 CHAPTER I On the evening of the 17th March, 1859, Captain Craventy gave a fete 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 a clap. In fact, under the auspices of Corporal Jolif, 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 loopholes, were so encrusted with whorefrost 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 Jolif. 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 favored regions of Regent Street or the prospective Nooski. It seemed as if the whole fauna of the icebound north were here represented by their finest skins. The eye wandered from the furs of wolves, grey bears, polar bears, otters, wolverines, beavers, muskrats, water-pole-cats, ear-mines, 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. Propel Q-Tem. Really, Corporal Jolif, you have surpassed yourself, said Captain Cravinty, to his subordinate. I think I have," replied the corporal, but honour to whom honour is due. Mrs. Jolif 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. Walt's tongues of flames 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 cracks 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 a breath. But suddenly the squall recommended with terrific fury. The house was shaken to its foundations. The planks cracked, the beams groaned. A stranger less accustomed than the habituaries 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 neighborhood. Two women who we shall introduce when we have enumerated Captain Craventy's other guests. These were Lieutenant Jasper Hobson, Sergeant Long, Corporal Jolife, and his bright, active Canadian wife, a certain McNab and his wife, both Scotch, John Ray, married to an Indian woman of the country, and some sixty soldiers or employees of the Hudson's Bay Company. The neighboring forts also furnished their contingent of guests. For in these remote lands people look upon each other as neighbors, although their homes may be a hundred miles apart. A good many employees or traders came from Fort Providence or Fort Resolution of the Great Slave Lake District, and even from Fort Chippeway and Fort Laird further south. A rare break like this in the monotony of their secluded lives in these hyper-Boreean 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 Chippewa 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 headdress of eagles' 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 is 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. Jolieff's own hands. It was an immense truncated cone composed of flour, fat, reindeer 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. Jolieff 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 wig-wams. Endless were the compliments paid to the Jolieffs 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. Jolieff. You are too good, Corporal, but let me have time to breathe. Mrs. Jolieff, I assure you, I can eat no more. Corporal Jolieff, I am at your mercy. No more, Mrs. Jolieff, 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 employees 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 realize 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 babble of voices around them. The Captain, enjoying the hurly-burly and pleased to see the poor people, brought back as a twer to the civilized world, and joined themselves so thoroughly, was here, there, and everywhere answering all inquiries about the FET with the words, Ask Jolief, Ask Jolief! And they asked Jolief, who had a gracious word for everybody. 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 Jasper Hobson, Sergeant Long, Corporal and Mrs. Jolief, and the two foreign women already alluded to, in whose honour Captain Craventy's FET was given. Jasper 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 Assiniboine, with his wife. There Jasper 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 he had a boy in years. Jasper Hobson was no mere hunter, but a soldier, a brave and intelligent officer. During the struggles and organ 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. Jasper Hobson was to set out on his journey early in April. If the Lieutenant was the type of 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 coconut fiber, 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, while 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 organization? The two types of fabulous mythology. Briarius, with a hundred arms, and Hydra, with a hundred heads, well represented the two kinds of armies, and in a conflict between them which would be victorious. Briarius without a doubt. We have already made acquaintance with Corporal Jolif. 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. Jolif guided him with a firm hand. So it came to pass that Corporal Jolif 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 Pfeifers, Tennis, and Hamaras of Hall, has been several times honourably mentioned at the meetings of the Royal Geographical Society. In her journeys of the Brahmaputa, as far as the mountains of Tibet, crossed 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 had 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 nearsighted, and a double eyeglass rested on 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 English woman 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 Creventy, 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 Heron, Mackenzie, Ray, 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, dear 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 Maj. This faithful creature was not merely a servant, but a devoted and courageous friend, who lived only for her mistress, a Scotch woman of the old type, whom a Caleb might have married without loss of dignity. Maj 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 Maj as an elder sister, and Maj treated Paulina as her daughter. It was in honour of Paulina Barnett that Captain Craventy was this evening treating his employees and the Chippewa Indians. In fact, the lady traveller was to join the expedition of Jasper 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 hundred weight of cold on this memorable evening, for the cold outside was twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit below zero, and Fort Reliance is situated in sixty-one degrees forty-seven minutes north latitude, at least four degrees from the polar circle. The Fur Country by Jules Verne Part One, Chapter Two The Hudson's Bay Fur Company Captain Craventy Mrs. Barnett, what do you think of Lieutenant Jasper 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 Jasper 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 Jasper 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. When this session has taken place, the company will find access to the Pacific Ocean extremely difficult, unless the Northwest Passage, discovered by McClure, be practicable. Note, Captain