THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, 45 have to battle with a fearful storm. I wish we were at the Great Bear Lake ! " " Do not let us lose any time, then," said Mrs Bamett, rising ; " give the signal to start at once." The Lieutenant needed no urging. Had he been alone, or accom- panied by a few men as energetic as himself, he would have pressed on day and night ; but he was obliged to make allowance for the fatigue of others, although he never spared himself. He therefore granted a few hours of rest to his little party, and it was not until three in the afternoon that they again set out. Jaspar Hobson was not mistaken in prophesying a change in the weather. It came very soon. During the afternoon of the same day the mist became thicker, and assumed a yellowish and threatening hue. The Lieutenant, although very uneasy, allowed none of his anxiety to ap[)ear, but had a long consultation with Sergeant Long whilst the dogs of his sledge were laboriously preparing to start. Unfortunately, the district now to be traversed was very un- suitable for sledges. The ground was very uneven ; ravines' were of frequent occurrence ; and masses of granite or half -thawed icebergs blocked up the road, causing constant delay. The poor dogs did their best, but the drivers' whips no longer produced any effect upon them. And so the Lieutenant and his men were often obliged to walk to rest the exhausted animals, to push the sledges, or even sometimes to lift them when the roughness of the ground threatened to upset them. The incessant fatigue was, however, borne by all without a murmur. Thomas Black alone, absorbed in his one idea, never got out of his sledge, and indeed he was so corpulent that all exertion was disagreeable to him. The nature of the soil changed from the moment of entering the Arctic Circle. Some geological convulsion had evidently upheaved the enormous blocks strewn upon the surface. The vegetation, too, was of a more distinctive character. Wherever they were sheltered from the keen north winds, the flanks of the hills were clothed not only with shrubs, but with large trees, all of the same species — pines, willows, and firs — proving by their presence that a certain amount of vegetative force is retained even in the Frigid Zone. Jaspar Hobson hoped to find such specimens of the Arctic Flora even on the verge of the Polar Sea ; for these trees would supply him with wood to build his fort, and fuel to warm its inhabitants. The I .#
