
amongst the guests, fresh bidders for them coming forward in endless
succession, like speculators on the Stock Exchange.

“Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! three cheers for Mrs Barnett! A cheer for the
Captain.”

In the midst of these joyful shouts cries were heard from outside.
Silence immediately fell upon the company assembled.

“Sergeant Long,” said the Captain, “go and see what is the
matter.”

And at his chief’s order, the Sergeant, leaving his glass unfinished,
left the room.

CHAPTER III. A SAVANT THAWED. Sergeant Long hastened to the narrow
passage from which opened the outer door of the fort, and heard the
cries redoubled, and combined with violent blows on the postern gate,
surrounded by high walls, which gave access to the court. The Sergeant
pushed open the door, and plunging into the snow, already a foot deep;
he waded through it, although half-blinded by the cutting sleet, and
nipped by the terrible cold.

“What the devil does any one want at this time of night?” exclaimed
the Sergeant to himself, as he mechanically removed the heavy bars of
the gate; “none but Esquimaux would dare to brave such a temperature
as this!”

“Open! open! open!” they shouted from without.

“I am opening,” replied Sergeant Long, who really seemed to be a
long time about it.

At last the door swung open, and the Sergeant was almost upset by
a sledge, drawn by six dogs, which dashed past him like a flash of
lightning. Worthy Sergeant Long only just escaped being crushed, but he
got up without a murmur, closed the gate, and returned to the house at
his ordinary pace, that is to say, at the rate of seventy-five strides a
minute.

But Captain Craventy, Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson, and Corporal Joliffe
were already outside, braving the intense cold, and staring at the
sledge, white with snow, which had just drawn up in front of them.

A man completely enveloped in furs now descended from it,

“Fort Reliance?;” he inquired.

“The same,” replied the Captain.

“Captain Craventy?”

“Behold him! Who are you?”

“A courier of the Company.”

“Are you alone?”

“No, I bring a traveller.”

“A traveller! And what does he want?”

“He is come to see the moon.”

At this reply, Captain Craventy said to himself the man must be a fool.
But there was no time to announce this opinion, for the courier had
taken an inert mass from the sledge, a kind of bag covered with snow,
and was about to carry it into the house, when the Captain inquired

“What is that bag?”

“It is my traveller,” replied the courier.

“Who is this traveller?”

“The astronomer, Thomas Black.”

“But he is frozen.”

“Well, he must be thawed.”

Thomas Black, carried by the Sergeant, the Corporal, and the courier,
now made his entrance into the house of the fort, and was taken to a
room on the first floor, the temperature of which was bearable, thanks
to a glowing stove. He was laid upon a bed, and the Captain took his
hand.

It was literally frozen. The wrappers and furred mantles, in which
Thomas Black was rolled up like a parcel requiring care, were removed,
and revealed a man of about fifty. He was short and stout, his hair
was already touched with grey, his beard was untrimmed, his eyes were
closed, and his lips pressed together as if glued to one another. If he
breathed at all, it was so slightly that the frost-work on the windows
would not have been affected by it. Joliffe undressed him, and turned
him rapidly on to his face and back again, with the words—

“Come, come, sir, when do you mean to return to consciousness?”

But the visitor who had arrived in so strange a manner showed no signs
of returning life, and Corporal Joliffe could think of no better means
to restore the lost vital heat than to give him a bath in the bowl of
hot punch.

Very happily for Thomas Black, however, Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson had
another idea.

“Snow, bring snow!” he cried.

There was plenty of it in the court of Fort Reliance; and whilst the
Sergeant went to fetch the snow, Joliffe removed all the astronomer’s
clothes. The body of the unfortunate man was covered with white
frost-bitten patches. It was urgently necessary to restore the
circulation of the blood in the affected portions. This result Jaspar
Hobson hoped to obtain by vigorous friction with the snow. We know that
this is the means generally employed in the polar countries to set going
afresh the circulation of the blood arrested by the intense cold, even
as the rivers are arrested in their courses by the icy touch of winter.
Sergeant Loin soon returned, and he and Joliffe gave the new arrival
such a rubbing as he had probably never before received. It was no
soft and agreeable friction, but a vigorous shampooing most lustily
performed, more like the scratching of a curry-comb than the caresses of
a human hand.

And during the operation the loquacious Corporal continued to exhort the
unconscious traveller.

“Come, come, sir. What do you mean by getting frozen like this. Now,
don’t be so obstinate !”

Probably it was obstinacy which kept Thomas Black from deigning to show
a sign of life. At the end of half an hour the rubbers began to despair,
and were about to discontinue their exhausting efforts, when the poor
man sighed several times.

“He lives; he is coming to !” cried Jaspar Hobson.

After having warmed the outside of his body, Corporal Joliffe hurried
to do the same for the inside, and hastily fetched a few glasses of
the punch. The traveller really felt much revived by them; the colour
returned to his cheeks, expression to his eyes, and words to his
lips, so that Captain Craventy began to hope that he should have an
explanation from Thomas Black himself of his strange arrival at the fort
in such a terrible condition.

At last the traveller, well covered with wraps, rose on his elbow, and
said in a voice still faint

“Fort Reliance?”

“The same,” replied the Captain.

“Captain Craventy?”

“He is before you, and is happy to bid you welcome. But may I inquire
what brings you to Fort Reliance?”

“He is come to see the moon,” replied the courier, who evidently
thought this a happy answer.

It satisfied Thomas Black too, for he bent his head in assent and
resumed—

“Lieutenant Hobson?”

“I am here,” replied the Lieutenant.

“You have not yet started?”

“Not. yet, sir.”

“Then,” replied Thomas Black, “I have only to thank you, and to go
to sleep until to-morrow morning.”

The Captain and his companions retired, leaving their strange visitor to
his repose. Half an hour later the fête was at an end, and the guests
had regained their respective homes, either in the different rooms of
the fort, or the scattered houses outside the enceinte.

The next day Thomas Black was rather better. His vigorous constitution
had thrown off the effects of the terrible chill he had had. Any one
else would have died from it; but he was not like other men.

And now who was this astronomer? Where did he come from? Why had he
undertaken this journey across the territories of the Company in the
depth of winter? What did the courier’s reply signify?— To see the
moon! The moon could be seen anywhere; there was no need to come to the
hyperborean regions to look at it!

Such were the thoughts which passed through Captain Craventy’s mind.
But the next day, after an hour’s talk with his new guest, he had
learned all he wished to know.

Thomas Black was an astronomer attached to the Greenwich Observatory, so
brilliantly presided over by Professor Airy. Mr Black was no theorist,
but a sagacious and intelligent observer; and in the twenty years
during which he had devoted himself to astronomy, he had rendered great
services to the science of ouranography. In private life he was a simple
nonentity; he existed only for astronomy; he lived in the heavens, not
upon the earth; and was a true descendant of the witty La Fontaine’s
savant who fell into a well. He could talk of nothing but stars and
constellations. He ought to have lived in a telescope. As an observer
be had not his rival; his patience was inexhaustible; he could watch for
months for a cosmical phenomenon. He had a specialty of his own, too; he
had studied luminous meteors and shooting stars, and his discoveries in
this branch of astronomical science were considerable. When ever minute
observations or exact measurements and definitions were required,
Thomas Black was chosen for the service; for his clearness of sight was
something remarkable. The power of observation is not given to everyone,
and it will not therefore be surprising that the Greenwich astronomer
should have been chosen for the mission we are about to describe, which
involved results so interesting for selenographic science.

We know that during a total eclipse of the sun the moon is surrounded by
a luminous corona. But what is the origin of this corona? Is it a real
substance? or is it only an effect of the diffraction of the sun’s
rays near the moon? This is a question which science has hitherto been
unable to answer.

As early as 1706 this luminous halo was scientifically described.
The corona was minutely examined during the total eclipse of 1715 by
Lonville and Halley, by Maraldi in 1724, by Antonio de’Ulloa in
1778, and by Bonditch and Ferrer in 1806; but their theories were so
contradictory that no definite conclusion could be arrived at. During
the total eclipse of 1842, learned men of all nations—Airy, Arago,
Keytal, Langier, Mauvais, Otto, Struve, Petit, Baily, &c.—endeavoured
to solve the mystery of the origin of the phenomenon; but in spite
of all their efforts, “the disagreement,” says Arago, “of the
observations taken in different places by skilful astronomers of one and
the same eclipse, have involved the question in fresh obscurity, so that
it is now impossible to come to any certain conclusion as to the cause
of the phenomenon.” Since this was written, other total eclipses have
been studied with no better results.

Yet the solution of the question is of such vast importance to
selenographic science that no price would be too great to pay for it.
A fresh opportunity was now about to occur to study the much-discussed
corona. A total eclipse of the sun—total, at least, for the extreme
north of America, for Spain and North Africa—was to take place on
July 18th, 1860. It was arranged between the astronomers of different
countries that simultaneous observations should be taken at the various
points of the zone where the eclipse would be total. Thomas Black was
chosen for the expedition to North America, and was now much in the same
situation as the English astronomers who were transported to Norway and
Sweden on the occasion of the eclipse of 1851.

It will readily be imagined that Thomas Black seized with avidity the
opportunity offered him of studying this luminous halo. He was also to
examine into the nature of the red prominences which appear on different
parts of the edge of the terrestrial satellite when the totality of the
eclipse has commenced; and should he be able satisfactorily to establish
their origin, he would be entitled to the applause of the learned men of
all Europe.

Thomas Black eagerly prepared for his journey. He obtained urgent
letters of recommendation to the principal agents of the Hudson’s
Bay Company. He ascertained that an expedition was to go to the extreme
north of the continent to found a new fort. It was an opportunity not
to be lost; so he set out, crossed the Atlantic, landed at New York,
traversed the lakes to the Red River settlement, and pressed on from
fort to fort in a sledge, under the escort of a courier of the Company;
in spite of the severity of the winter, braving all the dangers of a
journey across the Arctic regions, and arriving at Fort Reliance on the
19th March in the condition we have described.

Such was the explanation given by the astronomer to Captain Craventy. He
at once placed himself entirely at Mr Black’s service, but could not
refrain from inquiring why he had been in such a great hurry to arrive,
when the eclipse was not to take place until the following year, 1860?

“But, Captain,” replied the astronomer, “I heard that the Company
was sending an expedition along the northern coast of America, and I did
not wish to miss the departure of Lieutenant Hobson.”

“Mr Black,” replied the Captain, “if the Lieutenant had already
started, I should have felt it my duty to accompany you myself to the
shores of the Polar Sea.”

And with fresh assurances of his willingness to serve him, the Captain
again bade his new guest welcome to Fort Reliance.

CHAPTER IV. A FACTORY. One of the largest of the lakes beyond the 61st
parallel is that called the Great Slave Lake; it is two hundred and
fifty miles long by fifty across, and is situated exactly at 61° 25’
N. lat. and 114° W. long. The surrounding districts slope down to it,
and it completely fills a vast natural hollow. The position of the lake
in the very centre of the hunting districts. once swarming with game,
early attracted the attention of the Company. Numerous streams either
take their rise from it or flow into it-the Mackenzie, the Athabasca,
&c.; and several important forts have been constructed on its
shores—Fort Providence on the north, and Fort Resolution on the south.
Fort Reliance is situated on the north-east extremity, and is about
three hundred miles from the Chesterfield inlet, a long narrow estuary
formed by the waters of Hudson’s Bay.

The Great Slave Lake is dotted with little islands, the granite and
gneiss of which they are formed jutting up in several places. Its
northern banks are clothed with thick woods, shutting out the barren
frozen district beyond, not inaptly called the “Cursed Land.” The
southern regions, on the other band, are flat, without a rise of any
kind, and the soil is mostly calcareous. The large ruminants of the
polar districts—the buffaloes or bisons, the flesh of which forms
almost the only food of the Canadian and native hunters—seldom go
further north than the Great Slave Lake.

The trees on the northern shores of the lake form magnificent forests.
We need not be astonished at meeting with such fine vegetation in this
remote district. The Great Slave Lake is not really in a higher latitude
than Stockholm or Christiania. We have only to remember that the
isothermal lines, or belts of equal heat, along which heat is
distributed in equal quantities, do not follow the terrestrial
parallels, and that with the same latitude, America is ever so much
colder than Europe. In April the streets of New York are still white
with snow, yet the latitude of New York is nearly the same as that of
the Azores. The nature of a country, its position with regard to
the oceans, and even the conformation of its soil, all influence its
climate.

In summer Fort Reliance was surrounded with masses of verdure,
refreshing to the sight after the long dreary winter. Timber was
plentiful in these forests, which consisted almost entirely of poplar,
pine, and birch. The islets on the lake produced very fine willows. Game
was abundant in the underwood, even during the bad season. Further
south the hunters from the fort successfully pursued bisons, elks, and
Canadian porcupines, the flesh of which is excellent. The waters of the
Slave Lake were full of fish; trout in them attained to an immense size,
their weight often exceeding forty pounds. Pikes, voracious lobes, a
sort of charr or grayling called “ blue fish,” and countless legions
of tittamegs, the Coregonus of naturalists, disported themselves in the
water, so that the inhabitants of Fort Reliance were well supplied with
food. Nature provided for all their wants; and clothed in the skins of
foxes, martens, bears, and other Arctic animals, they were able to brave
the rigour of the winter.

The fort, properly so called, consisted of a wooden house with a
ground-floor and one upper storey. In it lived the commandant and his
officers. The barracks for the soldiers, the magazines of the Company,
and the offices where exchanges were made, surrounded this house.
A little chapel, which wanted nothing but a clergyman, and a
powder-magazine, completed the buildings of the settlement. The whole
was surrounded by palisades twenty-five feet high, defended by a
small bastion with a pointed roof at each of the four corners of the
parallelogram formed by the enceinte. The fort was thus protected from
surprise, a necessary precaution in the days when the Indians, instead
of being the purveyors of the Company, fought for the independence
of their native land, and when the agents and soldiers of rival
associations disputed the possession of the rich fur country.

At that time the Hudson’s Bay Company employed about a million men on
its territories. It held supreme authority over them, an authority which
could even inflict death. The governors of the factories could regulate
salaries, and arbitrarily fix the price of provisions and furs; and as
a result of this irresponsible power, they often realised a profit of no
less than three hundred per cent.

We shall see from the following table, taken from the “ Voyage of
Captain Robert Lade,” on what terms exchanges were formerly made with
those Indians who have since become the best hunters of the Company.
Beavers’ skins were then the currency employed in buying and selling.

The Indians paid—

For one gun,

10 beavers’ skins

“ half a pound of powder,

1 “

“ four pounds of shot,

1 “

“ one axe,

1 “

“ six knives,

1 “

“ one pound of glass beads,

1 “

“ one laced coat,

6 “

“ one coat not laced,

5 “

“ one laced female dress,

6 “

“ one pound of tobacco,

1 “

“ one box of powder,

1 “

“ one comb and one looking glass,

2 “


But a few years ago beaver-skins became so scarce that the currency had
to be changed. Bison-furs are now the medium of trade. When an Indian
presents himself at the fort, the agents of the Company give him as many
pieces of wood as he brings skins, and he exchanges these pieces of wood
for manufactured articles on the premises; and as the Company fix the
price of the articles they buy and sell, they cannot fail to realise
large profits.

Such was the mode of proceeding in Fort Reliance and other factories;
so that Mrs Paulina Barnett was able to watch the working of the system
during her stay, which extended until the 16th April. Many a long talk
did she have with Lieutenant Hobson, many were the projects they formed,
and firmly were they both determined to allow no obstacle to check their
advance. As for Thomas Black, he never opened his lips except when his
own special mission was discussed. He was wrapped up in the subject of
the luminous corona and red prominences of the moon; he lived but to
solve the problem, and in the end made Mrs Paulina Barnett nearly as
enthusiastic as himself. How eager the two were to cross the Arctic
Circle, and how far off the 18th July 1860 appeared to both, but
especially to the impatient Greenwich astronomer, can easily be
imagined.

The preparations for departure could not be commenced until the middle
of March, and a month passed before they were completed. In fact, it was
a formidable undertaking to organise such an expedition for crossing the
Polar regions. Everything had to betaken with them-food, clothes, tools,
arms, ammunition, and a nondescript collection of various requisites.

The troops, under the command of Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson, were one
chief and two subordinate officers, with ten soldiers, three of whom
took their wives with them. They were all picked men, chosen by Captain
Craventy on account of their energy and resolution. We append a list of
the whole party:—

1. Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson.

11. Sabine, soldier.

2. Sergeant Long.

12. Hope, do.

3. Corporal Joliffe.

13. Kellet, do.

4. Petersen, soldier

14. Mrs Rae

5. Belcher, do.

15. Mrs Joliffe.

6. Rae, do

16. Mrs Mac-Nab.

7. Marbre, do

17. Mrs Paulina Barnett.

8. Garry, do

18. Madge.

9. Pond, do

19. Thomas Black

10. Mac-Nab, do.




In all, nineteen persons to be transported several hundreds of miles
through a desert and imperfectly-known country.

With this project in view, however, the Company had collected everything
necessary for the expedition. A dozen sledges, with their teams of dogs,
were in readiness. These primitive vehicles consisted of strong but
light planks joined together by transverse bands. A piece of curved
wood, turning up at the end like a skate, was fixed beneath the sledge,
enabling it to cleave the snow without sinking deeply into it. Six swift
and intelligent dogs, yoked two and two, and controlled by the long
thong brandished by the driver, drew the sledges, and could go at a rate
of fifteen miles an hour.

