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 lOO THE FUR COUNTRY. northwards as far as the eye could reach, its expanse so entirely unbroken by islands or icebergs that the travellers came to the conclusion, that this portion of the Arctic waters was navigable as far as Behring Straits, and that during the summer season the North- West Passage to Cape Bathurst would be open to the Company's ships. On the west, the aspect of the xiountry explained the presence of the volcanic d^hria on the shore for at a distance of about ten miles was a chain of granitic hills, of conical form, with blunted crests, looking as if their summits had been cut off, and with jagged tremulous outlines standing out against the sky. They had hitherto escaped the notice of our party, as they were concealed by the cliffs on the Cape Bathurst side, and Jaspar Hobson examined them in silence, but with great attention, before he proceeded to study the eastern side, which consisted of a long strip of perfectly level coast-line stretching away to Cape Bathurst. Any one pro- vided with a good field-glass would have been able to distinguish the fort of Good Hope, and perhaps even the cloud of blue smoke, which was no doubt at that very moment issuing from Mrs Joliffe's kitchen chimney. The country behind them seemed to possess two entirely distinct characters ; to the east and south the cape was bounded by a vast plain, many hundreds of square miles in extent, while behind the cliff, from " Walruses' Bay " to the mountains mentioned above, the country had undergone terrible convulsions, showing clearly that it owed its origin to volcanic eruptions. The Lieutenant was much struck with this marked contrast, and Sergeant Long asked him whether he thought the mountains on the western horizon wer& volcanoes. " Undoubtedly," said Hobson ; " all these pumice-stones and pebbles have been discharged by them to this distance, and if we were to go two or three miles farther, we should find ourselvea treading upon nothing but lava and ashes." "Do you suppose," inquired the Sergeant, "that all these vol- canoes are still active % " " That I cannot tell you yet." " But there is no smoke issuing from any of them," added the Sergeant. " That proves nothing ; your pipe is not always in your mouth, and it is just the same with volcanoes, they are not always- smoking."