WHERE ARE WE? l8l The day appeared endless to Lieutenant Hobson. Again and again he returned to Cape Bathurst either alone, or accompanied by Mrs Barnett. The latter, inured to danger, showed no fear ; she even joked the Lieutenant about his floating island being perhaps, after all, the proper conveyance for going to the North Pole. " With a favourable current might they not reach that hitherto inaccessible point of the globe ? " Lieutenant Hobson shook his head as he listened to his com- panion's fancy, and kept his eyes fixed upon the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of some land, no matter what, in the distance. But no, sea and sky met in an absolutely unbroken circular line, confirm- ing Hobson's opinion that Victoria Island was drifting to the west rather than in any other direction. " Lieutenant," at last said Mrs Barnett, " don't you mean to make a tour of our island as soon as possible ? " " Yes, madam, of course ; as soon as I have taken our bearings,. I mean to ascertain the form and extent of oar dominions. It seems, however, that the fracture was made at the isthmus itself, so that the whole peninsula has become an island." "A strange destiny is ours. Lieutenant," said Mrs Barnett. "Others return from their travels to add new districts to geogra-' phical maps, but we shall have to efiace the supposed peninsula of Victoria ! " The next day, July 18th, the sky was very clear, and at ten o'clock in the morning Hobson obtained .a satisfactory altitude of the sun, and, comparing it with that of the observation of the day before, he ascertained exactly the longitude in which they were. The island was then in 157° 37' longitude west from Greenwich. The latitude obtained the day before, at noon almost immediately after the eclipse was, as we know, 73° T 20" north. The spot was looked out on the map in the presence of Mrs Barnett and Sergeant Long. It was indeed a most anxious moment, and the following result was arrived at. The wandering island was moving in a westerly direction, borne along by a current unmarked on the chart, and unknown to hydrographers, which was evidently carrying it towards Behring Strait. All the dangers foreseen by Hobson were then imminent, if Victoria Island did not again touch the mainland before the winter.
