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 CHAPTER II

The Hudson's bay fur company,

APTAIN Craventy ?"

"Mrs Barnett?" " What do you think of your Lieutenant, Jaspar Hobson?"

" I think he is an officer who will go far."

" What do you mean by the words, Will go far ? Do you mean that he will go beyond the Twenty-fourth parallel?"

Captain Craventy could not help smiling at Mrs Paulina Barnett's question. They were talking together near the stove, whilst the guests were passing backwards and forwards between the eating and drinking tables.

" Madam," replied the Captain, " all that a man can do, will be done by Jaspar Hobson. The Company has charged him to explore the north of their possessions, and to establish a factory as near as possible to the confines of the American continent^ and he will establish it."

" That is a great responsibility for Lieutenant Hobson 1" said the traveller.

" It is. Madam, but Jaspar Hobson has never yet drawn back from a task imposed upon him, however formidable it may have appeared,"

" I can quite believe it. Captain," replied Mrs Bamett, " and we shall now see the Lieutenant at work. But what induces the Com- pany to construct a fort on the shores of the Arctic Ocean I "

" They have a powerful motive. Madam," replied the Captain.

" I may add a double motive. At no very distant date, Russia will probably cede her American possessions to the Government of the United States. When this cession has taken place, the Company will find access to the Pacific Ocean extremely difficult, unless the North-west passage discovered by M'Clure be practicable. Fresh