1/8 THE FUR COUNTRY. Arctic explorers had often told of pieces of ice being drifted an immense distance without any possibility of stopping them. Everything then depended on the force and direction of the currents from the opening of Behring Strait and it would be necessary carefully to ascertain all that a chart of the Arctic Ocean could tell. Hobson had such a chart, and invited all who were with him on the cape to come to his room and look at it ; but before going down to the fort he once more urged upon them the necessity of keeping their situation a secret. "It is not yet desperate," he said, "and it is therefore quite unnecessary to damp the spirits of our comrades, who will perhaps not be able to understand, as we do, all the chances in our favour." " Would it not be prudent to build a boat large enough to hold us all, and strong enough to carry us a few hundred miles over the sea 1 " observed Mrs Barnett. " It would be prudent certainly," said Hobson, " and we will do it. I must think of some pretext for beginning the work at once, and give the necessary orders to the head carpenter. But taking to a boat can only be a forlorn hope when everything else has failed. We must try all we can to avoid being on the island when the ice breaks up, and we must make for the mainland as soon as ever the sea is frozen over." Hobson was right. It would take about three months to build a thirty or thirty-five ton vessel, and the sea would not be open when it was finished. * It would be very dangerous to embark the whole party when the ice was breaking up all round, and he would be well out of his difiiculties if he co;ild get across the ice to firm ground before the next thaw set in. This was why Hobson thought a boat a forlorn hope, a desperate makeshift, and every one agreed with him. Secrecy was once more promised, for it was felt that Hobson was the best judge of the matter, and a few minutes later the five conspirators were seated together in the large room of Fort Hope, which was then deserted, eagerly examining an excellent map of the oceanic and atmospheric currents of the Arctic Ocean, special atten- tion being naturally given to that part of the Polar Sea between Cape Bathurst and Behring Strait. Two principal currents divide the dangerous latitudes compre- hended between the Polar Circle and the imperfectly known zone,
