Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/415

 THE KAMTCHATKA CURRENT. 245 on this 21st September, a rotating motion was for the first time noticed, a motion estimated by Hobson at about a quarter of the circumference. Imagine the anxiety of the unfortunate Lieutenant, The secret he had so long carefully kept was now about to be betrayed by nature to the least clear-sighted. Of course the rotation altered the cardinal points of the island. Cape Bathurst no longer pointed to the north, but to the east. The sun, moon, and stars rose and set on a different horizon, and it was impossible that men like Mac-Nab, Rae, Marbre and others, accustomed to note the signs of the heavens, could fail to be struck by the change, and understand its meaning. To Hobson's great satisfaction, however, the brave soldiers appeared to notice nothing ; the displacement with regard to the cardinal points was not, it was true, very considerable, and it was often too foggy for the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies to be accurately observed. Unfortunately the rotation appeared to be accompanied by an increase of speed. From that date Victoria Island drifted at the rate of a mile an hour. It advanced farther and farther north, farther and farther away from all land. Hobson did not even yet despair, for it was not in his nature to do so, but he felt confused and astray, and longed for the winter with all his heart. At last the temperature began to fall still lower. Snow fell plenti- fully on the 23d and 24th September, and increased the thickness of the coating of ice on the sea. Gradually the vast ice-field was formed on every side, the island in its advance continually broke it up, but each day it became firmer and better able to resist. The sea succumbed to the petrifying hand of winter, and became frozen as far as the eye could reach, and on September 27th, when the bearings were taken, it was found that Victoria Island had not moved since the day before. It was imprisoned in a vast ice-field, it was motionless in longitude 177° 22', and latitude 77° 57' — more than six hundred miles from any continent.