Craventy's prophecy has since been realized. Fresh explorations will decide this, for the admiralty is about to send a vessel, which will coast along the North American continent, from Bering 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 Northwest 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. The trade and dress increased to such an extent that sumptuary laws were enacted to control two great extravagance, especially in furs, for which there was a positive passion. There, and the furs of Siberian squirrels, were prohibited at the middle of the twelfth 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 at the Samoids, 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 paralyzed. On the second May 1670 a license to trade in furs in the Hudson Bay's territory was granted to the company, which numbered several men of high rank amongst its shareholders. The Duke of York, the Duke of Abramow, the Earl of Shasbury, et cetera. Its capital was then only 8,420 pounds. Private companies were formidable rivals to its successes, 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, toward 1784 some merchants of Montreal combined to explore the fur country, and founded that powerful Northwest Company, which soon became the center of the fur trade. In 1798 the new company shipped furs to the value of no less than 120,000 pounds, and the existence of the Hudson Bay Company was again threatened. We must add that the Northwest Company shrank from no act. However, iniquitous, if its interests were at stake. Its agents, imposed on their own employees, 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 realizing 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 Northwest 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 Lake Athabasco, Winnipeg, Superior, Mythe, Buffalo, and near the Columbia, Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, and the Cineboyne Rivers, etc. Fort York, commanding the course of the River Nelson, is the headquarters of the company, and contains its principal fur depot. Moreover, in 1842, it took a lease of all the Russian establishments in North America at an annual rent of 40,000 pounds, so that it is now working, on its own account, the vast tracks of country between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. It is sent out in trepidic explorers in every direction, herned towards the Polar Sea, in 1770, to the discovery of the Coppermine River. Franklin, in 1819 to 1822, along 5,550 miles of the American coasts. Mackenzie, who, after having discovered the river to which he gave his name, reached the shores of the Pacific, at 52 degrees, 24 minutes north latitude. The following is a list of the quantities of skins and furs dispatched to Europe by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1833 to 34, which will give an exact idea of the extent of its trade. BEAVERS 1074 SKINS AND YOUNG BEAVERS 92288 MUSK RATS 694,092 BADGERS 1069 BADGERS 7451 ERMINES 491 FOES 9937 LINXES 14255 SABLES 64490 POLL CATS 25100 OTTERS 22303 RACOONS 713 SWANS 7918 WOLES 8484 WOLVE ARENES 1571 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 at the Captain Creventy's explanation to Mrs. Paulina Burnett. UNTIL 1839 MADAM SAID HE THE COMPANY WAS IN A FLUORISHING CONDITION. In that year the number of furs exported was two million three hundred and fifty thousand, 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. Burnett? The G-population 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 Burnett, 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 in 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 statesman 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 piteously 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 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 Barnette was now well informed as to the ulterior projects of the celebrated company. Captain Creventy 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 Jolif announced in a loud voice that, with Mrs. Jolif'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. Jolif, was piled up at the bottom, and on the top floated slices of lemon shriveled 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, Jolif, at last, said Captain Creventy. The light was applied to the bowl, and in a moment the punch was in flames. What's the guest? 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 spectators 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 the chief's order the sergeant, leaving his glass un finished, left the room. End of Chapter 2 Part 1 Chapter 3 of the Fur Country This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Fur Country by Jules Verne. Part 1, Chapter 3 A Savante Thod. Sergeant Long hastened to the narrow passage from which opened the outer door of the fort, and he heard the cries redoubled, and combined with violent blows on the posture and 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, 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 Eskimo 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 Creventy, Lieutenant Jasper Hobson, and Corporal Jolife 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 Creventy, behold him! who are you? A courier of the company. Are you alone? No, I bring a traveller. A traveller, what does he want? He has come to see the moon. At this reply, Captain Creventy had 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's in the 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 frostwork on the windows would not have been affected by it. Jolif undressed him, and turned him rapidly onto 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 Jolif 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 Jasper 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, Jolif removed all the astronomer's clothes. The body of the unfortunate man was covered with white, frostbitten patches. It was urgently necessary to restore the circulation of the blood in the affected portions. This result Jasper 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 Loyon soon returned, and he and Jolif 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 daining 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, too, cried Jasper Hobson. After having warmed the outside of his body, Corporal Jolif 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 Creventy began to hope that he should have an explanation from Thomas Black himself of this strange arrival at the fort in such a terrible condition. At last the traveller, well covered with raps, rose on his elbow, and said in a voice still faint. Fort Reliance, the same, replied the Captain, Captain Creventy, he is before you, and is happy to bid you welcome. But may I inquire what brings you to Fort Reliance? He has 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 ascent and