1 86 THE FUR COUNTRY, " Perhaps so/' replied Hobsoii ; " I know that an old fox was taken by Captain Hatteras during his voyage of discovery, wearing a collar half worn away and hidden beneath his thick white fur. What we cannot do with the quadrupeds, we will do with the birds." Chatting thus and laying plans for the future, the three explorers continued to follow the coast. They noticed no change ; the abrupt cliffs covered with earth and sand showed no signs of a recent altera- tion in the extent of the island. It was, however, to be feared that the vast sheet of ice would be worn away at the base by the action of the warm currents, and on this point Hobson was naturally anxious. By eleven o'clock in the morning the eight miles between Capes Bathurst and Esquimaux had been traversed. A few traces of the encampment of Kalumah's party still remained ; of course the snow huts had entirely disappeared, but some cinders and walrus bones marked the spot. The three explorers halted here for a short time, they intended to pass the few short hours of the night at Walruses' Bay, which they hoped to reach in a few hours. They breakfasted seated on a slightly rising ground covered with a scanty and stunted herbage. Before their eyes lay the ocean bounded by a clearly-defined sea-horizon, without a sail or an iceberg to break the monotony of the vast ex- panse of water. " Should you be very much surprised if some vessel came in sight now, Lieutenant?" inquired Mrs Barnett. '*I should be very agreeably surprised, madam," replied Hobson,
- It is not at all uncommon for whalers to come as far north as this,
especially now that the Arctic Ocean is frequented by whales and cacholots, but you must remember that it is the 23rd July, and the summer is far advanced. The whole fleet of whaling vessels is probably now in Gulf Kotzebue, at the entrance to the strait. Whalers shun the sudden changes in the Arctic Ocean, and with good reason. They dread being shut in the ice ; and the icebergs, avalanches, and ice-fields they avoid, are the very things for which we earnestly pray." " They will come, Lieutenant," said Long ; " have patience, in an- other two months the waves will no longer break upon the shores of Cape Esquimaux."
- ' Cape Esquimaux I " observed Mrs Barnett with a smile " That