The wardrobe of the travellers consisted of garments made of
reindeer-skins, lined throughout with thick furs. All wore linen next
the skin as a protection against the sudden changes of temperature
frequent in these latitudes. Each one, officer or soldier, male or
female, wore seal-skin boots sewn with twine, in the manufacture of
which the natives excel. These boots are absolutely impervious, and
are so flexible that they are admirably adapted for walking. Pine-wood
snow-shoes, two or three feet long, capable of supporting the weight of
a man on the most brittle snow, and enabling him to pass over it with
the rapidity of a skater on ice, can be fastened to the soles of the
seal-skin boots. Fur caps and deer-skin belts completed the costumes.

For arms, Lieutenant Hobson had the regulation musketoons provided by
the Company, pistols, ordnance sabres, and plenty of ammunition;
for tools : axes, saws, adzes, and other instruments required in
carpentering. Then there was the collection of all that would be needed
for setting up a factory in the remote district for which they were
bound : a stove; a smelting furnace, two airpumps for ventilation, an
India-rubber boat, only inflated when required, &c., &c.

The party might have relied for provisions on the hunters amongst them.
Some of the soldiers were skilful trackers of game, and there were
plenty of reindeer in the Polar regions. Whole tribes of Indians, or
Esquimaux, deprived of bread and all other nourishment, subsist entirely
on this venison, which is both abundant and palatable. But as delays and
difficulties had to be allowed for, a certain quantity of provisions was
taken with them. The flesh of the bison, elk, and deer, amassed in the
large battues on the south of the lake; corned beef, which will keep for
any length of time; and some Indian preparations, in which the flesh of
animals, ground to powder, retains its nutritive properties in a very
small bulk, requiring no cooking, and forming a very nourishing diet,
were amongst the stores provided in case of need.

Lieutenant Hobson likewise took several casks of rum and whisky; but
he was firmly resolved to economise these spirits, so injurious to the
health in cold latitudes, as much as possible. The Company had placed
at his disposal a little portable medicine-chest, containing formidable
quantities of lime-juice, lemons, and other simple remedies necessary
to check, or if possible to prevent, the scorbutic affections which take
such a terrible form in these regions.

All the men had been chosen with great care; none were too stout or
too thin, and all had for years been accustomed to the severity of
the climate, and could therefore more easily endure the fatigues of an
expedition to the Polar Sea. They were all brave, high-spirited fellows,
who had taken service of their own accord. Double pay had been promised
them during their stay at the confines of the American continent, should
they succeed in making a settlement beyond the seventieth parallel.

The sledge provided for Mrs Barnett and her faithful Madge was rather
more comfortable than the others. She did not wish to be treated better
than her travelling companions, but yielded to the urgent request of
Captain Craventy, who was but carrying out the wishes of the Company.

The vehicle which brought Thomas Black to Fort Reliance also
conveyed him and his scientific apparatus from it. A few astronomical
instruments, of which there were not many in those days-a telescope for
his selenographic observations, a sextant for taking the latitude, a
chronometer for determining the longitudes, a few maps, a few books,
were all stored away in this sledge, and Thomas Black relied upon his
faithful dogs to lose nothing by the way.

Of course the food for the various teams was not forgotten. There were
altogether no less than seventy-two dogs, quite a herd to provide for by
the way, and it was the business of the hunters to cater for them. These
strong intelligent animals were bought of the Chippeway Indians, who
know well how to train them for their arduous calling.

The little company was most skilfully organised. The zeal of Lieutenant
Jaspar Hobson was beyond all praise. Proud of his mission, and devoted
to his task; he neglected nothing which could insure success. Corporal
Joliffe, always a busybody, exerted himself without producing any very
tangible results; but his wife was most useful and devoted; and Mrs
Paulina Barnett had already struck up a great friendship with the brisk
little Canadian woman, whose fair hair and large soft eyes were so
pleasant to look at.

We need scarcely add that Captain Craventy did all in his power to
further the enterprise. The instructions he had received from the
Company showed what great importance they attached to the success of the
expedition, and the establishment of a new factory beyond the seventieth
parallel. We may therefore safely affirm that every human effort likely
to insure success which could be made was made; but who could tell what
insurmountable difficulties nature might place in the path of the brave
Lieutenant I who could tell what awaited him and his devoted little
band.

CHAPTER V. FROM FORT RELIANCE TO FORT ENTERPRISE. The first fine days
came at last. The green carpet of the hills began to appear here
and there where the snow had melted. A few migratory birds from the
south-such as swans, bald-headed eagles, &c.—passed through the warmer
air. The poplars, birches, and willows began to bud, and the redheaded
ducks, of which there are so many species in North America, to skim the
surface of the numerous pools formed by the melted snow. Guillemots,
puffins, and eider ducks sought colder latitudes; and little shrews
no bigger than a hazel-nut ventured from their holes, tracing strange
figures on the ground with their tiny-pointed tails. It was intoxicating
once more to breathe the fresh air of spring, and to bask in the
sunbeams. Nature awoke once more from her heavy sleep in the long winter
night, and smiled as she opened her eyes.

The renovation of creation in spring is perhaps more impressive in the
Arctic regions than in any other portion of the globe, on account of the
greater contrast with what has gone before.

The thaw was not, however, complete. The thermometer, it is true, marked
41° Fahrenheit above zero; but the mean temperature of the nights kept
the surface of the snowy plains solid—a good thing for the passage of
sledges, of which Jaspar Hobson meant to avail himself before the thaw
became complete.

The ice of the lake was still unbroken. During the last month several
successful hunting expeditions had been made across the vast smooth
plains, which were already frequented by game. Mrs Barnett was
astonished at the skill with which the men used their snow-shoes,
scudding along at the pace of a horse in full gallop. Following Captain
Craventy’s advice, the lady herself practised walking in these
contrivances, and she soon became very expert in sliding over the snow.

During the last few days several bands of Indians had arrived at the
fort to exchange the spoils of the winter chase for manufactured goods.
The season had been bad. There were a good many polecats and sables; but
the furs of beavers, otters, lynxes, ermines, and foxes were scarce. It
was therefore a wise step for the Company to endeavour to explore a new
country, where the wild animals had hitherto escaped the rapacity of
man.

On the morning of the 16th April Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson and his party
were ready to start. The route across the known districts, between the
Slave Lake and that of the Great Bear beyond the Arctic Circle, was
already determined. Jaspar Hobson was to make for Fort Confidence, on
the northern extremity of the latter lake; and he was to revictual at
Fort Enterprise, a station two hundred miles further to the north-west,
on the shores of the Snare Lake, By travelling at the rate of fifteen
miles a day the Lieutenant hoped to halt there about the beginning of
May.

From this point the expedition was to take the shortest route to Cape
Bathurst, on the North American coast. It was agreed that in a year
Captain Craventy should send a convoy with provisions to Cape Bathurst,
and that a detachment of the Lieutenant’s men was to go to meet this
convoy, to guide it to the spot where the new fort was to be erected.
This plan was a guarantee against any adverse circumstances, and left
a means of communication with their fellow-creatures open to the
Lieutenant and his voluntary companions in exile.

On the 16th April dogs and sledges were awaiting the travellers at the
postern gate. Captain Craventy called the men of the party together and
said a few kind words to them. He urged them above all things to stand
by one another in the perils they might be called upon to meet; reminded
them that the enterprise upon which they were about to enter required
self-denial and devotion, and that submission to their officers was
an indispensable condition of success. Cheers greeted the Captain’s
speech, the adieux were quickly made, and each one took his place in the
sledge assigned to him. Jaspar Hobson and Sergeant Long went first; then
Mrs Paulina Barnett and Madge, the latter dexterously wielding the long
Esquimaux whip, terminating in a stiff thong. Thomas Black and one of
the soldiers, the Canadian, Petersen, occupied the third sledge ;and
the others followed, Corporal and Mrs Joliffe bringing up the rear.
According to the orders of Lieutenant Hobson, each driver kept as nearly
as possible at the same distance from the preceding sledge, so as to
avoid all confusion—a necessary precaution, as a collision between two
sledges going at full speed, might have had disastrous results.

On leaving Fort Reliance, Jaspar Hobson at once directed his course
towards the north-west. The first thing to be done was to cross the
large river connecting Lakes Slave and Wolmsley, which was, however,
still frozen so hard as to be undistinguishable from the vast white
plains around. A uniform carpet of snow covered the whole country, and
the sledges, drawn by their swift teams, sped rapidly over the firm
smooth surface.

The weather was fine, but still very cold. The sun, scarce above the
horizon, described a lengthened curve; and its rays, reflected on
the snow, gave more light than heat. Fortunately not a breath of air
stirred, and this lessened the severity of the cold, although the rapid
pace of the sledges through the keen atmosphere must have been trying to
any one not inured to the rigour of a Polar climate.

“A good beginning,” said Jaspar Hobson to the Sergeant, who sat
motionless beside him as if rooted to his seat; “the journey has
commenced favourably. The sky is cloudless; the temperature propitious,
our equipages shoot along like express trains, and as long as this fine
weather lasts we shall get on capitally. What do you think, Sergeant
Long?”

“I agree with you, Lieutenant,” replied the Sergeant, who never
differed from his chief.

“Like myself, Sergeant, you are determined to push on as far north as
possible—are you not?” resumed Lieutenant Hobson.

“You have but to command to be obeyed, Lieutenant.”

“I know it, Sergeant; I know that with you to bear is to obey. Would
that all our men understood as you do the importance of our mission, and
would devote themselves body and soul to the interests of the Company!
Ah, Sergeant Long, I know if I gave you an impossible order— “

“Lieutenant, there is no such thing as an impossible order.”

“What? Suppose now I ordered you to go to the North Pole?”

“Lieutenant, I should go !”

“And to comeback!” added Jaspar Hobson with a smile.

“I should come back,” replied Sergeant Long simply.

During this colloquy between Lieutenant Hobson and his Sergeant a slight
ascent compelled the sledges to slacken speed, and Mrs Barnett and
Madge also exchanged a few sentences. These two intrepid women, in their
otter-skin caps and white bear-skin mantles, gazed in astonishment upon
the rugged scenery around them, and at the white outlines of the huge
glaciers standing out against the horizon. They had already left behind
them the hills of the northern banks of the Slave Lake, with their
summits crowned with the gaunt skeletons of trees. The vast plains
stretched before them in apparently endless succession. The rapid flight
and cries of a few birds of passage alone broke the monotony of the
scene. Now and then a troop of swans, with plumage so white that the
keenest sight could not distinguish them from the snow when they settled
on the ground, rose into view in the clear blue atmosphere and pursued
their journey to the north.

“What an extraordinary country !” exclaimed Mrs Paulina Barnett.
“What a difference between these Polar regions and the green prairies
of Australia! You remember, Madge, how we suffered from the heat on the
shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria—you remember the cloudless sky and
the parching sunbeams?”

My dear,” replied Madge, “I have not the gift of remembering like
you. You retain your impressions, I forget mine.”

“What, Madge !” cried Mrs Barnett, “you have forgotten the
tropical heat of India arid Australia? You have no recollection of
our agonies when water failed us in the desert, when the pitiless sun
scorched us to the bone, when even the night brought us no relief from
our sufferings !”

“No, Paulina,” replied Madge, wrapping her furs more closely round
her, “no, I remember nothing. How could I now recollect the sufferings
to which you allude—the heat, the agonies of thirst—when we are
surrounded on every side by ice, and I have but to stretch my arm out of
this sledge to pick up a handful of snow? You talk to me of heat, when
we are freezing beneath our bearskins; you recall the broiling rays of
the sun when its April beams cannot melt the icicles on our lips! No,
child, no, don’t try to persuade me it’s hot anywhere else; don’t
tell me I ever complained of being too warm, for I sha’n’t believe
you!”

Mrs Paulina Barnett could not help smiling.

“So, poor Madge,” she said, “you are very cold!”

“Yes, child, I am cold; but I rather like this climate. I’ve no
doubt it’s very healthy, and I think North America will agree with me.
It’s really a very fine country !”

“Yes, Madge; it is a fine country, and we have as yet seen none of
the wonders it contains. But wait until we reach the Arctic Ocean;
wait until the winter shuts us in with its gigantic icebergs and thick
covering of snow; wait till the northern storms break over us, and the
glories of the Aurora Borealis and of the splendid constellations of
the Polar skies are spread out above our heads; wait till we have lived
through the strange long six months’ night, and then indeed you will
understand the infinite variety, the infinite beauty, of our Creator’s
handiwork !”

Thus spoke Mrs Paulina Barnett, carried away by her vivid imagination.
She could see nothing but beauty in these deserted regions, with their
rigorous climate. Her enthusiasm got the better for the time of her
judgment. Her sympathy with nature enabled her to read the touching
poetry of the ice-bound north-the poetry embodied in the Sagas, and sung
by the bards of the time of Ossian. But Madge, more matter of fact
than her mistress, disguised from herself neither the dangers of an
expedition to the Arctic Ocean, nor the sufferings involved in wintering
only thirty degrees at the most from the North Pole.

And indeed the most robust had sometimes succumbed to the fatigues,
privations, and mental and bodily agonies endured in this severe
climate. Jaspar Hobson had not, it is true, to press on to the very
highest latitudes of the globe,; he had not to reach the pole itself,
or to follow in the steps of Parry, Ross, Mc’Clure, Kean, Morton,
and others. But after once crossing the Arctic Circle, there is little
variation in the temperature; it does not increase in coldness in
proportion to the elevation reached. Granted that Jaspar Hobson did not
think of going beyond the seventieth parallel, we must still remember
that Franklin and his unfortunate companions died of cold and hunger
before they had penetrated beyond 68° N. lat.

Very different was the talk in the sledge occupied by Mr and Mrs
Joliffe. Perhaps the gallant Corporal had too often drunk to the success
of the expedition on starting; for, strange to say, he was disputing
with his little wife. Yes, he was actually contradicting her, which
never happened except under extraordinary circumstances!

“No, Mrs Joliffe,” he was saying, “no, you have nothing to fear.
A sledge is not more difficult to guide than a pony-carriage, and the
devil take me if I can’t manage a team of dogs !”

“I don’t question your skill,” replied Mrs Joliffe; “I only ask
you not to go so fast. You are in front of the whole caravan now, and
I hear Lieutenant Hobson calling out to you to resume your proper place
behind.”

“Let him call, Mrs Joliffe, let him call.”

And the Corporal, urging on his dogs with a fresh cut of the whip,
dashed along at still greater speed.

“Take care, Joliffe,” repeated his little wife; “not so fast, we
are going down hill.”

“Down hill, Mrs Joliffe; you call that down hill? why, it’s up
hill!”

“I tell you we are going down!” repeated poor Mrs Joliffe.

“And I tell you we are going up; look how the dogs pull !”

Whoever was right, the dogs became uneasy. The ascent was, in fact,
pretty steep; the sledge dashed along at a reckless pace, and was
already considerably in advance of the rest of the party. Mr and Mrs
Joliffe bumped up and down every instant, the surface of the snow became
more and more uneven, and the pair, flung first to one side and then to
the other, knocked against each other and the sledge, and were horribly
bruised and shaken. But the Corporal would listen neither to the advice
of his wife nor to the shouts of Lieutenant Hobson. The latter, seeing
the danger of this reckless course, urged on his own animals, and the
rest of the caravan followed at a rapid pace.

But the Corporal became more and more excited-the speed of his equipage
delighted him. He shouted, he gesticulated, and flourished his long whip
like an accomplished sportsman.

“Wonderful things these whips!” he cried; “the Esquimaux wield
them with unrivalled skill !”

“But you are not an Esquimaux!” cried Mrs Joliffe, trying in vain to
arrest the arm of her imprudent husband.

“I have heard tell,” resumed the Corporal—” I’ve heard tell
that the Esquimaux can touch any dog they like in any part, that they
can even cut out a bit of one of their ears with the stiff thong at the
end of the whip. I am going to try.”

“Don’t try, don’t try, Joliffe !” screamed the poor little
woman, frightened out of her wits.

“Don’t be afraid, Mrs Joliffe, don’t be afraid; I know what I can
do. The fifth dog on the right is misbehaving himself;. I will correct
him a little!”

But Corporal Joliffe was evidently not yet enough of an Esquimaux to be
able to manage the whip with its thong four feet longer than the sledge;
for it unrolled with an ominous hiss, and rebounding, twisted itself
round Corporal Joliffe’s own neck, sending his fur cap into the air,
perhaps with one of his ears in it.

At this moment the dogs flung themselves on one side, the sledge was
overturned, and the pair were flung into the snow. Fortunately it was
thick and soft, so that they escaped unhurt. But what a disgrace for the
Corporal! how reproachfully his little wife looked at him, and how stern
was the reprimand of Lieutenant Hobson!

The sledge was picked up, but it was decided that henceforth the reins
of the dogs, like those of the household, were to be in the hands of
Mrs Joliffe. The crest-fallen Corporal was obliged to submit, and the
interrupted journey was resumed.

No incident worth mentioning occurred during the next fifteen days. The
weather continued favourable, the cold was not too severe, and on the
1st May the expedition arrived at Fort Enterprise.

