Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/127

A RETROSPECT, 67 the coast, are better fitted than any one else to fulfil this duty of humanity." " I agree with you, madam ; they are, as they have often proved, inured to the rigours of the Arctic climate. Was it not they who aided Captain Back in his voyage in 1834, when he discovered King William's Land, where Franklin met his fate % Was it not two of us, Dease and Simpson, who were sent by the Governor of Hudson's Bay to explore the shores of the Polar Sea in 1838, and whose courageous efforts first discovered Victoria Landl It is my opinion that the future reserves for the Hudson's Bay Company the final conquest of the Arctic regions. Gradually its factories are advancing further and further north, following the retreat of the fur-yielding animals ; and one day a fort will be erected on the Pole itself, that mathematical point where meet all the meridians of the globe." During this and the succeeding journeys Jaspar Hobson related his own adventures since he entered the service of the Company — his struggles with the agents of rival associations, and his efforts to explore the unknown districts of the north or west ; and Mrs Barnett, on her side, told of her travels in the tropics. She spoke of all she had done, and of all she hoped still to accomplish; so that the long hours, lightened by pleasant conversation, passed rapidly away.. Meanwhile the dogs advanced at full gallop towards the north. The Coppermine valley widened sensibly as they neared the Arctic Ocean. The hills on either side sank lower and lower, and only scattered clumps of resinous trees broke the monotony of the landscape. A few blocks of ice, drifted down by the river, still resisted the action of the sun ; but each day their number decreased, and a canoe, or even a good-sized boat, might easily have descended the stream, the course of which was unimpeded by any natural barrier or aggregation of rocks. The bed of the Coppermine was both deep and wide ; its waters were very clear, and being fed by the melted snow, flowed on at a considerable pace, never, however, forming dangerous rapids. Its course, at first very sinuous, became gradually less and less winding, and at last stretched along in a straight line for several miles. Its banks, composed of fine firm sand, and clothed in part with short dry herbage, were wide and lev el,, so that the long train of sledges sped rapidly over them. The expedition travelled day and night — if we can speak of the