resumed. Lieutenant Hobson replied the Lieutenant, have you 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 fit was at an end, and the gas had regained their respective homes, either in the different rooms of the fort, or the scattered houses outside the in-saint. The next day Thomas Black was better. His vigorous constitution had thrown off the effects of the terrible chill he had had. Anyone 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 depths 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 Creventy'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. Professor 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 service to the science of our anography. In private life he was a simple non-entity. He existed only for astronomy. He lived in the heavens, not upon the earth, and was a true descendant of the witty Lafontaine'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 he 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. Whenever my newt 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 involves results so interesting for celanographic 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 Lawnville and Haley, by Moraldi in 1724, by Antonia de Lula in 1778, by Bondich 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, Erie, Aragot, Kittel, Lange, Moves, Otto, Struve, Petite, Bailey, etc., endeavored to solve the mystery of the origin of the phenomenon. But in spite of all their efforts, the disagreement, says Aragot, of the observations taken in different places by skillful 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 sell anographic 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 18, 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 be readily 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 had commenced. Then should he be able, satisfactory 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 dangers of a journey across the Arctic regions, and arriving at Fort Reliance on the nineteenth March in the condition we have described. Such was the explanation given by the astronomer to Captain Creventy. 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 had heard that the company was sending an expedition along the northern coast of America, that I did not wish to miss the departure of Lieutenant Hobson. Mr. Black replied to Captain, if the Lieutenant had already started, I should have felt at 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 sixty-first parallel is that called the Great Slave Lake. It is two hundred and fifty miles long by fifty across, and is situated exactly at sixty-one degrees, twenty-five minutes north latitude, and one hundred and fourteen degrees west longitude. The surrounding districts slope down to it, and it completely fills a vast natural hollow. The position of the lake in the very center 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, etc., 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 northeast 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 nieces 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 in aptly called the Cursed Land. The southern regions, on the other hand, are flat without a rise of any kind, and the soil is mostly Calceriaeus. The large ruminants of the polar districts, the buffaloes or bison, the flesh of which forms almost the only food of the Canadian and native hunters seldom go further north than 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 Christianity. 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 of 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 by masses of verger, 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 bison, alks, 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 char, or grayling, called bluefish, and countless legions of titamags, the corriganus of naturalists, desported 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 rigor of the winter. The fort, properly so called, consisted of a wooden house with a ground floor and one upper-story. In it lived the Commodant 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 hole 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 encant. 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 realized a profit of no less than three hundred percent. We shall see from the following table, taken from the voyage of Captain Robert Laid, on what terms exchanges were formerly made with those Indians who have since become the best hunters of the company. Beaver's skins were then the currency employed in buying and selling. The Indians paid, for one gun, ten beaver's skins, half a pound of powder, one beaver's skin. Four pounds of shot, one beaver's skin. One ax, one beaver's skin. Six knives, one beaver's skin. One pound of glass beads, one beaver's skin. One laced coat, six beaver's skins. One coat not laced, five beaver's skins. One laced female dress, six beaver's skins. One pound of tobacco, one beaver's skin. One box of powder, one beaver's skin. One comb and one looking-glass, two beaver's skins. But a few years ago beaver's 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 fixed the price of the articles they buy and sell, they cannot fail to realize large profits. Such was the mode of proceeding in fort reliance and other factories, so that Mrs. Paulina Barnette was able to watch the workings 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 Barnette 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 organize such an expedition for crossing the Polar Regions. Everything had to be taken with them—food, clothes, tools, arms, munitions, and a nondescript collection of various requisites. The troops under the command of Lieutenant Jasper 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 Creventy, on account of their energy and resolution. We append a list of the whole party. 1. Lieutenant Jasper Hobson. 2. Sergeant Long. 3. Corporal Jolieff. 4. Peterson, soldier. 5. Belche. 2. 6. Ray. 2. 7. Marbra. 2. 8. Gary. 2. 9. Pond. 2. 10. McNabb. 2. 11. Sabine, soldier. 12. Hope. 2. 13. Kelly. 2. 14. Mrs. Ray. 15. Mrs. Jolieff. 16. Mrs. McNabb. 18. Magge. 