:

CHAPTER VI. A WAPITI DUEL. Two hundred miles had been traversed since
the expedition left Fort Reliance. The travellers, taking advantage of
the long twilight, pressed on day and night, and were literally overcome
with fatigue when they reached Fort Enterprise, near the shores of Lake
Snare.

This fort was no more than a depôt of provisions, of little importance,
erected a few years before by the Hudson’s Bay Company. It served as a
resting-place for the men taking the convoys of furs from the Great Bear
Lake, some three hundred miles further to the north-west. About a dozen
soldiers formed the garrison. The fort consisted of a wooden house
surrounded by palisades. But few as were the comforts it offered,
Lieutenant Hobson’s companions gladly took refuge in it and rested
there for two days.

The gentle influence of the Arctic spring was beginning to be felt. Here
and there the snow had melted, and the temperature of the nights was no
longer below freezing point. A few delicate mosses and slender grasses
clothed the rugged ground with their soft verdure; and from between the
stones peeped the moist calices of tiny, almost colourless, flowers.
These faint signs of reawakening vegetation, after the long night of
winter, were refreshing to eyes weary of the monotonous whiteness of
the snow; and the scattered specimens of the Flora of the Arctic regions
were welcomed with delight.

Mrs Paulina Barnett and Jaspar Hobson availed themselves of this leisure
time to visit the shores of the little lake. They were both students and
enthusiastic lovers of nature. Together they wandered amongst the ice
masses, already beginning to break up, and the waterfalls created by
the action of the rays of the sun. The surface itself of Lake Snare
was still intact, not a crack denoted the approaching thaw; but it was
strewn with the ruins of mighty icebergs, which assumed all manner
of picturesque forms, and the beauty of which was heightened when the
light, diffracted by the sharp edges of the ice, touched them with all
manner of colours. One might have fancied that a rainbow, crushed in a
powerful hand, bad been flung upon the ground, its fragments crossing
each other as they fell.

“What a beautiful scene!” exclaimed Mrs Paulina Barnett. “These
prismatic effects vary at every change of our position. Does it not seem
as if we were bending over the opening of an immense kaleidoscope, or
are you already weary of a sight so new and interesting to me?”

“No, madam,” replied the Lieutenant; “although I was born and
bred on this continent, its beauties never pall upon me. But if your
enthusiasm is so great when you see this scenery with the sun shining
upon it, what will it be when you are privileged to behold the terrible
grandeur of the winter? To own the truth, I think the sun, so much
thought of in temperate latitudes, spoils my Arctic home.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed Mrs Barnett, smiling at the Lieutenant’s last
remark; “for my part, I think the sun a capital travelling companion,
and I shall not be disposed to grumble at the warmth it gives even in
the Polar regions !”

“Ah, madam,” replied Jaspar Hobson, “I am one of those who think
it best to visit Russia in the winter, and the Sahara Desert in the
summer. You then see their peculiar characteristics to advantage. The
sun is a star of the torrid and temperate zones, and is out of place
thirty degrees from the North Pole. The true sky of this country is the
pure frigid sky of winter, bright with constellations, and sometimes
flushed with the glory of the Aurora Borealis. This land is the land of
the night, not of the day; and you have yet to make acquaintance with
the delights and marvels of the long Polar night.”

“Have you ever visited the temperate zones of Europe and America?”
inquired Mrs Barnett.

“Yes, madam; and I admired them as they deserved. But I returned home
with fresh love and enthusiasm for my native land. Cold is my element,
and no merit is due to me for braving it. It has no power over me; and,
like the Esquimaux. I can live for months together in a snow hut.”

“Really, Lieutenant Hobson, it is quite cheering to hear our dreaded
enemy spoken of in such terms. I hope to prove myself worthy to be your
companion, and wherever you venture, we will venture together.”

“I agree, madam, I agree; and may all the women and soldiers
accompanying me show themselves as resolute as you. If so, God helping
us, we shall indeed advance far.”

“You have nothing to complain of yet,” observed the lady. “Not a
single accident has occurred, the weather has been propitious, the cold
not too severe-everything has combined to aid us.”

“Yes, madam; but the sun which you admire so much will soon create
difficulties for us, and strew obstacles in our path.”

“What do you mean, Lieutenant Hobson?”

“I mean that the heat will soon have changed the aspect of the
country; that the melted ice will impede the sliding of the sledges;
that the ground will become rough and uneven; that our panting dogs will
no longer carry us along with the speed of an arrow; that the rivers and
lakes will resume their liquid state, and that we shall have to ford
or go round them. All these changes, madam, due to the influence of the
solar rays, will cause delays, fatigue, and dangers, the very least of
which will be the breaking of the brittle snow beneath our feet, or the
falling of the avalanches from the summits of the icebergs. For all this
we have to thank the gradual rise of the sun higher and higher above
the horizon. Bear this in mind, madam: of the four elements of the old
creation, only one is necessary to us here, the air; the other three,
fire, earth, and water, are de trop in the Arctic regions.”

Of course the Lieutenant was exaggerating, and Mrs Barnett could easily
have retorted with counter-arguments; but she liked to hear his raptures
in praise of his beloved country, and she felt that his enthusiasm was a
guarantee that he would shrink from no obstacle.

Yet Jaspar Hobson was right when he said the sun would cause
difficulties. This was seen when the party set out again on the 4th
May, three days later. The thermometer, even in the coldest part of the
night, marked more than 32° Fahrenheit. A complete thaw set in, the
vast white sheet of snow resolved itself into water. The irregularities
of the rocky soil caused constant jolting of the sledges, and the
passengers were roughly shaken. The roads were so heavy that the dogs
had to go at a slow trot, and the reins were therefore again entrusted
to the hands of the imprudent Corporal

Joliffe. Neither shouts nor flourishings of the whip had the slightest
effect on the jaded animals.

From time to time the travellers lightened the sledges by walking little
way. This mode of locomotion suited the hunters, who were now gradually
approaching the best districts for game in the whole of English America.
Mrs Paulina Barnett and Madge took a great interest in the chase, whilst
Thomas Black professed absolute indifference to all athletic exercise.
He had not come all this distance to hunt the polecat or the ermine, but
merely to look at the moon at the moment when her disc should cover
that of the sun. When the queen of the night rose above the horizon, the
impatient astronomer would gaze at her with eager eyes, and one day the
Lieutenant said to him

“It would be a bad look-out for you, Mr Black, if by any unlucky
chance the moon should fail to keep her appointment on the 16th July
1860.”

“Lieutenant Hobson,” gravely replied the astronomer, “if the moon
were guilty of such a breach of good manners, I should indeed have cause
to complain.”

The chief hunters of the expedition were the soldiers Marbre and Sabine,
both very expert at their business. Their skill was wonderful; and the
cleverest Indians would not have surpassed them in keenness of sight,
precision of aim, or manual address. They were alike trappers and
hunters, and were acquainted with all the nets and snares for taking
sables, otters, wolves, foxes, bears, &c. No artifice was unknown to
them, and Captain Craventy had shown his wisdom in choosing two such
intelligent men to accompany the little troop.

Whilst on the march however, Marbre and Sabine had no time for setting
traps. They could not separate from the others for more than an hour or
two at a time, and were obliged to be content with the game which passed
within range of their rifles. Still they were fortunate enough to kill
two of the large American ruminants, seldom met with in such elevated
latitudes.

On the morning of the 15th May the hunters asked permission to follow
some fresh traces they had found, and the Lieutenant not only granted
it, but himself accompanied them with Mrs Paulina Barnett, and they went
several miles out of their route towards the east.

The impressions were evidently the result of the passage of about
half-a-dozen large deer. There could be no mistake about it; Marbre
and Sabine were positive on that point, and could even have named the
species to which the animals belonged.

“You seem surprised to have met with traces of these animals here,
Lieutenant,” said Mrs Barnett.

“Well, madam,” replied Hobson, “this species is rarely seen beyond
57° N. lat. We generally hunt them at the south of the Slave Lake,
where they feed upon the shoots of willows and poplars, and certain wild
roses to which they are very partial.”

“I suppose these creatures, like those with valuable furs, have fled
from the districts scoured by the hunters.”

“I see no other explanation of their presence at 65° N. lat.,”
replied the Lieutenant-”that is, if the men are not mistaken as to the
origin of the footprints.”

“No, no, sir,” cried Sabine; “Marbre and I are not mistaken. These
traces were left by deer, the deer we hunters call red deer, and the
natives wapitis.”

“He is quite right,” added Marbre; “old trappers like us are
not to be taken in; besides, don’t you hear that peculiar whistling
sound?”

The party had now reached the foot of a little hill, and as the snow
had almost disappeared from its sides they were able to climb it,
and hastened to the summit, the peculiar whistling noticed by Marbre
becoming louder, mingled with cries resembling the braying of an ass,
and proving that the two hunters were not mistaken.

Once at the top of the hill, the adventurers looked eagerly towards the
east. The undulating plains were still white with snow, but its dazzling
surface was here and there relieved with patches of stunted light green
vegetation. A few gaunt shrubs stretched forth their bare and shrivelled
branches, and huge icebergs with precipitous sides stood out against the
grey background of the sky.

“Wapitis! wapitis!-there they are !” cried Sabine and Marbre at
once, pointing to a group of animals distinctly visible about a quarter
of a mile to the east.

“What are they doing?” asked Mrs Barnett.

“They are fighting, madam,” replied Hobson; “they always do when
the heat of the Polar sun inflames their blood-another deplorable result
of the action of the radiant orb of day !”

From where they stood the party could easily watch the group of wapitis.
They were fine specimens of the family of deer known under the various
names of stags with rounded antlers, American stags, roebucks, grey elks
and red elks, &c. These graceful creatures have slender legs and brown
skins with patches of red hair, the colour of which becomes darker in
the warmer season. The fierce males are easily distinguished from the
females by their fine white antlers, the latter being entirely without
these ornaments. These wapitis were once very numerous all over North
America, and the United States imported a great many; but clearings
were begun on every side, the forest trees fell beneath the axe of
the pioneer of civilisation, and the wapitis took refuge in the more
peaceful districts of Canada; but they were soon again disturbed, and
wandered to the shores of Hudson’s Bay. So that although the wapiti
thrives in a cold country, Lieutenant Hobson was right in saying that it
seldom penetrates beyond 57° N. latitude; and the specimens now found
had doubtless fled before the Chippeway Indians, who hunt them without
mercy.

The wapitis were so engrossed in their desperate struggle that they were
unconscious of the approach of the hunters; but they would probably
not have ceased fighting, had they been aware of it. Marbre and Sabine,
aware of their peculiarity in this respect, might therefore have
advanced fearlessly upon them, and have taken aim at leisure.

Lieutenant Hobson suggested that they should do so.

“Beg pardon, sir,” replied Marbre; “but let us spare our powder
and shot. These beasts are engaged in a war to the death, and we shall
arrive in plenty of time to pick up the vanquished.”

“Have these wapitis a commercial value?” asked Mrs Paulina Barnett.

“Yes, madam,” replied Hobson; “and their skin, which is not quite
so thick as that of the elk, properly so called makes very valuable
leather. By rubbing this skin with the fat and brains of the animal
itself, it is rendered flexible, and neither damp nor dryness injures
it. The Indians are therefore always eager to procure the skins of the
wapitis.”

“Does not the flesh make admirable venison?”

“Pretty good, madam; only pretty good. It is tough, and does not taste
very nice; the fat becomes hard directly it is taken from the fire, and
sticks to the teeth. It is certainly inferior as an article of food to
the flesh of other deer; but when meat is scarce we are glad enough to
eat it, and it supports life as well as anything else.”

Mrs Barnett and Lieutenant Hobson had been chatting together for some
minutes, when, with the exception of two, the wapitis suddenly ceased
fighting. Was their rage satiated?- or had they perceived the hunters,
and felt the approach of danger? Whatever the cause, all but two fine
creatures fled a towards the east With incredible speed; in a few
instants they were out of sight, and the swiftest horse could not have
caught them up.

Meanwhile, however, two magnificent specimens remained on the field
of battle. Heads down, antlers to antlers, hind legs stretched and
quivering, they butted at each other without a moment’s pause. Like
two wrestlers struggling for a prize which neither will yield, they
would not separate, but whirled round and round together on their front
legs as if riveted to one another. What implacable rage !” exclaimed
Mrs Barnett.

“Yes,” replied the Lieutenant; “the wapitis really are most
spiteful beasts. I have no doubt they are fighting out an old
quarrel.”

“Would not this be the time to approach them, when they are blinded
with rage?”

“There’s plenty of time, ma’am,” said Sabine; “they won’t
escape us now. They will not stir from where they are when we are three
steps from them, the rifles at our shoulders, and our fingers on the
triggers !”

Indeed? Yes, madam,” added Hobson, who had carefully examined the
wapitis after the hunter’s remark; “and whether at our hands or
from the teeth of wolves, those wapitis will meet death where they now
stand.”

“I don’t understand what you mean, Lieutenant,” said Mrs Barnett.

“Well, go nearer, madam,” he replied; “don’t be afraid of
startling the animals; for, as our hunter says, they are no longer
capable of flight.”

The four now descended the hill, and in a few minutes gained the theatre
of the struggle. The wapitis had not moved. They were pushing at
each other like a couple of rams, and seemed to be inseparably glued
together.

In fact, in the heat of the combat the antlers of the two creatures had
become entangled together to such an extent that they could no longer
separate without breaking them. This often happens in the hunting
districts. It is not at all uncommon to find antlers thus connected
lying on the ground; the poor encumbered animals soon die of hunger, or
they become an easy prey to wild beasts.

Two bullets put an end to the fight between the wapitis; and Marbre
and Sabine taking immediate possession, carried off their skins to be
subsequently prepared, leaving their bleeding carcasses to be devoured
by wolves and bears.

CHAPTER VII. THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. The expedition continued to advance
towards the north-west; but the great inequalities of the ground made it
hard work for the dogs to get along, and the poor creatures, who could
hardly be held in when they started, were now quiet enough. Eight or ten
miles a day were as much as they could accomplish, although Lieutenant
Hobson urged them on to the utmost.

He was anxious to get to Fort Confidence, on the further side of the
Great Bear Lake, where he hoped to obtain some useful information. Had
the Indians frequenting the northern banks of the lake been able to
cross the districts on the shores of the sea? was the Arctic Ocean open
at this time of year? These were grave questions, the reply to which
would decide the fate of the new factory.

The country through which the little troop was now passing was
intersected by numerous streams, mostly tributaries of the two large
rivers, the Mackenzie and Coppermine, which flow from the south to the
north, and empty themselves into the Arctic Ocean. Lakes, lagoons, and
numerous pools are formed between these two principal arteries; and
as they were no longer frozen over, the sledges could not venture upon
them, and were compelled to go around them, which caused considerable
delay. Lieutenant Hobson was certainly right in saying that winter is
the time to visit the hyperborean regions, for they are then far easier
to traverse. Mrs Paulina Barnett had reason to own the justice of this
assertion than once.

This region, included in the “Cursed Land,” was, besides, completely
deserted, as are the greater portion of the districts of the extreme
north of America. It has been estimated that there is but one inhabitant
to every ten square miles. Besides the scattered natives, there are some
few thousand agents or soldiers of the different fur-trading companies;
but they mostly congregate in the southern districts and about the
various factories. No human footprints gladdened the eyes of the
travellers, the only traces on the sandy soil were those of ruminants
and rodents. Now and then a fierce polar bear was seen, and Mrs Paulina
Barnett expressed her surprise at not meeting more of these terrible
carnivorous beasts, of whose daily attacks on whalers and persons
shipwrecked in Baffin’s Bay and on the coasts of Greenland and
Spitzbergen she had read in the accounts of those who had wintered in
the Arctic regions.

“Wait for the winter, madam,” replied the Lieutenant; “wait till
the cold makes them hungry, and then you will perhaps see as many as you
care about !”

On the 23d May, after a long and fatiguing journey, the expedition at
last reached the Arctic Circle. We know that this latitude 23° 27’
57” from the North Pole, forms the mathematical limit beyond which
the rays of the sun do not penetrate in the winter, when the northern
districts of the globe are turned away from the orb of day. Here, then,
the travellers entered the true Arctic region, the northern Frigid Zone.

The latitude had been very carefully obtained by means of most accurate
instruments, which were handled with equal skill by the astronomer and
by Lieutenant Hobson. Mrs Barnett was present at the operation, and
had the satisfaction of hearing that she was at last about to cross the
Arctic Circle. It was with a feeling of just pride that she received the
intelligence.

“You have already passed through the two Torrid Zones in your previous
journeys,” said the Lieutenant, “and now you are on the verge of the
Arctic Circle. Few explorers have ventured into such totally different
regions. Some, so to speak, have a specialty for hot countries, and
choose Africa or Australia as the field for their investigations. Such
were Barth, Burton, Livingstone Speke, Douglas, Stuart, &c. Others, on
the contrary, have a passion for the Arctic regions, still so little
known. Mackenzie, Franklin, Penny, Kane, Parry, Rae, &c., preceded us on
our present journey; but we must congratulate you, Mrs Barnett, on being
a more cosmopolitan traveller than all of them.”

