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CHAPTER XV. FIFTEEN MILES FROM CAPE BATHURST. EPTEMBER had now commenced, and as upon the most;. ^ favourable calculation only three more weeks would in- tervene before the bad season set in and interrupted the labours of the explorers, the greatest haste was necessary in com^ pleting the new buildings, and Mac-Nab and his workmen surpassed themselves in industry. The dog-house was on the eve of being finished, and very little remained to be done to the palisading which was to encircle the fort. An inner court had been con- structed, in the shape of a half-moon, fenced with tall pointed stakes, fifteen feet high, to which a postern gave entrance. Jaspar Hobson favoured the system of an unbroken enclosure with detached forts (a great improvement upon the tactics of Vauban and Cormontaigne), and knew that to make his defence complete the summit of Cape Bathurst, which was the key of the position, must be fortified ; until that could be done, however, he thought the palisading would be a sufficient protection, at least against quadrupeds. The next thing was to lay in a supply of oil and lights, and accordingly an expedition was organised to a spot about fifteen mile^ distant where seals were plentiful, Mrs Paulina Barnett being invited to accompany the sportsmen, not indeed for the sake of watching the poor creatures slaughtered, but to satisfy her curiosity with regard to the country around Cape Bathurst, and to see some cliffs on that part of the coast which were worthy of notice. The Lieutenant chose as his other companions, Sergeant Long, and the soldiers Petersen, Hope, and Kellet, and the party set off at eight o'clock in the morning in two sledges, each drawn by six dogs, on which the bodies of the seals were to be brought back. The weather was fine, but the fog which lay low along the horizon veiled the rays of the sun, whose yellow disk was now beginning to dis- G