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 228 THE FUR COUNTRY. " wheti all food fails them, and they are famished with hunger in the winter ? " " They will not be famished in a hurry. Madge/* replied Mrs Barnett, " and we shall have nothing to fear from them ; all the martens, ermines, and Polar hares, which we spare will fall an easy prey to them. That is not our danger ; the brittle ground beneath our feet, which may at any moment give way, is our real peril. Only look how the sea is advancing here. It already covers half the plain, and the waves, still comparatively warm, are eating away our island above and below at the same time ! If the cold does not stop it very soon, the sea will shortly join the lake, and we shall lose our lagoon as we lost our river and our port ! " " Well, if that should happen it will indeed be an irreparable misfortune ! " exclaimed Madge. " Why ? " asked Mrs Barnett, looking inquiringly at her com- panion. " Because we shall have no more fresh water," replied Madge. " Oh, we shall not want for fresh water, Madge," said Mrs Barnett ; " the rain, the snow, the ice, the icebergs of the ocean, the very ice-field on which we float, will supply us with that ; no, no, that is not our danger." About ten o'clock Mrs Barnett and Madge had reached the rising ground above Cape Esquimaux, but^t least two miles inland, for they had found it impossible to follow the coast, worn away as it was by the sea. Being rather tired with the many detours they had had to make, they decided to rest a few minutes before setting off on their return to Fort Hope. A little hill crowned by a clump of birch trees and a few shrubs afforded a pleasant shelter, and a bank covered with yellow moss, from which the snow had melted, served them as a seat. The little wallet was opened,, and they shared their simple repast like sisters. Half an hour later, Mrs Barnett proposed that they should climb along the promontory to the sea, and find out the exact state of Cape Esquimaux. She was anxious to know if the point of it had resisted the storm, and Madge declared herself ready to follow " her, dear girl" wherever she went, but at the same time reminded her that they were, eight or nine miles from Cape Bathurst already, and that they must not make Lieutenant HoV)son uneasy by too long an absence. But some presentiment made Mrs Barnett insist upon doing as