19. Thomas Black. In all, nineteen persons to be transported several hundreds of miles through a desert, an 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 transfers of 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 to skin as 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 also flexible that they are admirably adapted for walking. Heightened snowshoes, 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 muskatoons provided by the company, pistols, coordinate sabers, 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 air pumps for ventilation, an India rubber boat, only inflated when required, etc., etc. The party might have relied for provisions on the hunters amongst them. Some of the soldiers were skillful trackers of game, and there were plenty of reindeer in the polar regions. Whole tribes of Indians or Eskimo, 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 batos 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. President Hobson likewise took several casks of rum and whisky, but he was firmly resolved to economize these spirits, so injurious to the health and 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 re-vent, the scorbidic 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 mage 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 Creventy, 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 sonographic 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. They 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 Chippewaay Indians who know well how to train them for their arduous calling. The little company was most skillfully organized. The zeal of Lieutenant Jasper Hobson was beyond all praise. Out of his mission and devoted to his task he neglected nothing which could incur success. Corporal Joliff, always a busybody, exerted himself without producing any very tangible results. But his wife was most useful and devoted, and Mrs. Paulina Burnett 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 Creventy did own 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 ensure success which could be made was made. But who could tell what insurmountable difficulties nature might place in the path of the brave Lieutenant? Who could tell what awaited him and his devoted little band? 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, etc., passed through the warmer air. The poplars, birches, and willows began to bud, and the red-headed ducks, of which there are so many species in North America, to skim the surface of the numerous pools formed by the melted snow. Gilomonts, puffins, and idler ducks sought colder latitudes, and little shrews no bigger than a hazelnut 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 forty-one degrees Fahrenheit above zero, but the mean temperature of the night kept the surface of the snowy plains solid. A good thing for the passage of sledges, of which Jasper 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. Jasper Nett was astonished at the skill with which the men used their snowshoes, scutting along at the pace of a horse in full gallop. Following Captain Creventy's advice the lady herself practiced 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 pole-cats and sables, but the furs of beavers, otters, lynxes, earmines, and foxes were scarce. It was therefore a wise step for the company to endeavor to explore a new country, where the wild animals had hitherto escaped the rapacity of man. On the morning of the sixteenth April Lieutenant Jasper 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. Jasper Hobson was to make for Fort Confidence on the northern extremity of the Ladder 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 at the beginning of May. In 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 Creventy 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 sixteenth April dogs and sledges were awaiting the travelers at the posturing gate. Captain Creventy 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 adieu were quickly made, and each one took his place in the sledge assigned to him. Jasper Hobson and Sergeant Long went first, then Mrs. Paulina Barnett and Maj. The latter dexterously wielding the long Eskimo whip, terminating in a stiff thong. Mrs. Black, in one of the soldiers, the Canadian, Peterson, occupied the third sledge, and the others followed, Corporal and Mrs. Jolief 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 collusion between two sledges going at full speed might have had disastrous results. On leaving Fort Reliance Jasper Hobson at once directed his course towards the Northwest. The first thing to be done was to cross the large river connecting Lake's Slave and Wulmsley, 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 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 anyone not inured to the rigor of a polar climate. A good beginning, said Jasper Hobson to the Sergeant, who sat motionless beside him as if rooted to his seat. The journey has commenced favorably, 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 capitably. 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 come back," asked Jasper 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 Maj also exchanged a few sentences. These two intrepid women, in their otterskin caps and white bearskin 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 plumoured 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 great prairies of Australia! You remember, Maj, how we suffered from the heat and the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. You remember the cloudless sky and the perching sunbeams? My dear, replied Maj, I have not the gift of remembering like you. You retain your impressions. I forget mine. What, Maj! cried Mrs. Barnett. You have forgotten the tropical heat of India ere at Australia. You have no recollections 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 Maj, wrapping her furs more closely round her. No, I remember nothing. How could I now recollect the sufferings to which you elude? 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 the sledge and pick up a handful of snow. You talk to me of heat when we are freezing beneath our bare skins. 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 shan't believe you. Mrs. Paulina Barnett could not help smiling. So, poor Maj, she said, you are very cold. Yes, child, I am cold, but I rather like this climate. I have no doubt it's very healthy, and I think North America will agree with me. It's really a fine country. Yes, Maj, 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 coverings 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 this 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 Icebound North, the poetry embodied in the sagas and sung by the birds of the time of Osain. But Maj, 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. Jasper Hobson had not, it is true, to press on to the very highest altitudes of the globe. He had not to reach the North itself or to follow in its steps of Perry, Roth, McClure, Keen, 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 Jasper 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 sixty-eight degrees north latitude. Very different was the talk in the sledge occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Jolief. 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 exactly contradicting her, which never happened, except under extraordinary circumstances. No, Mrs. Jolief, 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 won't question your skill, replied Mrs. Jolief. 