278 THE FUR COUNTRY. the ocean when the thaw should have converted into water the ice which now held them in its chill embrace. At five o'clock it became too dark to go any further. The travel- lers had not gone more than about two miles in the valley, but it was so sinuous, that it was impossible to estimate exactly the dis- tance traversed. The signal to halt was given by the Lieutenant, and Marbre and Sabine quickly dug out a grotto in the ice with their chisels, into which the whole party crept, and after a good supper all were soon asleep. Every one was up at eight o'clock the next morning, and Hobson decided to follow the valley for another mile, in the hope of finding out whether it went right through the ice-wall. The direction of the pass, judging from the position of the sun, had now changed from north to south-east, and as early as eleven o'clock the party came out on the opposite side of the chain of icebergs. The passage was therefore proved to run completely through the barrier. The aspect of the ice-field on the eastern side was exactly similar to that on the west. The same confusion of ice-masses, the same accumulation of hummocks and icebergs, as far as the eye could reach, with occasional alternations of smooth surfaces of small extent, intersected by numerous crevasses, the edges of which were already melting fast. The same complete solitude, the same desertion, not a bird, not an animal to be seen. Mrs Barnett climbed to the top of a hummock, and there remained for an hour, gazing upon the sad and desolate Polar landscape before her. Her thoughts involuntarily flew back to the miserable attempt to escape that had been made five montLs before. Once more she saw the men and women of the hapless caravan encamped in the darkness of these frozen solitudes, or struggling against insurmountable difficulties to reach the mainland. At last the Lieutenant broke in upon her reverie, and said — " Madam, it is more than twenty-four hours since we left the fort. We now know the thickness of the ice-wall, and as we promised not to be away longer than forty-eight hours, I think it is time to retrace our steps." Mrs Barnett saw the justice of the Lieutenant's remark. They had ascertained that the barrier of ice was of moderate thickness, that it would melt away quickly enough to allow of the passage of Mac- Nab's boat after the thaw, and it would therefore be well to hasten
