THE KAMTCHATKA CURRENT, 243 where the large icebergs come into being ; it was on its way to the vast solitudes of the Arctic Ocean, interdicted to the human race, from which there is no return. Hobson did not hide this new danger from those who were in the secret of the situation. Mrs Bamett, Madge, Kalumah, and Ser- geant Long received this fresh blow with courage and resignation. " Perhaps," said Mrs Barnett, " the island may stop even yet. Perhaps it will move slowly. Let us hope on ... . and wait ! The winter is not far off, and we are going to meet it. In any case God's will be done ! " " My friends," said Hobson earnestly, " do you not think I ought now to tell our comrades. You see in what a terrible position we are and all that may await us ! Is it not taking too great a respon- sibility to keep them in ignorance of the peril they are in ? " " I should wait a little longer," replied Mrs Barnett without hesitation ; " I would not give them all over to despair until the last chance is gone." " That is my opinion also," said Long, Hobson had thought the same, and was glad to find that his companions agreed with him in the matter. On the 11th and 12th September, the motion towards the north was more noticeable. Victoria Island was drifting at a rate of from twelve to thirteen miles a day, so that each day took them the same distance farther from the land and nearer to the north. They were, in short, following the decided course made by the Kamtchatka Current, and would quickly pass that seventieth degree which once cut across the extremity of Cape Bathurst, and beyond which no land of any kind was to be met with in this part of the Arctic Ocean. Every day Hobson looked out their position on the map, and saw only too clearly to what awful solitudes the wandering island was drifting. The only hope left consisted, as Mrs Barnett had said, in the fact that they were going to meet the winter. In thus drifting towards the north they would soon encounter those ice-cold waters, which would consolidate and strengthen the foundations of the island. But if the danger of being swallowed up by the waves was decreased, would not the unfortunate colonists have an immense distance to traverse to get back from these remote northern regions ? Had the boat been finished, Lieutenant Hobson would not have