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. Jolief, 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, Jolief, repeated his wife, not so fast, we are going downhill. Downhill, Mrs. Jolief, you call that downhill, why it's uphill. I'll tell you we are going down, repeated poor Mrs. Jolief, and I'll 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. Jolief 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, not against each other, in 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 thing these whips, he cried. The Eskimo wheeled them with unrivaled skill. But you are not an Eskimo, cried Mrs. Jolief, trying in vain to arrest the arm of her imprudent husband. I have heard tell, resumed the corporal, I have heard tell that the Eskimo 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'm going to try. Don't try, don't try, Jolief!" screamed the poor little woman, frightened out of her wits. Don't be afraid, Mrs. Jolief, 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 Jolief was evidently not yet enough of an Eskimo 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 Jolief'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 reign of the dogs, like those of the household, were to be in the hands of Mrs. Jolief. The crestfallen 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 first May the expedition arrived at Fort Enterprise. End of Chapter 5 Part 1 Chapter 6 of the Fur Country This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Fur Country by Jules Verne Part 1 Chapter 6 DT 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 depot 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 northwest. 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 verder. And from between the stones peeped the moist calluses of tiny, almost colourless flowers. These faint signs of reawakening vegetation after the long night of winter were refreshing to the eyes and the glory 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 Jasper 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 icy 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 in all manners of colours. One might have fancied that a rainbow crushed in a powerful hand had 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 her 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, my duties never pawl 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 is a lovely companion, and I shall not be disposed to grumble at the warmth that gives even in the polar regions.' "'Ah, madam,' replied Jasper 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. It 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 lights 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. I was home with a 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 Eskimo 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, 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 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 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 detroit in the arctic regions. Of course the lieutenant was exaggerating, and Mrs. Barnett could easily have retorted with counterarguments, 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 Jasper Hobson was right when he said the sun would cause difficulties. This was seen when the party set out again on the fourth May, three days later. The thermometer, even in the coldest part of the night, marked more than thirty-two degrees 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 rains were therefore again entrusted to the hands of the imprudent Corpo Jolif. Neither shouts nor flourishings of the whip had the slightest effect on the jaded animals. From time to time the travellers lighted the sledges by walking little way. This mode of locomotion suited the hunters, who were now gradually approaching the best districts for game of English America. Mrs. Paulina Barnett and Maj took a great interest in the chase. Waltz Thomas Black professed absolute indifference to all athletic exercise. He had not come all this distance to hunt the pole-cat or the ear-mine, 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 then one day the lieutenant said to him, It would be a bad lookout 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 breach of good manners I should indeed have caused to complain. The chief hunters of the expedition were the soldiers, Marbra and Sabine, both very expert at their business. Their scale 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, etc. No artifice was unknown to them and Captain Creventy had shown his wisdom to such intelligent men to accompany the little troop. Whilst on the march, however, Marbra 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 15 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. Polina Barnette and they went several miles out of their route towards the east. The impressions were evidently the result of the passage of about a half-dozen large deer. There could be no mistake about it. Marbra and Sabine were very positive on that point and could have even named the species to which the animal belonged. You seem surprised to have met with traces of these animals here, lieutenant, said Mrs. Barnette. Well, madam, replied Hobson, this species is rarely seen beyond fifty-seven degrees north latitude. 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 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 sixty-five degrees north latitude, replied the lieutenant, that is, if the men are not mistaken as to the origin of the footprints. No, no, sir, cried Sabine, Marbra and I are not mistaken. These traces were left by the deer, the deer we hunters call red deer, the Dice. He is quite right, added Marbra. 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 hasten to the summit. The peculiar whistling noticed by Marbra became louder, mangling with cries resembling the braying of an ass and proving that the two hunters taken. 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 shrivel branches, and huge icebergs with precipitous sides stood out against the grey background of the sky. Wapites! Wapites! There they are! cried Sabine and Marbra 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 wapites. They were fine specimens of the family of deer known under the various names of stags with rounded antlers, American stags, robux, gray elks, and red elks, etc. These graceful creatures have slender legs and brown skins, with patches of red hair, the color 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 wapites 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 civilization, and the wapites 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 fifty-seven degrees north latitude, and the specimens now found had doubtless fled before the Chippewaay Indians who hunt them without mercy. The wapites 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. Marbra 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 pardons, sir, replied Marbra, let us spare a powder in shot. These beasts are engaged in a war to death, and we shall arrive in plenty of time to pick up the vanquished. Have these wapites 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 wapites. 