ned a block of marble in remembrance! And notwithstanding
this sombre warning of destiny, the _Forward_ was going to follow
in the track of the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_. Hatteras was the first
to rouse himself from the perilous contemplation, and quickly climbed
a rather steep hill, almost entirely bare of snow.

"Captain," said Johnson, following him, "we shall see the magazines
from here."

Shandon and the doctor joined them on the summit. But from there the
eye contemplated the vast plains, on which there remained no vestige
of a habitation.

"That is singular!" cried the boatswain.

"Well, and where are the magazines?" said Hatteras quickly.

"I don't know--I don't see----" stammered Johnson.

"You have mistaken the way," said the doctor.

"It seemed to me that this was the very place," continued Johnson.

"Well," said Hatteras, impatiently "where are we to go now?"

"We had better go down, for I may be mistaken. I may have forgotten
the exact locality in seven years!"

"Especially when the country is so uniformly monotonous!" added the
doctor.

"And yet----" murmured Johnson.

Shandon had not spoken a word. After walking for a few minutes, Johnson
stopped.

"But no," he cried, "I am not mistaken!"

"Well?" said Hatteras, looking round him.

"Do you see that swell of the ground?" asked the boatswain, pointing
to a sort of mound with three distinct swells on it.

"What do you conclude from that?" asked the doctor.

"Those are the three graves of Franklin's sailors. I am sure now that
I am not mistaken; the habitations ought to be about a hundred feet
from here, and if they are not, they----"

He dared not finish his sentence; Hatteras had rushed forward, a prey
to violent despair. There, where the wished-for stores on which he
had counted ought to have been, there ruin, pillage and destruction
had been before him. Who had done it? Animals would only have attacked
the provisions, and there did not remain a single rag from the tent,
a piece of wood or iron, and, more terrible still, not a fragment
of coal! It was evident that the Esquimaux had learnt the value of
these objects from their frequent relations with Europeans; since
the departure of the _Fox_ they had fetched everything away, and had
not left a trace even of their passage. A slight coating of snow
covered the ground. Hatteras was confounded. The doctor looked and
shook his head. Shandon still said nothing, but an attentive observer