“I must see everything or at least try to see everything,
Lieutenant,” replied. Mrs Paulina; “and I think the dangers and
difficulties are about equal everywhere. Although we have not to dread
the fevers of the unhealthy torrid regions, or the attacks of the fierce
black races, in this Frigid Zone, the cold is a no less formidable
enemy; and I suspect that the white bears we are liable to meet with
here will give us quite as warm a reception as would the tigers of
Thibet or the lions of Africa. In Torrid and Frigid Zones alike there
are vast unexplored tracts which will long defy the efforts of the
boldest adventurers.”

“Yes, madam,” replied Jaspar Hobson; “but I think the hyperborean
regions will longer resist thorough exploration. The natives are
the chief obstacle in tropical regions, and I am well aware how many
travellers have fallen victims to savages. But civilisation will
necessarily subdue the wild races sooner or later; whereas in the Arctic
and Antarctic Zones it is not the inhabitants who arrest the progress of
the explorer, but Nature herself who repels those who approach her, and
paralyses their energies with the bitter cold !”

“You think, then, that the secrets of the most remote districts of
Africa and Australia will have been fathomed before the Frigid Zone has
been entirely examined?”

“Yes, madam,” replied the Lieutenant; “and I think my opinion is
founded on facts. The most intrepid discoverers of the Arctic regions
- Parry, Penny, Franklin, M’Clure, Dane, and Morton — did not get
beyond 83° north latitude, seven degrees from the pole — whereas
Australia has several times been crossed from south to north by the
bold Stuart; and even Africa, with all its terrors, was traversed by
Livingstone from the Bay of Loanga to the mouth of the Zambesi. We are,
therefore, nearer to geographical knowledge of the equatorial countries
than of the Polar districts.”

“Do you think that the Pole itself will ever be reached by man?”
inquired Mrs Paulina Barnett.

“Certainly,” replied Hobson, adding with a smile, “by man or
woman. But I think other means must be tried of reaching this point,
where all the meridians of the globe cross each other, than those
hitherto adopted by travellers. We hear of the open sea, of which
certain explorers are said to have caught a glimpse. But if such a sea,
free from ice, really exist, it is very difficult to get at, and no one
can say positively whether it extends to the North Pole. For my part, I
think an open sea would increase rather than lessen the difficulties of
explorers. As for me, I would rather count upon firm footing, whether on
ice or rock, all the way. Then I would organise successive expeditions,
establishing depôts of provisions and fuel nearer and nearer to the
Pole; and so, with plenty of time, plenty of money, and perhaps the
sacrifice of a good many lives, I should in the end solve the great
scientific problem. I should, I think, at last reach the hitherto
inaccessible goal !”

“I think you are right, Lieutenant,” said Mrs Barnett; “and if
ever you try the experiment, I should not be afraid to join you, and
would gladly go to set up the Union Jack at the North Pole. But that is
not our present object.”

“Not our immediate object, madam,” replied Hobson; “but when once
the projects of the Company are realised, when the new fort has been
erected on the confines of the American continent, it may become the
natural starting-point of all expeditions to the north. Besides, should
the fur-yielding animals, too zealously hunted, take refuge at the Pole,
we should have to follow them.”

“Unless costly furs should go out of fashion,” replied Mrs Barnett.

“O madam,” cried the Lieutenant, “there will always be some pretty
woman whose wish for a sable muff or an ermine tippet must be gratified
!”

“I am afraid so,” said Mrs Barnett, laughing; “and probably the
first discoverer of the Pole will have been led thither in pursuit of a
sable or a silver fox.”

“That is my conviction,” replied Hobson. “ Such is human nature,
and greed of gain will always carry a man further than zeal for
science.”

“What! do you utter such sentiments?” exclaimed Mrs Barnett.

“Well, madam, what am I but an employé of the Hudson’s Bay Company?
and does the Company risk its capital and agents with any other hope
than an increase of profits?”

“Lieutenant Hobson,” said Mrs Barnett, “I think I know you well
enough to assert that on occasion you would be ready to devote body and
soul to science. If a purely geographical question called you to the
Pole, I feel sure you would not hesitate to go. But,” she added, with
a smile, “the solution of this great problem is still far distant. We
have but just reached the verge of the Arctic Circle, but I hope we may
cross it without any very great difficulty.”

“That I fear is doubtful,” said the Lieutenant, who had been
attentively examining the sky during their conversation. “The weather
has looked threatening for the last few days. Look at the uniformly grey
hue of the heavens. That mist will presently resolve itself into snow;
and if the wind should rise ever so little, we shall have to battle with
a fearful storm. I wish we were at the Great Bear Lake !”

“Do not let us lose any time, then,” said Mrs Barnett, rising;
“give the signal to start at once.”

The Lieutenant needed no urging. Had he been alone, or accompanied by a
few men as energetic as himself, he would have pressed on day and night;
but he was obliged to make allowance for the fatigue of others, although
he never spared himself. He therefore granted a few hours of rest to
his little party, and it was not until three in the afternoon that they
again set out.

Jaspar Hobson was not mistaken in prophesying a change in the weather.
It came very soon. During the afternoon of the same day the mist became
thicker, and assumed a yellowish and threatening hue. The Lieutenant,
although very uneasy, allowed none of his anxiety to appear, but had a
long consultation with Sergeant Long whilst the dogs of his sledge were
laboriously preparing to start.

Unfortunately, the district now to be traversed was very unsuitable
for sledges. The ground was very uneven; ravines were of frequent
occurrence; and masses of granite or half-thawed icebergs blocked up
the road, causing constant delay. The poor dogs did their best, but the
drivers’ whips no longer produced any effect upon them.

And so the Lieutenant and his men were often obliged to walk to rest the
exhausted animals, to push the sledges, or even sometimes to lift them
when the roughness of the ground threatened to upset them. The incessant
fatigue was, however, borne by all without a murmur. Thomas Black alone,
absorbed in his one idea, never got out of his sledge, and indeed be was
so corpulent that all exertion was disagreeable to him.

The nature of the soil changed from the moment of entering the Arctic
Circle. Some geological convulsion had evidently upheaved the enormous
blocks strewn upon the surface. The vegetation, too, was of a more
distinctive character. Wherever they were sheltered from the keen north
winds, the flanks of the hills were clothed not only with shrubs, but
with large trees, all of the same species — pines, willows, and firs
— proving by their presence that a certain amount of vegetative force
is retained even in the Frigid Zone. Jaspar Hobson hoped to find such
specimens of the Arctic Flora even on the verge of the Polar Sea; for
these trees would supply him with wood to build his fort, and fuel to
warm its inhabitants. The same thought passed through the minds of his
companions, and they could not help wondering at the contrast between
this comparatively fertile region, and the long white plains stretching
between the Great Slave Lake and Fort Enterprise.

At night the yellow mist became more opaque; the wind rose, the snow
began to fall in large flakes, and the ground was soon covered with a
thick white carpet. In less than an hour the snow was a foot deep, and
as it did not freeze but remained in a liquid state, the sledges could
only advance with extreme difficulty; the curved fronts stuck in the
soft substance, and the dogs were obliged to stop again and again.

Towards eight o’clock in the evening the wind became very boisterous.
The snow, driven before it, was flung upon the ground or whirled in the
air, forming one huge whirlpool. The dogs, beaten back by the squall
and blinded with snow, could advance no further. The party was then in
a narrow gorge between huge icebergs, over which the storm raged with
fearful fury. Pieces of ice, broken off by the hurricane, were hurled
into the pass; partial avalanches, any one of which could have crushed
the sledges and their inmates, added to its dangers, and to press
on became impossible. The Lieutenant no longer insisted, and after
consulting with Sergeant Long, gave the order to halt. It was now
necessary to find a shelter from the snow-drift; but this was no
difficult matter to men accustomed to Polar expeditions. Jaspar Hobson
and his men knew well what they had to do under the circumstances. It
was not the first time they had been surprised by a tempest some hundred
miles from the forts of the Company, without so much as an Esquimaux hut
or Indian hovel in which to lay their heads.

“To the icebergs! to the icebergs !” cried Jaspar Hobson.

Every one understood what he meant. Snow houses were to be hollowed
out of the frozen masses, or rather holes were to be dug, in which each
person could cower until the storm was over. Knives and hatchets were
soon at work on the brittle masses of ice, and in three-quarters of an
hour some ten dens had been scooped out large enough to contain two or
three persons each. The dogs were left to themselves, their own instinct
leading them to find sufficient shelter under the snow.

Before ten o’clock all the travellers were crouching in the snow
houses, in groups of two or three, each choosing congenial companions.
Mrs Barnett, Madge, and Lieutenant Hobson occupied one hut, Thomas Black
and Sergeant Long another, and so on. These retreats were warm, if not
comfortable; and the Esquimaux and Indians have no other refuge even in
the bitterest cold. The adventurers could therefore fearlessly await the
end of the storm as long as they took care not to let the openings of
their holes become blocked up with the snow, which they had to shovel
away every half hour. So violent was the storm that even the Lieutenant
and his soldiers could scarcely set foot outside. Fortunately, all were
provided with sufficient food, and were able to endure their beaver-like
existence without suffering from cold or hunger

For forty-eight hours the fury of the tempest continued to increase. The
wind roared in the narrow pass, and tore off the tops of the icebergs.
Loud reports, repeated twenty times by the echoes, gave notice of the
fall of avalanches, and Jaspar Hobson began to fear that his further
progress would be barred by the masses of debris accumulated between
the mountains. Other sounds mingled with these reports, which Lieutenant
Hobson knew too well, and he did not disguise from Mrs Barnett that
bears were prowling about the pass. But fortunately these terrible
animals were too much occupied with their own concerns to discover the
retreat of the travellers; neither the dogs nor the sledges, buried in
the snow, attracted their attention, and they passed on without doing
any harm.

The last night, that of the 25th or 26th May, was even more terrible. So
great was the fury of the hurricane that a general overthrow of
icebergs appeared imminent. A fearful death would then have awaited
the unfortunate travellers beneath the ruins of the broken masses. The
blocks of ice cracked with an awful noise, and certain oscillations gave
warning that breaches had been made threatening their solidity. However,
no great crash occurred, the huge mountains remained intact, and towards
the end of the night one of those sudden changes so frequent in the
Arctic regions took place; the tempest ceased suddenly beneath the
influence of intense cold, and with the first dawn of day peace was
restored.

CHAPTER VIII. THE GREAT BEAR LAKE. This sudden increase of cold was most
fortunate. Even in temperate climes there are generally three or four
bitter days in May; and they were most serviceable now in consolidating
the freshly-fallen snow, and making it practicable for sledges.
Lieutenant Hobson, therefore, lost no time in resuming his journey,
urging on the dogs to their utmost speed.

The route was, however, slightly changed. Instead of bearing due north,
the expedition advanced towards the west, following, so to speak, the
curve of the Arctic Circle. The Lieutenant was most anxious to reach
Fort Confidence, built on the northern extremity of the Great Bear Lake.
These few cold days were of the greatest service to him; he advanced
rapidly, no obstacle was encountered, and his little troop arrived at
the factory on the 30th May.

At this time Forts Confidence and Good Hope were the most advanced
posts of the Company in the north. Fort Confidence was a most important
position, built on the northern extremity of the lake, close to its
waters, which being frozen over in winter, and navigable in summer,
afforded easy access to Fort Franklin, on the southern shores, and
promoted the coming and going of the Indian hunters with their daily
spoils. Many were the hunting and fishing expeditions which started from
Forts Confidence and Good Hope, especially from the former. The Great
Bear Lake is quite a Mediterranean Sea, extending over several
degrees of latitude and longitude. Its shape is very irregular : two
promontories jut into it towards the centre, and the upper portion forms
a triangle; its appearance, as a whole, much resembling the extended
skin of a ruminant without the head.

Fort Confidence was built at the end of the “ right paw,” at least
two hundred miles from Coronation Gulf, one of the numerous estuaries
which irregularly indent the coast of North America. It was therefore
situated beyond the Arctic Circle, but three degrees south of the
seventieth parallel, north of which the Hudson’s Bay Company proposed
forming a new settlement.

Fort Confidence, as a whole, much resembled other factories further
south. It consisted of a house for the officers, barracks for the
soldiers, and magazines for the furs - all of wood, surrounded by
palisades. The captain in command was then absent. He had gone towards
the east on a hunting expedition with a few Indians and soldiers. The
last season had not been good, costly furs had been scarce; but to make
up for this the lake had supplied plenty of otter-skins. The stock of
them had, however, just been sent to the central factories in the south,
so that the magazines of Fort Confidence were empty on the arrival of
our party.

In the absence of the Captain a Sergeant did the honours of the fort to
Jaspar Hobson and his companions. This second officer, Felton by name
was a brother-in-law of Sergeant Long. He showed the greatest readiness
to assist the views of the Lieutenant, who being anxious to rest his
party, decided on remaining two or three days at Fort Confidence. In the
absence of the little garrison there was plenty of room, and dogs and
men were soon comfortably installed. The best room in the largest house
was of course given to Mrs Paulina Barnett, who was delighted with the
politeness of Sergeant Felton.

Jaspar Hobson’s first care was to ask Felton if any Indians from the
north were then beating the shores of the Great Bear Lake

“Yes, Lieutenant,” replied the Sergeant; “we have just received
notice of the encampment of a party of Hare Indians on the other
northern extremity of the lake.”

“How far from here?” inquired Hobson.

“About thirty miles,” replied Sergeant Felton. “Do you wish to
enter into communication with these Indians?”

“Yes,” said Hobson; they may be able to give me some valuable
information about the districts bordering on the Arctic Ocean, and
bounded by Cape Bathurst. Should the site be favourable, I propose
constructing our new fort somewhere about there.”

“Well, Lieutenant, nothing is easier than to go to the Hare
encampment.”

“Along the shores of the lake?”

“No, across it; it is now free from ice, and the wind is favourable.
We will place a cutter and a boatman at your service, and in a few hours
you will be in the Indian settlement.”

“Thank you, Sergeant; to-morrow, then.” Whenever you like,
Lieutenant.”

The start was fixed for the next morning; and when Mrs Paulina Barnett
heard of the plan, she begged the Lieutenant to allow her to accompany
him, which of course he readily did.

But now to tell how the rest of this first day was passed. Mrs Barnett,
Hobson, two or three soldiers, Madge, Mrs Mac-Nab, and Joliffe explored
the shores of the lake under the guidance of Felton. The neighbourhood
was by no means barren of vegetation; the hills, now free from snow,
were crowned by resinous trees of the Scotch pine species. These trees,
which attain a height of some forty feet, supply the inhabitants of the
forts with plenty of fuel through the long winter. Their thick trunks
and dark gloomy branches form a striking feature of the landscape; but
the regular clumps of equal height, sloping down to the very edge of the
water, are somewhat monotonous. Between the groups of trees the soil was
clothed with a sort of whitish weed, which perfumed the air with a sweet
thymy odour. Sergeant Felton informed his guests that this plant was
called the “ herb of incense “ on account of the fragrance it emits
when burnt.

Some hundred steps from the fort the party came to a little natural
harbour shut in by high granite rocks, which formed an admirable
protection from the heavy surf. Here was anchored the fleet of Fort
Confidence, consisting of a single fishing-boat—the very one which was
to take Mrs Barnett and Hobson to the Indian encampment the next day.
From this harbour an extensive view was obtained of the lake; its waters
slightly agitated by the wind, with its irregular shores broken by
jagged capes and intersected by creeks. The wooded heights beyond, with
here and there the rugged outline of a floating iceberg standing out
against the clear blue air, formed the background on the north; whilst
on the south a regular sea horizon, a circular line clearly cutting sky
and water, and at this moment glittering in the sunbeams, bounded the
sight.

The whole scene was rich in animal and vegetable life. The surface of
the water, the shores strewn with flints and blocks of granite, the
slopes with their tapestry of herbs, the tree-crowned hill-tops, were
all alike frequented by various specimens of the feathered tribe.
Several varieties of ducks, uttering their different cries and calls,
eider ducks, whistlers spotted redshanks, “old women,” those
loquacious birds whose beak is never closed, skimmed the surface of the
lake. Hundreds of puffins and guillemots with outspread wings darted
about in every direction, and beneath the trees strutted ospreys two
feet high-a kind of hawk with a grey body, blue beak and claws, and
orange-coloured eyes, which build their huge nests of marine plants in
the forked branches of trees. The hunter Sabine managed to bring down
a couple of these gigantic ospreys, which measured nearly six feet from
tip to tip of their wings, and were therefore magnificent specimens of
these migratory birds, who feed entirely on fish, and take refuge on
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico when winter sets in, only visiting the
higher latitudes of North America during the short summer.

But the most interesting event of the day was the capture of an otter,
the skin of which was worth several hundred roubles.

The furs of these valuable amphibious creatures were once much sought
after in China; and although the demand for them has considerably
decreased in the Celestial Empire, they still command very high prices
in the Russian market. Russian traders, ready to buy up sea-otter skins,
travel all along the coasts of New Cornwall as far as the Arctic Ocean;
and of course, thus hunted, the animal is becoming very rare. It has
taken refuge further and further north, and the trackers have now to
pursue it on the shores of the Kamtchatka Sea, and in the islands of the
Behring Archipelago.

“But,” added Sergeant Felton, after the preceding explanation,
“American inland otters are not to be despised, and those which
frequent the Great Bear Lake are worth from £50 to £60 each.”

