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 3l6 THE FUR COUNTRY, Hobson carefully looked over the stores of provisions. The reserves had been much damaged by the avalanche, but there were plenty of animals still on the island, and the abundant shrubs and mosses supplied them with food. A few reindeer and hares were slaughtered by the hunters, and their flesh salted for future needs. The health of the colonists was on the whole good. They had suffered little in the preceding mild winter, and all the mental trials they had gone through had not affected their physical well-being. They were, however, looking forward with something of a shrink- ing horror to the moment when they would have to abandon their island home, or, to speak more correctly, when it abandoned them. It was no wonder that they did not like the thought of floating on the ocean in a rude structure of wood subject to all the caprices of winds and waves. Even in tolerably fine weather seas would be shipped and every one constantly drenched vith salt- water. Moreover, it must be remembered that the men were none of them sailors, accustomed to navigation, and ready to risk their lives on a few planks, but soldiers, trained for service on land. Their island was fragile, it is true, and rested on a thin crust of ice ; but then it was covered with a productive soil, trees and shrubs flourished upon it, its huge bulk rendered it insensible to the motion of the waves, and it might have been supposed to be stationary. They had, ill fact, become attached to Victoria Island, on which they had lived nearly two years ; every inch of the ground had become fami- liar to them ; they had tilled the soil, and had come safely through so many perils in their wandering home, th;it in leaving it they felt as if they were parting from an old and sorely-tried friend. Hobson fully sympathised with the feelings of his men, and under- stood their repugnance to embarking on the raft ; but then he also knew that the catastrophe could not now be deferred much longer, and ominous symptoms already gave warning of its rapid approach. We will now describe this raft. It was thirty feet square, and its deck rose two feet above the water. Its bulwarks would there- fore keep out the small but not the large waves. In the centre the carpenter had built a regular deck-house, which would hold some twenty people. Bound it were large lockers for "the provisions and water- casks, all firmly fixed to the deck with iron bolts. The mast, thirty feet high, wa^ fastened to the deck-house, and strengthened with stays attached to the corners of the raft. This mast was to