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 Mies 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 wapites 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 towards the east, with incredible speed. In a few instances 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 wapites really are most spiteful beasts. I have no doubt they are fighting out an old quarrel.' Would this not be the time to approach them, when they are blinded with rage? "'There is 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 wapites, after the hunter's remark. And whether at our hands, or from the teeth of wolves, those wapites will meet death where they now stand.' "'I don't understand what you mean, Lieutenant,' said Mrs. Barnett. "'Well, go near them, 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 wapites 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 wapites, and Marlborough 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 OF THE FUR COUNTRY by Jules Verne This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. THE EXPEDITION CONTINUED TO ADVANCE TOWARDS THE NORTHWEST, BUT THE GREAT INEQUALITIES OF THE GROUND MADE IT HARD WORK FOR THE DOGS TO GET ALONG, AND THE POUR CREATURES, WHO COULD HARDLY BE HELLED 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 sludges 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 more than once. This region included in the cursed land was, besides, completely deserted, as are the greater portions 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 travelers. 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 Baffins Bay, and on the coasts of Greenland and Spitzburgen 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, make some hungry, and then you will perhaps see as many as you care about. On the twenty-third May, after a long and fatiguing journey, the expedition at last reached the Arctic Circle. We know that this latitude, twenty-three degrees, twenty-seven minutes, fifty-seven seconds 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 chose Africa or Australia as the field for their investigations. Such were Barth, Burton, Livingstone-Speck, Douglas, Stuart, etc. Others on the contrary have a passion for the Arctic regions, still so little known. Mackenzie, Franklin, Penny, Kane, Perry, Ray, etc. 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 attack 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 tiers of Tibet or the lions of Africa. In torrid and frigid zones alike there are vast unexplored tracks which will long defy the efforts of the boldest adventurers. Yes, madam, replied Jasper 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 paralyzes their energies with the bitter cold. You think then that the secrets of the most remote districts of Africa in 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—Perry, Penny, Franklin, McClure, Dane, and Morton—did not get beyond eighty-three degrees 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 Livingston from the Bay of Luanga to the mouth of Zambisi. 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, what I think other means must be tried of reaching this point, were 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 organize successive expeditions, establishing depots 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 you ever try the experiment, I should not be afraid to join you, and will 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 realized when the new force 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 go out of fashion,' replied Mrs. Barnett. "'Oh, madam,' cried the Lieutenant, "'there will always be some pretty woman whose wish for a sable muff or an earmine tippet must be gratified.' "'I am afraid so,' said Mrs. Barnett, laughing, and probably the first discoverer of the pole will have been Led Sither in pursuit of a sable or a silver fox.' "'That is my conviction,' replied Hobson, such as 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 employee of the Hudson's Bay Company? And does the Company risk its capital and agents with any other hope than 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 gray 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 set out again. Jasper Hobson was not mistaking 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 driver's 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. enormous black alone, absorbed in his one idea, never got out of his sledge, and indeed he 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. Before 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 furs—proving, by their presence, that a certain amount of vegetative force is retained even in the frigid zone. Jasper 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 afoot deep, and as it did not freeze but remained in a liquid state the sludges 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 of which could have crushed the sludges and their inmates, added to its dangers. Enterprise 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 snowdrift, but this was no difficult matter to men accustomed to polar expeditions. Jasper Hobson and his men knew well what they had to do under their 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 Eskimo hut or Indian hovel in which to lay their heads. "'To the icebergs, to the icebergs,' cried Jasper Hobson. Everyone understood what he meant. Snowhouses 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 croaching in the snowhouses in groups of two or three, each choosing congenial companions. Mrs. Barnett, Maj. and Lieutenant Hobson occupied one hut, Thomas Black and Sergeant Long another, and so on. These retreats were warm, if not comfortable, and the Eskimo 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 bear-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 Jasper 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 travelers. Neither the dogs nor the sledges buried in the snow attracted their attention, and they passed on without doing any harm. The last night, fact of the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth of 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 have then awaited the unfortunate travelers 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 toward the end of the night one of those sudden changes so frequent in the arctic regions took place. The tempest seized suddenly beneath the influence of intense cold, and with the first dawn of day peace was restored. CHAPTER VII