The Sergeant was right; magnificent otters are found in these waters,
and he himself skilfully tracked and killed one in the presence of his
visitors which was scarcely inferior in value to those from Kamtchatka
itself. The creature measured three feet from the muzzle to the end of
its tail; it had webbed feet, short legs, and its fur, darker on the
upper than on the under part of its body, was long and silky.

“A good shot, Sergeant,” said Lieutenant Hobson, who with Mrs
Barnett had been attentively examining the magnificent fur of the dead
animal.

“Yes, Lieutenant,” replied Felton; “and if each day brought us
such a skin as that, we should have nothing to complain of. But much
time is wasted in watching these animals, who swim and dive with
marvellous rapidity. We generally hunt them at night, as they very
seldom venture from their homes in the trunks of trees or the holes of
rocks in the daytime, and even expert hunters find it very difficult to
discover their retreats.”

“And are these otters also becoming scarcer and scarcer?” inquired
Mrs Barnett.

“Yes, madam,” replied the Sergeant; “and when this species becomes
extinct, the profits of the Company will sensibly decline. All the
hunters try to obtain its fur, and the Americans in particular are
formidable rivals to us. Did you not meet any American agents on your
journey up, Lieutenant?”

“Not one,” replied Hobson. “Do they ever penetrate as far as
this?”

“Oh yes !” said the Sergeant; “and when you hear of their
approach, I advise you to be on your guard.”

“Are these agents, then, highway robbers?” asked Mrs Paulina
Barnett.

“No, madam,” replied the Sergeant; “but they are formidable
rivals, and when game is scarce, hunters often come to blows about it. I
daresay that if the Company’s attempt to establish a fort on the verge
of the Arctic Ocean be successful, its example will at once be followed
by these Americans, whom Heaven confound!”

“Bah!” exclaimed the Lieutenant; “the hunting districts are vast,
and there’s room beneath the sun for everybody. As for us, let’s
make a start to begin with. Let us press on as long as we have firm
ground beneath our feet, and God be with us!”

After a walk of three hours the visitors returned to Fort Confidence,
where a good meal of fish and fresh venison awaited them. Sergeant Long
did the honours of the table, and after a little pleasant conversation,
all retired to rest to forget their fatigues in a healthy and refreshing
sleep.

The next day, May 31st, Mrs Barnett and Jaspar Hobson were on foot at
five A.M. The Lieutenant intended to devote this day to visiting the
Indian encampment, and obtaining as much useful information as possible.
He asked Thomas Black to go with him, but the astronomer preferred
to remain on terra firma. He wished to make a few astronomical
observations, and to determine exactly the latitude and longitude of
Fort Confidence; so that Mrs Barnett and Jaspar Hobson had to cross the
lake alone, under the guidance of an old boatman named Norman, who had
long been in the Company’s service.

The two travellers were accompanied by Sergeant Long as far as the
little harbour, where they found old Norman ready to embark. Their
little vessel was but an open fishing-boat, six feet long, rigged like
a cutter, which one man could easily manage. The weather was beautiful,
and the slight breeze blowing from the north-east was favourable to the
crossing. Sergeant Felton took leave of his guests with many apologies
for being unable to accompany them in the absence of his chief. The boat
was let loose from its moorings, and tacking to starboard, shot across
the clear waters of the lake.

The little trip passed pleasantly enough. The taciturn old sailor sat
silent in the stern of the boat with the tiller tucked under his arm.
Mrs Barnett and Lieutenant Hobson, seated opposite to each other,
examined with interest the scenery spread out before them. The boat
skirted the northern shores of the lake at about three miles’
distance, following a rectilinear direction, so that the wooded heights
sloping gradually to the west were distinctly visible. From this side
the district north of the lake appeared perfectly flat, and the horizon
receded to a considerable distance. The whole of this coast contrasted
strongly with the sharp angle, at the extremity of which rose Fort
Confidence, framed in green pines. The flag of the Company was still
visible floating from the tower of the fort. The oblique rays of the sun
lit up the surface of the water, and striking on the floating icebergs,
seemed to convert them into molten silver of dazzling brightness. No
trace remained of the solid ice-mountains of the winter but these moving
relies, which the solar rays could scarcely dissolve, and which seemed,
as it were, to protest against the brilliant but not very powerful Polar
sun, now describing a diurnal arc of considerable length.

Mrs Barnett and the Lieutenant, as was their custom, communicated to
each other the thoughts suggested by the strange scenes through which
they were passing. They laid up a store of pleasant recollections for
the future whilst the beat floated rapidly along upon the peaceful
waves.

The party started at six in the morning, and at nine they neared the
point on the northern bank at which they were to land. The Indian
encampment was situated at the north-west angle of the Great Bear Lake.
Before ten o’clock old Norman ran the boat aground on a low bank at
the foot of a cliff of moderate height. Mrs Barnett and the Lieutenant
landed at once. Two or three Indians, with their chief, wearing gorgeous
plumes, hastened to meet them, and addressed them in fairly intelligible
English.

These Hare Indians, like the Copper and Beaver Indians, all belong to
the Chippeway race, and differ but little in customs and costumes
from their fellow-tribes. They are in constant communication with the
factories, and have become, so to speak, “Britainised” — at least
as much so as is possible for savages. They bring the spoils of the
chase to the forts, and there exchange them for the necessaries of life,
which they no longer provide for themselves. They are in the pay of the
Company, they live upon it, and it is not surprising that they have lost
all originality. To find a native race as yet uninfluenced by contact
with Europeans we must go to still higher latitudes, to the ice-bound
regions frequented by the Esquimaux, who, like the Greenlanders, are the
true children of Arctic lands.

Mrs Barnett and Jaspar Hobson accompanied the Indians to their camp,
about half a mile from the shore, and found some thirty natives there,
men, women, and children, who supported themselves by hunting and
fishing on the borders of the lake. These Indians had just come from the
northernmost districts of the American continent, and were able to
give the Lieutenant some valuable, although necessarily incomplete,
information on the actual state of the sea-coast near the seventieth
parallel. The Lieutenant heard with considerable satisfaction that a
party of Americans or Europeans had been seen on the confines of
the Polar Sea, and that it was open at this time of year. About Cape
Bathurst, properly so called, the point for which he intended to make,
the Hare Indians could tell him nothing. Their chief said, however,
that the district between the Great Bear Lake and Cape Bathurst was
very difficult to cross, being hilly and intersected by streams, at this
season of the year free from ice. He advised the Lieutenant to go down
the Coppermine river, from the north-east of the lake, which would take
him to the coast by the shortest route. Once at the Arctic Ocean, it
would be easy to skirt along its shores and to choose the best spot at
Which to halt.

Lieutenant Hobson thanked the Indian chief, and took leave after giving
him a few presents. Then accompanied by Mrs Barnett, he explored the
neighbourhood of the camp, not returning to the boat until nearly three
o’clock in the afternoon.

CHAPTER IX. A STORM ON THE LAKE. The old sailor was impatiently awaiting
the return of the travellers; for during the last hour the weather had
changed, and the appearance of the sky was calculated to render any one
accustomed to read the signs of the clouds uneasy. The sun was obscured
by a thick mist, the wind had fallen, but - an ominous moaning was heard
from the south of the lake. These symptoms of an approaching change
of temperature were developed with all the rapidity peculiar to these
elevated latitudes.

“Let us be off, sir! let us be off!” cried old Norman, looking
anxiously at the fog above his head. “ Let us start without losing an
instant. There are terrible signs in the air!”

“Indeed,” exclaimed the Lieutenant, “the appearance of the sky is
quite changed, and we never noticed it, Mrs Barnett!”

“Are you afraid of a storm?” inquired the lady of old Norman.

“Yes, madam,” replied the old sailor; “and the storms on the Great
Bear Lake are often terrible. The hurricane rages as if upon the open
Atlantic Ocean. This sudden fog bodes us no good; but the tempest may
hold back for three or four hours, and by that time we shall be at Fort
Confidence. Let us then start without a moment’s delay, for the boat
would not be safe near these rocks.”

The Lieutenant, feeling that the old man, accustomed as he was to
navigate these waters, was better able to judge than himself, decided to
follow his advice, and embarked at once with Mrs Barnett.

But just as they were pushing off, old Norman, as if possessed by some
sudden presentiment, murmured —

“Perhaps it would be better to wait.”

Lieutenant Hobson overheard these words, and looked inquiringly at the
old boatman, already seated at the helm. Had he been alone he would not
have hesitated to start, but as Mrs Barnett was with him caution was
necessary. The lady at once saw and understood his hesitation.

“Never mind about me, Lieutenant,” she said; “act as if I were not
present. Let us start immediately , as our brave guide suggests.”

“We are off, then,” cried Norman, letting go the moorings, “to the
fort by the shortest route.”

For about an hour the bark made little head. The sail, scarcely filled
by the fitful breeze, flapped against the mast. The fog became thicker.
The waves began to rise and the boat to rock considerably; for the
approaching hurricane affected the water sooner than the atmosphere
itself. The two travellers sat still and silent, whilst the old
sailor peered into the darkness with bloodshot eyes. Prepared for
all contingencies, he awaited the shock of the wind, ready to pay out
rapidly should the attack be very violent. The conflict of the elements
had not, however, as yet commenced; and all would have been well if they
bad been able to advance, but after an hour’s sail they were still
only about two hours’ distance from the Indian encampment. A few gusts
of wind from the shore drove them out of their course, and the dense fog
rendered it impossible for them to make out the coast-line. Should the
wind settle in the north it would probably go hard with the light boat,
which, unable to hold its own course, would be drifted out into the lake
no one knew where.

“We are scarcely advancing at all,” said the Lieutenant to old
Norman.

“No, sir,” replied Norman; “the wind is not strong enough to fill
the sail, and if it were, I fear it comes from the wrong quarter. If
so,” he added, pointing to the south, “we may see Fort Franklin
before Fort Confidence.”

“Well,” said Mrs Barnett cheerfully, “our trip will have been all
the more complete. This is a magnificent lake, well worth exploring from
north to south. I suppose, Norman, one might get back even from Fort
Franklin?”

“Yes, madam, if we ever reach it,” replied the old man. “But
tempests lasting fifteen days are by no means rare on this lake; and
if our bad luck should drive us to the south, it may be a month before
Lieutenant Hobson again sees Fort Confidence.”

“Let us be careful, then,” said the Lieutenant; “for such a delay,
would hinder our projects very much. Do the best you can under the
circumstances, and if you think it would be prudent, go back to the
north. I don’t suppose Mrs Barnett would mind a walk of twenty or
twenty-five miles.”

I should be glad enough to go back to the north, Lieutenant,” replied
Norman, “if it were still possible. But look, the wind seems likely
to settle against us. All I can attempt is to get to the cape on the
north-east, and if it doesn’t blow too hard, I hope to succeed.”

But at about half-past four the storm broke. The shrill whistling of the
wind was heard far above their heads, but the state of the atmosphere
prevented it from as yet descending upon the lake; this was, however,
only delayed for a brief space of time. The cries of frightened birds
flying through the fog mingled with the noise of the wind. Suddenly the
mist was torn open, and revealed low jagged masses of rain-cloud chased
towards the south. The fears of the old sailor were realised. The wind
blew from the north, and it was not long before the travellers learned
the meaning of a squall upon the lake.

“Look out!” cried old Norman, tightening sail so as to get his boat
ahead of the wind, whilst keeping her under control of the helm.

The squall came. It caught the boat upon the flank, and it was turned
over on its side; but recovering itself, it was flung upon the crest
of a wave. The billows surged as if upon an open sea. The waters of the
lake not being very deep, struck against the bottom and rebounded to an
immense height.

“Help! help!” cried old Norman, hurriedly struggling to haul down
his sail.

Mrs Barnett and Hobson endeavoured to come to his assistance, but
without success, for they knew noticing of the management of a boat.
Norman, unable to leave the helm, and the halliards being entangled at
the top of the mast, could not take in the sail. Every moment the boat
threatened to capsize, and heavy seas broke over its sides. The
sky became blacker and blacker, cold rain mingled with snow fell in
torrents, whilst the squall redoubled its fury, lashing the crests of
the waves into foam.

“Cut it! cut it!” screamed Norman above the roaring of the storm.

The Lieutenant, his cap blown away and his eyes blinded by the spray,
seized Norman’s knife and cut the halliard like a harp-string; but the
wet cordage no longer acted in the grooves of the pulleys, and the yard
remained attached to the top of the mast.

Norman, totally unable to make head against the wind, now resolved to
tack about for the south, dangerous as it would be to have the boat
before the wind, pursued by waves advancing at double its speed. Yes, to
tack, although this course would probably bring them all to the southern
shores of the lake, far away from their destination.

The Lieutenant and his brave companion were well aware of the danger
which threatened them. The frail boat could not long resist the blows
of the waves, it would either be crushed or capsized; the lives of those
within it were in the hands of God.

But neither yielded to despair; clinging to the sides of the boat, wet
to the skin, chilled to the bone by the cutting blast, they strove
to gaze through the thick mist and fog. All trace of the land had
disappeared, and so great was the obscurity that at a cable’s length
from the boat clouds and waves could not be distinguished from each
other. Now and then the two travellers looked inquiringly into old
Norman’s face, who, with teeth set and hands clutching the tiller;
tried to keep his boat as much as possible under wind.

But the violence of the squall became such that the boat could not long
maintain this course. The waves which struck its bow would soon have
inevitably crushed it; the front planks were already beginning to
separate, and when its whole weight was flung into the hollows of the
waves it seemed as if it could rise no more.

“We must tack, we must tack, whatever happens !” murmured the old
sailor.

And pushing the tiller and paying out sail, he turned the head of the
boat to the south. The sail, stretched to the utmost, brought the boat
round with giddy rapidity, and the immense waves, chased by the wind,
threatened to engulf the little bark. This was the great danger of
shifting with the wind right aft. The billows hurled themselves in rapid
succession upon the boat, which could not evade them. It filled rapidly,
and the water bad to be baled out without a moment’s pause, or it must
have foundered. As they got nearer and nearer to the middle of the lake
the waves became rougher. Nothing there broke the fury of the wind; no
clumps of trees, no hills, checked for a moment the headlong course of
the hurricane. Now and then momentary glimpses were obtained through the
fog of icebergs dancing like buoys upon the waves, and driven towards
the south of the lake.

It was half-past five. Neither Norman nor the Lieutenant had any idea of
where they were, or whither they were going. They had lost all control
over the boat, and were at the mercy of the winds and waves.

And now at about a hundred feet behind the boat a huge wave upreared its
foam-crowned crest, whilst in front a black whirlpool was formed by the
sudden sinking of the water. All surface agitation, crushed by the
wind, had disappeared around this awful gulf, which, growing deeper and
blacker every moment, drew the devoted little vessel towards its fatal
embrace. Ever nearer came the mighty wave, all lesser billows sinking
into insignificance before it. It gained upon the boat, another moment
and it would crush it to atoms. Norman, looking round, saw its approach;
and Mrs Barnett and the Lieutenant, with eyes fixed and staring, awaited
in fearful suspense the blow from which there was no escape. The wave
broke over them with the noise of thunder; it enveloped the stern of the
boat in foam, a fearful crash was heard, and a cry burst from the lips
of the Lieutenant and his companion, smothered beneath the liquid mass.

They thought that all was over, and that the boat had sunk; but no, it
rose once more, although more than half filled with water.

The Lieutenant uttered a cry of despair. Where was Norman? The poor old
sailor had disappeared !

Mrs Paulina Barnett looked inquiringly at Hobson.

“Norman!” he repeated, pointing to his empty place.

“Unhappy man !” murmured Mrs Barnett; and at the risk of being flung
from the boat rocking on the waves, the two started to their feet and
looked around them. But they could see and hear nothing. No cry for help
broke upon their ears. No dead body floated in the white foam. The old
sailor had met his death in the element he loved so well.

Mrs Barnett and Hobson sank back upon their seats. They were now alone,
and must see to their own safety; but neither of them knew anything of
the management of a boat, and even an experienced hand could scarcely
have controlled it now. They were at the mercy of the waves, and the
bark, with distended sail, swept along in mad career. What could the
Lieutenant do to check or direct its course?

What a terrible situation for our travellers, to be thus overtaken by a
tempest in a frail bark which they could not manage !

“We are lost!” said the Lieutenant.

“No, Lieutenant,” replied Mrs Barnett; “let us make another
effort. Heaven helps those who help themselves !”

Lieutenant Hobson now for the first time realised with how intrepid a
woman fate had thrown him.

The first thing to be done was to get rid of the water which weighed
down the boat. Another wave shipped would have filled it in a moment,
and it must have sunk at once. The vessel lightened, it would have a
better chance of rising on the waves; and the two set to work to bale
out the water. This was no easy task; for fresh waves constantly broke
over them, and the scoop could not be laid aside for an instant. Mrs
Barnett was indefatigable, and the Lieutenant, leaving the baling to
her, took the helm himself, and did the best he could to guide the boat
with the wind right aft.

To add to the danger, night, or rather darkness, for in these latitudes
night only lasts a few hours at this time of year, fell upon them.
Scarce a ray of light penetrated through the heavy clouds and fog. They
could not see two yards before them, and the boat must have been dashed
to pieces had it struck a floating iceberg. This danger was indeed
imminent, for the loose ice-masses advance with such rapidity that it is
impossible to get out of their way.

“You have no control over the helm?” said Mrs Barnett in a slight
lull of the storm.

No, madam he replied; “and you must prep are for the worst.”

“I am ready!” replied the courageous woman simply.

As she spoke a loud rippling sound was heard. The sail, torn away by the
wind, disappeared like a white cloud. The boat sped rapidly along for
a few instants, and then stopped suddenly, the waves buffeting it about
like an abandoned wreck. Mrs Barnett and Hobson, flung to the bottom of
the boat, bruised, shaken, and torn, felt that all was lost. Not a shred
of canvas was left to aid in navigating the craft; and what with the
spray, the snow, and the rain, they could scarcely see each other,
whilst the uproar drowned their voices. Expecting every moment to
perish, they remained for an hour in painful suspense, commending
themselves to God, who alone could save them.

Neither of them could have said how long they waited when they were
aroused by a violent shock.

The boat had just struck an enormous iceberg, a floating block with
rugged, slippery sides, to which it would be impossible to cling.

At this sudden blow, which could not have been parried, the bow of the
boat was split open, and the water poured into it in torrents.

“We are sinking! we are sinking !” cried Jasper Hobson.

He was right. The boat was settling down; the water had already reached
the seats.

“Madam, madam, I am here! I will not leave you!” added the
Lieutenant.

“No, no,” cried Mrs Barnett : “alone, you may save yourself;
together, we should perish. Leave me! leave me!”

“Never!” cried Hobson.

But he had scarcely pronounced this word when the boat, struck by
another wave, filled and sank.

Both were drawn under water by the eddy caused by the sudden settling
down of the boat, but in a few instants they rose to the surface.
Hobson was a strong swimmer, and struck out with one arm, supporting
his companion with the other. But it was evident that he could not long
sustain a conflict with the furious waves, and that he must perish with
her he wished to save.

At this moment a strange sound attracted his attention. It was not the
cry of a frightened bird, but the shout of a human voice! By one supreme
effort Hobson raised himself above the waves and looked around him.

But he could distinguish nothing in the thick fog. And yet he again
beard cries, this time nearer to him. Some bold men were coming to his
succour! Alas! if it were so, they would arrive too late. Encumbered by
his clothes, the Lieutenant felt himself sinking with the unfortunate
lady, whose head he could scarcely keep above the water. With a last
despairing effort he uttered a heartrending cry and disappeared beneath
the waves.

It was, however, no mistake-he had heard voices. Three men, wandering
about by the lake, had seen the boat in danger, and put off to its
rescue. They were Esquimaux, the only men who could have hoped to
weather such a storm, for theirs are the only boats constructed to
escape destruction in these fearful tempests.

The Esquimaux boat or kayak is a long pirogue raised at each end, made
of a light framework of wood, covered with stretched seal-skins strongly
stitched with the sinews of the Walrus. In the upper part of the boat;
also covered with skins, is an opening in which the Esquimaux takes his
place, fastening his waterproof jacket to the back of his seat; so
that he is actually joined to his bark, which not a drop of water can
penetrate. This light, easily-managed kayak, floating as it does, on
the crests of the waves, can never be submerged; and if it be sometimes
capsized, a blow of the paddle rights it again directly; so that it
is able to live and make way in seas in which any other boat would
certainly be dashed to pieces.

The three Esquimaux, guided by the Lieutenant’s last despairing
cry, arrived at the scene of the wreck joints in time. Hobson and Mrs
Barnett, already half drowned, felt themselves drawn up by powerful
hands; but in the darkness they were unable to discover who were their
deliverers. One of the men took the Lieutenant and laid him across his
own boat, another did the sane for Mrs Barnett, and the three kayaks,
skilfully managed with the paddles, six feet long, sped rapidly over the
white foam.

Half an hour afterwards, the shipwrecked travellers were lying on the
sandy beach three miles above Fort Providence.

The old sailor alone was missing !

CHAPTER X. A RETROSPECT. It was about ten o’clock the same night when
Mrs Barnett and Lieutenant Hobson knocked at the postern gate of the
fort. Great was the joy on seeing them, for they had been given up for
lost; but this joy was turned to mourning at the news of the death
of Norman. The brave fellow had been beloved by all, and his loss
was sincerely mourned. The intrepid and devoted Esquimaux received
phlegmatically the earnest expressions of gratitude of those they had
saved, and coulot be persuaded to come to the fort. What they had done
seemed to them only natural, and these were not the first persons they
had rescued; so they quietly returned to their wild life of adventure on
the lake, where they hunted the otters and water-birds day and night.

For the next three nights the party rested. Hobson always intended to
set out on June 2d; and on that day, all having recovered from their
fatigues and the storm having abated, the order was given to start.

Sergeant Felton had done all in his power to make his guests comfortable
and to aid their enterprise; some of the jaded dogs were replaced by
fresh animals, and now the Lieutenant found all his sledges drawn up in
good order at the door of the enceinte, and awaiting the travellers.

The adieux were soon over. Each one thanked Sergeant Felton for his
hospitality, and Mrs Paulina Barnett was most profuse in her expressions
of gratitude. A hearty shake of the hand between the Sergeant and his
brother-in-law, Long, completed the leave-taking,

Each pair got into the sledge assigned to them; but this time Mrs
Barnett and the Lieutenant shared one vehicle, Madge and Sergeant Long
following them.

According to the advice of the Indian chief, Hobson determined to get to
the coast by the shortest route, and to take a north-easterly direction.
After consulting, his map, which merely gave a rough outline of the
configuration of the country, it seemed best to him to descend the
valley of the Coppermine, a large river which flows into Coronation
Gulf.

The distance between Fort Confidence and the mouth of this river is only
a degree and a half-that is to say, about eighty-five or ninety miles.
The deep hollow formed by the gulf is bounded on the north by Cape
Krusenstein, and from it the coast juts out towards the north-west,
ending in Cape Bathurst, which is above the seventieth parallel.

The Lieutenant, therefore, now changed the route he had hitherto
followed, directing his course to the east, so as to reach the river in
a few hours.

In the afternoon of the next day, June 3d, the river was gained. It was
now free from ice, and its clear and rapid waters flowed through a vast
valley, intersected by numerous but easily fordable streams. The
sledges advanced pretty rapidly, and as they went along, Hobson gave his
companion some account of the country through which they were passing. A
sincere friendship founded on mutual esteem, had sprung up between these
two. Mrs Paulina Barnett was an earnest student with a special gift for
discovery, and was therefore always glad to converse with travellers and
explorers. Hobson, who knew his beloved North America by heart, was able
to answer all her inquiries fully.

“About ninety years ago,” he said, “the territory through which
the Coppermine flows was unknown, and we are indebted for its discovery
to the agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company. But as always happens in
scientific matters, in seeking one thing, another was found. Columbus
was trying to find Asia, and discovered America.”

“And what were the agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company seeking? The
famous North-West Passage?”

“No, madam,” replied the young Lieutenant. “A century ago the
Company had no interest in the opening of a new route, which would have
been more valuable to its rivals than to it. It is even said that in
1741 a certain Christopher Middleton, sent to explore these latitudes,
was publicly charged with receiving a bribe of £500 from the Company
to say that there was not, and could not be, a sea passage between the
oceans.”

“That was not much to the credit of the celebrated Company,” said
Mrs Barnett.

“I do not defend it in the matter,” replied Hobson; “and its
interference was severely censured by Parliament in 1746, when a reward
of £20,000 was offered by the Government for the discovery of the
passage in question. In that year two intrepid explorers, William Moor
and Francis Smith, penetrated as far as Repulse Bay in the hope of
discovering the much-longed-for passage. But they were unsuccessful, and
returned to England after an absence of a year and a half.”

“But did not other captains follow in their steps, resolved to conquer
where they had failed?” inquired Mrs Barnett.

“No, madam; and in spite of the large reward offered by Parliament, no
attempt was made to resume explorations in English America until thirty
years afterwards, when some agents of the Company took up the unfinished
task of Captains Moor and Smith.”

“The Company had then relinquished the narrow-minded egotistical
position it had taken up?”

“No, madam, not yet. Samuel Hearne, the agent, only went to
reconnoitre the position of a copper-mine which native miners had
reported. On November 6, 1769, this agent left Fort Prince of Wales,
on the river Churchill, near the western shores of Hudson’s Bay. He
pressed boldly on to the north-west; but the excessive cold and
the exhaustion of his provisions compelled him to return without
accomplishing anything. Fortunately he was not easily discouraged, and
on February 23d of the next year he set out again, this time taking some
Indians with him. Great hardships were endured in this second journey.
The fish and game on which Hearne had relied often failed him; and
he had once nothing to eat for seven days but wild fruit, bits of old
leather, and burnt bones. He was again compelled to return to the fort
a disappointed man. But he did not even yet despair, and started a third
time, December 7th, 1770; and after a struggle of nineteen months, he
discovered the Coppermine river, July 13th, 1772, the course of which
he followed to its mouth. According to his own account, he saw the open
sea, and in any case he was the first to penetrate to the northern coast
of America.”

“But the North-West Passage-that is to say, the direct communication
by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—was not then
discovered?”

“Oh no, madam,” replied the Lieutenant; “and what countless
adventurous sailors have since gone to seek it! Phipps in 1773, James
Cook and Clerke in 1776 to 1779, Kotzebue in 1815 to 1818, Ross, Parry,
Franklin, and others have attempted this difficult task; but it was
reserved to M’Clure in our own day to pass from one ocean to the other
across the Polar Sea.”

“Well, Lieutenant, that was a geographical discovery of which we
English may well be proud. But do tell me if the Hudson’s Bay Company
did not adopt more generous views, and send out some other explorer
after the return of Hearne.”

“It did, madam; and it was thanks to it that Captain Franklin was able
to accomplish his voyage of 1819 to 1822 between the river discovered
by Hearne and Cape Turnagain. This expedition endured great fatigue and
hardships; provisions often completely failed, and two Canadians were
assassinated and eaten by their comrades. But in spite of all his
sufferings, Captain Franklin explored no less than five thousand
five hundred and fifty miles of the hitherto unknown coast of North
America!”

“He was indeed a man of energy,” added Mrs Barnett; “and he gave
proof of his great qualities in starting on a fresh Polar expedition
after all he had gone through.”

“Yes,” replied the Lieutenant; “and he met a terrible death in
the land his own intrepidity had discovered. It has now been proved,
however, that all his companions did not perish with him. Many are
doubtless still wandering about on the vast ice-fields. I cannot
think of their awful condition without a shudder. One day,” be added
earnestly, and with strange emotion—” one day I will search the
unknown lands where the dreadful catastrophe took place, and— “

“And,” exclaimed Mrs Barnett, pressing his hand, “I will accompany
you. Yes, this idea has occurred to me more than once, as it has to
you; and my heart beats high when I think that fellow countrymen of my
own-Englishmen-are awaiting succour.”

“Which will come too late for most of them, madam,” said the
Lieutenant; “but rest assured some will even yet be saved.”

“God grant it, Lieutenant!” replied Mrs Barnett; “and it appears
to me that the agents of the Company, living as they do close to the
coast, are better fitted than any one else to fulfil this duty of
humanity.”

“I agree with you, madam; they are, as they have often proved, inured
to the rigours of the Arctic climate. Was it not they who aided Captain
Back in his voyage in 1834, when he discovered King William’s Land,
where Franklin met his fate? Was it not two of us, Dease and Simpson,
who were sent by the Governor of Hudson’s Bay to explore the shores
of the Polar Sea in 1838, and whose courageous efforts first discovered
Victoria Land? It is my opinion that the future reserves for the
Hudson’s Bay Company the final conquest of the Arctic regions.
Gradually its factories are advancing further and further north,
following the retreat of the fur-yielding animals; and one day a fort
will be erected on the Pole itself, that mathematical point where meet
all the meridians of the globe.”

During this and the succeeding journeys Jaspar Hobson related his own
adventures since he entered the service of the Company his struggles
with the agents of rival associations, and his efforts to explore the
unknown districts of the north or west; and Mrs Barnett, on her side,
told of her travels in the tropics. She spoke of all she had done, and
of all she hoped still to accomplish; so that the long hours, lightened
by pleasant conversation, passed rapidly away.

Meanwhile the dogs advanced at full gallop towards the north. The
Coppermine valley widened sensibly as they neared the Arctic Ocean. The
hills on either side sank lower and lower, and only scattered clumps of
resinous trees broke the monotony of the landscape. A few blocks of ice,
drifted down by the river, still resisted the action of the sun; but
each day their number decreased, and a canoe, or even a good-sized
boat, might easily have descended the stream, the course of which was
unimpeded by any natural barrier or aggregation of rocks. The bed of the
Coppermine was both deep and wide; its waters were very clear, and
being fed by the melted snow, flowed on at a considerable pace, never,
however, forming dangerous rapids. Its course, at first very sinuous,
became gradually less and less winding, and at last stretched along in a
straight line for several miles. Its banks, composed of fine firm sand,
and clothed in part with short dry herbage, were wide and level, so that
the long train of sledges sped rapidly over them.

The expedition travelled day and night-if we can speak of the night,
when the sun, describing an almost horizontal circle, scarcely
disappeared at all. The true night only lasted two hours, and the dawn
succeeded the twilight almost immediately. The weather was fine; the sky
clear, although somewhat misty on the horizon; and everything combined
to favour the travellers.

For two days they kept along the river-banks without meeting with any
difficulties. They saw but few fur-bearing animals; but there were
plenty of birds, which might have been counted by thousands. The absence
of otters, sables, beavers, ermines, foxes, &c., did not trouble the
Lieutenant much, for he supposed that they had been driven further
north by over-zealous tracking; and indeed the marks of encampments,
extinguished fires, &c., told of the more or less recent passage of
native hunters. Hobson knew that he would have to penetrate a good deal
further north, and that part only of his journey would be accomplished
when he got to the mouth of the Coppermine river. He was therefore most
eager to reach the limit of Hearne’s exploration, and pressed on as
rapidly as possible.

Every one shared the Lieutenant’s impatience, and resolutely resisted
fatigue in order to reach the Arctic Ocean with the least possible
delay. They were drawn onwards by an indefinable attraction; the glory
of the unknown dazzled their sight. Probably real hardships would
commence when they did arrive at the much-desired coast. But no matter,
they longed to battle with difficulties, and to press straight onwards
to their aim. The district they were now traversing could have no direct
interest for them; the real exploration would only commence on the
shores of the Arctic Ocean. Each one, then, would gladly hail the
arrival in the elevated western districts for which they were bound, cut
across though they were by the seventieth parallel of north latitude.

On the 5th June, four days after leaving Fort Confidence the river
widened considerably. The western banks, curving slightly, ran almost
due north; whilst the eastern rounded off into the coastline, stretching
away as far as the eye could reach.

Lieutenant Hobson paused, and waving his hand to his companions, pointed
to the boundless ocean.

CHAPTER XI. ALONG THE COAST. Coronation Gulf, the large estuary dotted
with the islands forming the Duke of York Archipelago, which the party
had now reached, was a sheet of water with irregular banks, let in, as
it were, into the North American continent. At its western angle opened
the mouth of the Coppermine; and on the east a long narrow creek called
Bathurst Inlet ran into the mainland, from which stretched the jagged
broken coast with its pointed capes and rugged promontories, ending
in that confusion of straits, sounds, and channels which gives such a
strange appearance to the maps of North America. On the other side the
coast turned abruptly to the north beyond the mouth of the Coppermine
River, and ended in Cape Krusenstern.

After consulting with Sergeant Long, Lieutenant Hobson decided to give
his party a day’s rest here.

The exploration, properly so called, which was to enable the Lieutenant
to fix upon a suitable site for the establishment of a fort, was now
really about to begin. The Company had advised him to keep as much as
possible above the seventieth parallel, and on the shores of the Arctic
Ocean. To obey his orders Hobson was obliged to keep to the west; for on
the east—with the exception, perhaps, of the land of Boothia, crossed
by the seventieth parallel—the whole country belongs rather to the
Arctic Circle, and the geographical conformation of Boothia is as yet
but imperfectly known.

After carefully ascertaining the latitude and longitude, and verifying
his position by the map, the Lieutenant found that he was a hundred
miles below the seventieth degree. But beyond Cape Krusenstern, the
coast-line, running in a north-easterly direction, abruptly crosses the
seventieth parallel at a sharp angle near the one hundred and thirtieth
meridian, and at about the same elevation as Cape Bathurst, the spot
named as a rendezvous by Captain Craventy. He must therefore make for
that point, and should the site appear suitable the new fort would be
erected there.

“There,” said the Lieutenant to his subordinate, Long, “we shall
be in the position ordered by the Company. There the sea, open for a
great part of the year, will allow the vessels from Behring Strait to
come right up to the fort, bringing us fresh provisions and taking away
our commodities.”

“Not to mention,” added Sergeant Long, “that our men will be
entitled to double pay all the time they are beyond the seventieth
parallel.”

“Of course that is understood,” replied Hobson; “and I daresay
they will accept it without a murmur.”

“Well then, Lieutenant,” said Long simply, “we have now only to
start for Cape Bathurst.”

But as a day of rest had been promised, the start did not actually take
place until the next day, June 6th.

The second part of the journey would naturally be very different from
the first. The rules with regard to the sledges keeping their rank need
no longer be enforced, and each couple drove as it pleased them. Only
short distances were traversed at a time; halts were made at every angle
of the coast, and the party often walked. Lieutenant Hobson only urged
two things upon his companions not to go further than three miles from
the coast, and to rally their forces twice a day, at twelve o’clock
and in the evening. At night they all encamped in tents.

The weather continued very fine and the temperature moderate,
maintaining a mean height of 59° Fahrenheit above zero. Two or three
times sudden snowstorms came on; but they did not last long, and
exercised no sensible influence upon the temperature.

The whole of the American coast between Capes Krusenstern and Parry,
comprising an extent of more than two hundred and fifty miles, was
examined with the greatest care between the 6th and 20th of June.
Geographical observations were accurately taken, and Hobson, most
effectively aided by Thomas Black, was able to rectify certain errors
in previous marine surveys; whilst the primary object of the
expedition—the examination into the quality and quantity of the game
in the surrounding districts-was not neglected.

Were these lands well stocked with game? Could they count with certainty
not only on a good supply of furs, but also of meat? Would the resources
of the country provide a fort with provisions in the summer months at
least? Such were the grave questions which Lieutenant Hobson had to
solve, and which called for immediate attention. We give a summary of
the conclusions at which he arrived.

Game, properly so called, of the kind for which Corporal Joliffe amongst
others had a special predilection, was not abundant. There were plenty
of birds of the duck tribe; but only a few Polar hares, difficult of
approach, poorly represented the rodents of the north. There seemed,
however, to be a good many bears about. Marbre and Sabine had come upon
the fresh traces of several. Some were even seen and tracked; but, as a
rule, they kept at a respectful distance. In the winter, however, driven
by famine from higher latitudes, there would probably be more than
enough of these ravenous beasts prowling about the shores of the Arctic
Ocean.

“There is certainly no denying,” said Corporal Joliffe, “that
bear’s flesh is very good eating when once it’s in the larder; but
there is something very problematical about it beforehand, and it’s
always just possible that the hunters themselves may meet the fate they
intended for the bears!”

This was true enough. It was no use counting upon the bears to provision
their fort. Fortunately traces were presently found of herds of a far
more useful animal, the flesh of which is the principal food of the
Indians and Esquimaux. We allude to the reindeer; and Corporal Joliffe
announced with the greatest satisfaction that there were plenty of these
ruminants on this coast. The ground was covered with the lichen to which
they are so partial, and which they cleverly dig out from under the
snow.

There could be no mistake as to the footprints left by the reindeer, as,
like the camel, they have a small nail-like hoof with a convex surface.
Large herds, sometimes numbering several thousand animals, are seen
running wild in certain parts of America. Being easily domesticated,
they are employed to draw sledges; and they also supply the factories
with excellent milk, more nourishing than that of cows. Their dead
bodies are not less useful. Their thick skin provides clothes, their
hair makes very good thread, and their flesh is palatable; so that they
are really the most valuable animals to be found in these latitudes,
and Hobson, being assured of their presence, was relieved from half his
anxiety.

As he advanced he had also reason to be satisfied with regard to the
fur-bearing animals. By the little streams rose many beaver lodges
and musk-rat tunnels. Badgers, lynxes, ermines, wolverenes, sables,
polecats, &c., frequented these districts, hitherto undisturbed by
hunters. They had thus far come to no trace of the presence of man, and
the animals had chosen their refuge well. Footprints were also found of
the fine blue and silver foxes, which are becoming more and more rare,
and the fur of which is worth its weight in gold. Sabine and Mac-Nab
might many a time have shot a very valuable animal on this excursion,
but the Lieutenant had wisely forbidden all hunting of the kind. He did
not wish to alarm the animals before the approaching season-that is to
say, before the winter months, when their furs become thicker and
more beautiful. It was also desirable not to overload the sledges. The
hunters saw the force of his reasoning; but for all that, their fingers
itched when they came within shot-range of a sable or some valuable fox.
Their Lieutenant’s orders were, however, not to be disobeyed.

Polar bears and birds were, therefore, all that the hunters had to
practise upon in this second stage of their journey. The former,
however, not yet rendered bold by hunger, soon scampered off, and no
serious struggle with them ensued.

The poor birds suffered for the enforced immunity of the quadrupeds.
White-headed eagles, huge birds with a harsh screeching cry; fishing
hawks, which build their nests in dead trees and migrate to the Arctic
regions in the summer; snow buntings with pure white plumage, wild
geese, which afford the best food of all the Anseres tribe; ducks with
red heads and black breasts; ash-coloured crows, a kind of mocking jay
of extreme ugliness; eider ducks; scoters or black divers, &c. &c.,
whose mingled cries awake the echoes of the Arctic regions, fell victims
by hundreds to the unerring aim of Marbre and Sabine. These birds haunt
the high latitudes by millions, and it would be impossible to form an
accurate estimate of their number on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
Their flesh formed a very pleasant addition to the daily rations of
biscuit and corned beef, and we can understand that the hunters laid up
a good stock of them in the fifteen days during which they were debarred
from attacking more valuable game.

There would then be no lack of animal food; the magazines of the Company
would be well stocked with game, and its offices filled with furs
and traders; but something more was wanted to insure success to the
undertaking. Would it be possible to obtain a sufficient supply of
fuel to contend with the rigour of an Arctic winter at so elevated a
latitude?

Most fortunately the coast, was well wooded; the hills which sloped down
towards the sea were crowned with green trees, amongst which the pine
predominated. Some of the woods might even be called forests, and would
constitute an admirable reserve of timber for the fort. Here and there
Hobson noticed isolated groups of willows, poplars, dwarf birch-trees,
and numerous thickets of arbutus. At this time of the warm season
all these trees were covered with verdure, and were an unexpected and
refreshing sight to eyes so long accustomed to the rugged, barren polar
landscape. The ground at the foot of the hills was carpeted with a short
herbage devoured with avidity by the reindeer, and forming their only
sustenance in winter. On the whole, then, the Lieutenant had reason to
congratulate himself on having chosen the north-west of the American
continent for the foundation of a new settlement.

We have said that these territories, so rich in animals, were apparently
deserted by men. The travellers saw neither Esquimaux, who prefer the
districts round Hudson’s Bay, nor Indians, who seldom venture so far
beyond the Arctic Circle. And indeed in these remote latitudes hunters
may be overtaken by storms, or be suddenly surprised by winter, and cut
off from all communication with their fellow-creatures. We can easily
imagine that Lieutenant Hobson was by no means sorry not to meet any
rival explorers. What he wanted was an unoccupied country, a deserted
land, suitable as a refuge for the fur-bearing animals; and in this
matter he had the full sympathy of Mrs Barnett, who, as the guest of the
Company, naturally took a great interest in the success of its schemes.

Fancy, then, the disappointment of the Lieutenant, when on the morning
of the 20th June he came to an encampment but recently abandoned.

It was situated at the end of a narrow creek called Darnley Bay, of
which Cape Parry is the westernmost point. There at the foot of a little
hill were the stakes which had served to mark the limits of the camp,
and heaps of cinders, the extinct embers of the fires.

The whole party met at this encampment, and all understood how great a
disappointment it involved for Lieutenant Hobson.

“What a pity!” he exclaimed. “I would rather have met a whole
family of polar bears!”

“But I daresay the men who encamped here are already far off,” said
Mrs Barnett; “very likely they have returned to their usual hunting
grounds.”

“That is as it may be,” replied the Lieutenant. “If these be the
traces of Esquimaux, they are more likely to have gone on than to have
turned back; and if they be those of Indians, they are probably, like
ourselves, seeking a new hunting district; and in either case it will be
very unfortunate for us.”

“But,” said Mrs Barnett, “cannot we find out to what race the
travellers do belong? Can’t we ascertain if they be Esquimaux or
Indians from the south? I should think tribes of such a different
origin, and of such dissimilar customs, would not encamp in the same
manner.”

Mrs Barnett was right; they might possibly solve the mystery after a
thorough examination of the ground.

Jaspar Hobson and others set to work, carefully examining every trace,
every object left behind, every mark on the ground; but in vain, there
was nothing to guide them to a decided opinion. The bones of some
animals scattered about told them nothing, and the Lieutenant, much
annoyed, was about to abandon the useless search, when he heard an
exclamation from Mrs Joliffe, who had wandered a little way to the left.

All hurried towards the young Canadian, who remained fixed to the spot,
looking attentively at the ground before her.

As her companions came up she said—

“You are looking for traces, Lieutenant; well, here are some.”

And Mrs Joliffe pointed to a good many footprints clearly visible in the
firm clay.

These might reveal something; for the feet of the Indians and Esquimaux,
as well as their boots, are totally different from each other.

But what chiefly struck Lieutenant Hobson was the strange arrangement
of these impressions. They were evidently made by a human foot, a shod
foot; but, strange to say, the ball alone appeared to have touched the
ground! The marks were very numerous, close together, often crossing one
another, but confined to a very small circle.

Jaspar Hobson called the attention of the rest of the party to this
singular circumstance.

“These were not made by a person walking,” he said.

“Nor by a person jumping,” added Mrs Barnett; “for there is no
mark of a heel.”

“No,” said Mrs Joliffe; “these footprints were left by a
dancer.”

She was right, as further examination proved. They were the marks left
by a dancer, and a dancer engaged in some light and graceful exercise,
for they were neither clumsy nor deep.

But who could the light-hearted individual be who had been impelled to
dance in this sprightly fashion some degrees above the Arctic Circle?

“It was certainly not an Esquimaux,” said the Lieutenant.

“Nor an Indian,” cried Corporal Joliffe.

“No, it was a Frenchman,” said Sergeant Long quietly.

And all agreed that none but a Frenchman could have been capable of
dancing on such a spot.

CHAPTER XII. THE MIDNIGHT SUN. Sergeant Long’s assertion must appear
to have been founded on insufficient evidence. That there had been
dancing no one could deny, but that the dancer was a Frenchman, however
probable, could not be considered proved.

However, the Lieutenant shared the opinion of his subordinate, which did
not appear too positive to any of the party, who all agreed in feeling
sure that some travellers, with at least one compatriot of Vestris
amongst them, had recently encamped on this spot.

Of course Lieutenant Hobson was by no means pleased at this he was
afraid of having been preceded by rivals in the north-western districts
of English America; and secret as the Company had kept its scheme, it
had doubtless been divulged in the commercial centres of Canada and the
United States.

The Lieutenant resumed his interrupted march; but he was full of care
and anxiety, although he would not now have dreamed of retracing his
steps.

“Frenchmen are then sometimes met with in these high latitudes?” was
Mrs Barnett’s natural question after this incident.

“Yes, madam,” replied the Lieutenant; “or if not exactly
Frenchmen, the descendants of the masters of Canada when it belonged to
France, which comes to much the same thing. These men are in fact our
most formidable rivals.”

“But I thought,” resumed Mrs Barnett, “that after the absorption
by the Hudson’s Bay Company of the old North-West Company, that it had
no longer any rivals on the American continent.”

“Although there is no longer any important association for trading in
furs except our own, there are a good many perfectly independent private
companies, mostly American, which have retained French agents or their
descendants in their employ.”

“Are these agents then held in such high esteem?” asked Mrs Barnett.

“Yes, madam, and with good reason. During the ninety-four years of
French supremacy in Canada, French agents always proved themselves
superior to ours. We must be just even to our rivals.”

“Especially to our rivals,” added Mrs Barnett.

“Yes, especially. . . At that time French hunters, starting from
Montreal, their headquarters, pressed on to the north with greater
hardihood than any others. They lived for years with the Indian
tribes, sometimes intermarrying with them. The natives called them the
‘Canadian travellers,’ and were on the most intimate terms with
them. They were bold, clever fellows, expert at navigating streams,
light-hearted and merry, adapting themselves to circumstances with the
easy flexibility of their race, and always ready to sing or dance.”

“And do you suppose that hunting is the only object of the party whose
traces we have just discovered?”

“I don’t think any other hypotheses at all likely,” replied
Hobson. “They are sure to be seeking new hunting grounds. But as
we cannot possibly stop them, we must make haste to begin our own
operations, and compete boldly with all rivals.”

Lieutenant Hobson was now prepared for the competition he could not
prevent, and he urged on the march of his party as much as possible,
hoping that his rivals might not follow him beyond the seventieth
parallel.

The expedition now descended towards the south for some twenty miles, in
order the more easily to pass round Franklin Bay. The country was still
covered with verdure, and the quadrupeds and birds already enumerated
were as plentiful as ever; so that they could reasonably hope that
the whole of the north-western coasts of the American continent were
populated in the same manner.

The ocean which bathed these shores stretched away as far as the eye
could reach Recent atlases give no land beyond the north American
coast-line, and it is only the icebergs which impede the free navigation
of the open sea from Behring Strait to the Pole itself.

On the 4th July the travellers skirted round another deep bay called
Washburn Bay, and reached the furthest point of a little lake, until
then imperfectly known, covering but a small extent of territory,
scarcely two square miles-in fact it was rather a lagoon, or large pond
of sweet water, than a lake.

The sledges went on easily and rapidly, and the appearance of the
country was most encouraging to the explorers. It seemed that the
extremity of Cape Bathurst would be a most favourable site for the new
fort, as with this lagoon behind them, and the sea open for four or five
months in the warm season, and giving access to the great highway of
Behring Strait, before them, it would be easy for the exiles to lay in
fresh provisions and to export their commodities.

On the 5th June, about three o’clock in the afternoon, the party at
last halted at the extremity of Cape Bathurst. It remained to ascertain
the exact position of this cape, which the maps place above the
seventieth parallel. It was, however, impossible to rely upon the marine
surveys of the coast, as they had never yet been made with exactitude.
Jaspar Hobson decided to wait and ascertain the latitude and longitude.

“What prevents us from settling here?” asked Corporal Joliffe.
“You will own, Lieutenant, that it is a very inviting spot.”

“It will seem more inviting still if you get double pay here, my
worthy Corporal,” replied Hobson.

“No doubt,” said Joliffe; “and the orders of the Company must be
obeyed.”

“Then wait patiently till to-morrow,” added Hobson; “and if we
find that Cape Bathurst is really beyond 70° north latitude, we will
pitch our tent here.”

The site was indeed admirably suited for the foundation of a new
settlement. The wooded heights surrounding the lagoon would supply
plenty of pine, birch, and other woods for the construction of the
fort, and for stocking, it with’ fuel. The Lieutenant and some of his
companions went to the very edge of the cape, and found that towards the
west the coast-line formed a lengthened curve, beyond which icebergs
of a considerable height shut out the view. The water of the lagoon,
instead of being brackish as they expected from its close vicinity to
the sea, was perfectly sweet; but had it not been so, drinkable water
would not have failed the little colony, as a fresh and limpid stream
ran a few yards to the south-east of Cape Bathurst, and emptied itself
into the Arctic Ocean through a narrow inlet, which, protected by a
singular accumulation of sand and earth instead of by rocks, would have
afforded a refuge to several vessels from the winds of the offing, and
might be turned to account for the anchorage of the ships which it
was hoped would come to the new settlement from Behring Strait. Out of
compliment to the lady of the party, and much to her delight, Lieutenant
Hobson named the stream Paulina river, and the little harbour Port
Barnett.

By building the fort a little behind the actual cape, the principal
house and the magazines would be quite sheltered from the coldest
winds. The elevation of the cape would help to protect them from the
snow-drifts, which sometimes completely bury large buildings beneath
their heavy avalanches in a few hours. There was plenty of room between
the foot of the promontory and the bank of the lagoon for all the
constructions necessary to a fort. It could even be surrounded by
palisades, which would break the shock of the icebergs; and the cape
itself might be surrounded with a fortified redoubt, if the vicinity of
rivals should render such a purely defensive erection necessary; and the
Lieutenant, although with no idea of commencing anything of the kind
as yet, naturally rejoiced at having met with an easily defensible
position.

The weather remained fine, and it was quite warm enough. There was not a
cloud upon the sky; but, of course, the clear blue air of temperate
and torrid zones could not be expected here, and the atmosphere was
generally charged with a light mist. What would Cape Bathurst be like in
the long winter night of four months when the ice-mountains became fixed
and rigid, and the hoarse north wind swept down upon the icebergs in
all its fury? None of the party gave a thought to that time now; for
the weather was beautiful, the verdant landscape smiled, and the waves
sparkled in the sunbeams, whilst the temperature remained warm and
pleasant.

A provisional camp, the sledges forming its only material, was arranged
for the night on the banks of the lagoon; and towards evening Mrs
Barnett, the Lieutenant, Sergeant Long, and even Thomas Black, explored
the surrounding district in order to ascertain its resources. It
appeared to be in every respect suitable; and Hobson was eager for the
next day, that he might determine the exact situations, and find out if
it fulfilled the conditions imposed by the Company.

“Well, Lieutenant,” said the astronomer when the examination was
over, “this is really a charming spot, such as I should not have
imagined could have existed beyond the Arctic Circle.”

“Ah, Mr Black!” cried Hobson, “the finest countries in the world
are to be found here, and I am impatient to ascertain our latitude and
longitude.”

“Especially the latitude,” said the astronomer, whose eclipse was
never out of his thoughts; “and I expect your brave companions are as
eager as yourself. Double pay beyond the seventieth parallel!”

“But, Mr Black,” said Mrs Barnett, “do you not yourself take
an interest a purely scientific interest, in getting beyond that
parallel?”

“Of course, madam, of course I am anxious to get beyond it, but not
so terribly eager. According to our calculations, however, made with
absolute accuracy, the solar eclipse which I am ordered to watch will
only be total to an observer placed beyond the seventieth degree, and
on this account I share the Lieutenant’s impatience to determine the
position of Cape Bathurst.”

“But I understand, Mr Black,” said Mrs Barnett, “that this solar
eclipse will not take place until the 18th July 1860?”

“Yes, madam, on the 18th July 1860.”

“And it is now only the 15th June 1859! So that the phenomenon will
not be visible for more than a year!”

“I am quite aware of it, Mrs Barnett,” replied the astronomer;
“but if I had not started till next year I should have run a risk of
being too late.”

“You would, Mr Black,” said Hobson, “and you did well to start a
year beforehand. You are now quite sure not to miss your eclipse. I
own that our journey from Fort Reliance has been accomplished under
exceptionally favourable circumstances. We have had little fatigue and
few delays. To tell you the truth, I did not expect to get to this part
of the coast until the middle of August; and if the eclipse had been
expected this year, instead of next; you really might have been too
late. Moreover, we do not yet know if we are beyond the seventieth
parallel.”

“I do not in the least regret the journey I have taken in your
company, Lieutenant, and I shall patiently wait until next year for my
eclipse. The fair Phœbe, I fancy, is a sufficiently grand lady to be
waited for.”

The next day, July 6th, a little after noon, Hobson and the astronomer
made their preparations for taking the exact bearings of Cape Bathurst.
The sun shone clearly enough for them to take the outlines exactly. At
this season of the year, too, it had reached its maximum height above
the horizon; and consequently its culmination, on its transit across the
meridian, would facilitate the work of the two observers.

Already the night before, and the same morning, by raking different
altitudes, and by means of a calculation of right ascensions, the
Lieutenant and the astronomer had ascertained the longitude with great
accuracy. But it was about the latitude that Hobson was most anxious;
for what would the meridian of Cape Bathurst matter to him should it not
be situated beyond the seventieth parallel?

Noon approached. The men of the expedition gathered round the observers
with their sextants ready in their hands. The brave fellows awaited
the result of the observation with an impatience which will be readily
understood. It was now to be decided whether they had come to the end
of their journey, or whether they must search still further for a spot
fulfilling the conditions imposed by the Company.

Probably no good result would have followed upon further explorations,
According to the maps of North America-imperfect, it is true-the western
coast beyond Cape Bathurst sloped down below the seventieth parallel,
not again rising above it until it entered Russian America, where
the English had as yet no right to settle; so that Hobson had shown
considerable judgment in directing his course to Cape Bathurst after
a thorough examination of the maps of these northern regions. This
promontory is, in fact, the only one which juts out beyond the
seventieth parallel along the whole of the North American continent,
properly so called-that is to say, in English America. It remained to be
proved that it really occupied the position assigned to it in maps.

At this moment the sun was approaching the culminating-point of its
course, and the two observers pointed the telescopes of their sextants
upon it. By means of inclined mirrors attached to the instruments, the
sun ought apparently to go back to the horizon itself; and the moment
when it seemed to touch it with the lower side of its disc would be
precisely that at which it would occupy the highest point of the
diurnal arc, and consequently the exact moment when it would pass
the meridian-in other words, it would be noon at the place where the
observation was taken.

All watched in anxious silence.

“Noon!” cried Jaspar Hobson and the astronomer at once.

The telescopes were immediately lowered. The Lieutenant and Thomas
Black read on the graduated limbs the value of the angles they had just
obtained, and at once proceeded to note down their observations.

A few minutes afterwards, Lieutenant Hobson rose and said, addressing
his companions

“My friends, from this date, July 6th, I promise you double pay in the
name of the Hudson’s Bay Company!”

“Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah for the Company!” shouted the worthy
companions of the Lieutenant with one voice.

Cape Bathurst and its immediate neighbourhood were in very truth above
the seventieth degree of north latitude.

We give the result of these simultaneous observations, which agreed to a
second.

Longitude, 127° 36’ 12” west of the meridian of Greenwich.

Latitude, 70° 44’ 37” north.

And that very evening these hardy pioneers, encamped so far from the
inhabited world, watched the mighty luminary of day touch the edges of
the western horizon without dipping beneath it.

For the first time they saw the shining of the midnight sun.

CHAPTER XIII. FORT HOPE. The site of the new fort was now finally
determined on. It would be impossible to find a better situation than on
the level ground behind Cape Bathurst, on the eastern bank of the lagoon
Hobson determined to commence the construction of the principal house at
once. Meanwhile all must accommodate themselves as best they could; and
the sledges were ingeniously utilised to form a provisional encampment.

His men being very skilful, the Lieutenant hoped to have the principal
house ready in a month. It was to be large enough to accommodate for a
time the nineteen persons of the party. Later, and before the excessive
cold set in, if there should be time, the barracks for the soldiers and
the magazines for the furs and skins were to be built. There was not
much chance of getting it all done before the end of September; and
after that date, the winter, with its first bitter frosts and long
nights, would arrest all further progress.

Of the ten soldiers chosen by Captain Craventy, two-Marbre and
Sabine-were skilful hunters; the other eight handled the hatchet with as
much address as the musket. Like sailors, they could turn their hands
to anything, and were now to be treated more like workmen than soldiers,
for they were to build a fort which there was as yet no enemy to attack.
Petersen, Belcher, Rae, Garry, Pond, Hope, and Kellet formed a body of
clever, zealous carpenters, under the able superintendence of Mac-Nab,
a Scotchman from Stirling, who had had considerable experience in the
building both of houses and boats. The men were well provided with
tools-hatchets, centre-bits, adzes, planes, hand-saws, mallets, hammers,
chisels, &c. &c. Rae was most skilful at blacksmith’s work, and with
the aid of a little portable forge he was able to make all the pins,
tenons, bolts, nails, screws, nuts, &e., required in carpentry. They had
no mason in the party; but none was wanted, as all the buildings of the
factories in the north are of wood. Fortunately there were plenty of
trees about Cape Bathurst, although as Hobson had already remarked
to Mrs Barnett, there was not a rock, a stone, not even a flint or a
pebble, to be seen. The shore was strewn with innumerable quantities of
bivalve shells broken by the surf, and with seaweed or zoophytes, mostly
sea-urchins and asteriadæ; but the soil consisted entirely of earth and
sand, without a morsel of silica or broken granite; and the cape itself
was but an accumulation of soft earth, the particles of which were
scarcely held together by the vegetation with which it was clothed.

In the afternoon of the same day, July 6th Hobson and Mac-Nab the
carpenter went to choose the site of the principal house on the plateau
at the foot of Cape Bathurst. From this point the view embraced the
lagoon and the western districts to a distance of ten or twelve miles.
On the right, about four miles off, towered icebergs of a considerable
height. partly draped in mist; whilst on the left stretched apparently
boundless plains, vast steppes which it would be impossible to
distinguish from the frozen surface of the lagoon or from the sea itself
in the winter.

The spot chosen, Hobson and Mac-Nab set out the outer walls of the house
with the line. This outline formed a rectangle measuring sixty feet on
the larger side, and thirty on the smaller. The façade of the house
would therefore have a length of sixty feet it was to have a door and
three windows on the side of the promontory, where the inner court was
to be situated, and four windows on the side of the lagoon. The door was
to open at the left corner, instead of in the middle, of the back of
the house, for the sake of warmth. This arrangement would impede the
entrance of the outer air to the further rooms, and add considerably to
the comfort of the inmates of the fort.

According to the simple plan agreed upon by the Lieutenant and his
master-carpenter, there were to be four compartments in the house: the
first to be an antechamber with a double door to keep out the wind;
the second to serve as a kitchen, that the cooking which would generate
damp, might be all done quite away from the living-rooms; the third, a
large hall, where the daily meals were to be served in common; and the
fourth, to be divided into several cabins, like the state-rooms on board
ship.

The soldiers were to occupy the dining-hall provisionally, and a kind of
camp-bed was arranged for them at the end of the room. The Lieutenant,
Mrs Barnett, Thomas Black, Madge, Mrs Joliffe, Mrs Mac-Nab, and Mrs
Rae were to lodge in the cabins of the fourth compartment. They would
certainly be packed pretty closely; but it was only a temporary state
of things, and when the barracks were constructed, the principal house
would be reserved to the officer in command, his sergeant, Thomas Black,
Mrs Barnett, and her faithful Madge, who never left her. Then the fourth
compartment might perhaps be divided into three cabins, instead of four;
for to avoid corners as much as possible is a rule which should never be
forgotten by those who winter in high latitudes Nooks and corners
are, in fact, so many receptacles of ice. The partitions impede the
ventilation; and the moisture, generated in the air, freezes readily,
and makes the atmosphere of the rooms unhealthy causing grave maladies
to those who sleep in them.

On this account many navigators who have to winter in the midst of ice
have one large room in the centre of their vessel, which is shared by
officers and sailors in common. For obvious reasons, however, Hobson
could not adopt this plan.

From the preceding description we shall have seen that the future house
was to consist merely of a ground-floor. The roof was to be high, and
its sides to slope considerably, so that water could easily run off
them. The snow would, however, settle upon them; and when once they were
covered with it, the house would be, so to speak, hermetically closed,
and the inside temperature would be kept at the same mean height. Snow
is, in fact, a very bad conductor of beat: it prevents it from entering,
it is true; but, what is more important in an Arctic winter, it also
keeps it from getting out.

The carpenter was to build two chimneys-one above the kitchen, the other
in connection with the stove of the large dining-room, which was to heat
it and the compartment containing the cabins. The architectural
effect of the whole would certainly be poor; but the house would be as
comfortable as possible, and what more could any one desire?

Certainly an artist who had once seen it would not soon forget this
winter residence, set down in the gloomy Arctic twilight in the midst
of snow-drifts, half hidden by icicles, draped in white from roof to
foundation, its walls encrusted with snow, and the smoke from its fires
assuming strangely-contorted forms in the wind.

But now to tell of the actual construction of this house, as yet
existing only in imagination. This, of course, was the business of
Mac-Nab and his men; and while the carpenters were at work, the foraging
party to whom the commissariat was entrusted would not be idle. There
was plenty for every one to do.

The first step was to choose suitable timber, and a species of Scotch
fir was decided on, which grew conveniently upon the neighbouring hills,
and seemed altogether well adapted to the multifarious uses to which it
would be put. For in the rough and ready style of habitation which they
were planning, there could be no variety of material; and every part
of the house-outside and inside walls, flooring, ceiling, partitions,
rafters, ridges, framework, and tiling-would have to be contrived
of planks, beams, and timbers. As may readily be supposed, finished
workmanship was not necessary for such a description of building, and
Mac-Nab was able to proceed very rapidly without endangering the
safety of the building. About a hundred of these firs were chosen and
felled-they were neither barked nor squared-and formed so many timbers,
averaging some twenty feet in length. The axe and the chisel did not
touch them except at the ends, in order to form the tenons and mortises
by which they were to be secured to one another. Very few days sufficed
to complete this part of the work, and the timbers were brought down by
the dogs to the site fixed on for the principal building. To start with,
the site had been carefully levelled. The soil, a mixture of fine
earth and sand, had been beaten and consolidated with heavy blows. The
brushwood with which it was originally covered was burnt, and the thick
layer of ashes thus produced would prevent the damp from penetrating the
floors. A clean and dry foundation having been thus secured on which
to lay the first joists, upright posts were fixed at each corner of the
site, and at the extremities of the inside walls, to form the skeleton
of the building. The posts were sunk to a depth of some feet in the
ground, after their ends had been hardened in the fire; and were
slightly hollowed at each side to receive the crossbeams of the outer
wall, between which the openings for the doors and windows had been
arranged for. These posts were held together at the top by horizontal
beams well let into the mortises, and consolidating the whole building.
On these horizontal beams, which represented the architraves of the two
fronts, rested the high trusses of the roof, which overhung the walls
like the eaves of a chalet. Above this squared architrave were laid the
joists of the ceiling, and those of the floor upon the layer of ashes.

The timbers, both in the inside and outside walls, were only laid side
by side. To insure their being properly joined, Rae the blacksmith
drove strong iron bolts through them at intervals; and when even this
contrivance proved insufficient to close the interstices as hermetically
as was necessary, Mac-Nab had recourse to calking, a process which
seamen find invaluable in rendering vessels water-tight; only as a
substitute for tow he used a sort of dry moss, with which the eastern
side of the cape was covered, driving it into the crevices with
calking-irons and a hammer, filling up each hollow with layers of hot
tar, obtained without difficulty from the pine-trees, and thus making
the walls and boarding impervious to the rain and damp of the winter
season.

The door and windows in the two fronts were roughly but strongly built,
and the small panes of the latter glazed with isinglass, which, though
rough, yellow, and almost opaque, was yet the best substitute for glass
which the resources of the country afforded; and its imperfections
really mattered little, as the windows were sure to be always open in
fine weather; while during, the long night of the Arctic winter they
would be useless, and have to be kept closed and defended by heavy
shutters with strong bolts against the violence of the gales. Meanwhile
the house was being quickly fitted up inside. By means of a double door
between the outer and inner halls a too sudden change of temperature
was avoided, and the wind was prevented from blowing with unbroken force
into the rooms. The air-pumps, brought from Fort Reliance, were so fixed
as to let in fresh air whenever excessive cold prevented the opening of
doors or windows -one being made to eject the impure air from within,
the other to renew the supply; for the Lieutenant had given his whole
mind to this important matter.

The principal cooking utensil was a large iron furnace, which had been
brought piecemeal from Fort Reliance, and which the carpenter put up
without any difficulty. The chimneys for the kitchen and ball, however,
seemed likely to tax the ingenuity of the workmen to the utmost, as
no material within their reach was strong enough for the purpose, and
stone, as we have said before, was nowhere to be found in the country
around Cape Bathurst.

The difficulty appeared insurmountable, when the invincible Lieutenant
suggested that they should utilise the shells with which the shore was
strewed.

“Make chimneys of shells!” cried the carpenter.

“Yes, Mac-Nab,” replied Hobson; “we must collect the shells,
grind them, burn them, and make them into lime, then mould the lime into
bricks, and use them in the same way.”

“Let us try the shells, by all means,” replied the carpenter; and
so the idea was put in practice at once, and many tons collected of
calcareous shells identical with those found in the lowest stratum of
the Tertiary formations.

A furnace was constructed for the decomposition of the carbonate which
is so large an ingredient of these shells, and thus the lime required
was obtained in the space of a few hours. It would perhaps be too much
to say that the substance thus made was as entirely satisfactory as
if it had gone through all the usual processes; but it answered its
purpose, and strong conical chimneys soon adorned the roof, to the great
satisfaction of Mrs Paulina Barnett, who congratulated the originator of
the scheme warmly on its success, only adding laughingly, that she hoped
the chimneys would not smoke.

“Of course they will smoke, madam,” replied Hobson coolly; “all
chimneys do!”

All this was finished within a month, and on the 6th of August they were
to take possession of the new house.

While Mac-Nab and his men were working so hard, the foraging party,
with the Lieutenant at its head, had been exploring the environs of Cape
Bathurst, and satisfied themselves that there would be no difficulty in
supplying the Company’s demands for fur and feathers, so soon as they
could set about hunting in earnest. In the meantime they prepared the
way for future sport, contenting themselves for the present with the
capture of a few couples of reindeer, which they intended to domesticate
for the sake of their milk and their young. They were kept in a paddock
about fifty yards from the house, and entrusted to the care of Mac-Nabs
wife, an Indian woman, well qualified to take charge of them.

The care of the household fell to Mrs Paulina Barnett, and this good
woman, with Madge’s help, was invaluable in providing for all the
small wants, which would inevitably have escaped the notice of the men.

After scouring the country within a radius of several miles, the
Lieutenant notified, as the result of his observations, that the
territory on which they had established themselves, and to which he gave
the name of Victoria Land, was a large peninsula about one hundred and
fifty square miles in extent, with very clearly-defined boundaries,
connected with the American continent by an isthmus, extending from
the lower end of Washburn Bay on the east, as fair as the corresponding
slope on the opposite coast. The Lieutenant next proceeded to ascertain
what were the resources of the lake and river, and found great reason to
be satisfied with the result of his examination. The shallow waters of
the lake teemed with trout, pike, and other available fresh-water fish;
and the little river was a favourite resort of salmon and shoals of
white bait and smelts. The supply of sea-fish was not so good; and
though many a grampus and whale passed by in the offing, the latter
probably flying from the harpoons of the Behring Strait fishermen there
were no means of capturing them unless one by chance happened to get
stranded on the coast; nor would Hobson allow any of the seals
which abounded on the western shore to be taken until a satisfactory
conclusion should be arrived at as to how to use them to the best
advantage.

The colonists now considered themselves fairly installed stalled in
their new abode, and after due deliberation unanimously agreed to bestow
upon the settlement the name of Fort Good Hope.

Alas! the auspicious title was never to be inscribed upon a map. The
undertaking, begun so bravely and with such prospects of success, was
destined never to be carried out, and another disaster woul

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/8991