ke
our departure very carefully, or we shall find it more difficult to hit
the island than you did on leaving it to reach the shore. I do not
suppose that there is a person in the settlement can give us the
bearings of the island from this."

"No; but the map of the Geological Survey will," said the gentleman who
kept the store in the settlement. In another instant he brought out a
large map, where the island was clearly laid down. "All right, thank
you," said Mr Norman: "away we go." The two men laid hold of the
fore-end of the poles; Philip and Mr Norman behind. The ice was far
from secure; it did not crack nor bend, but it evidently rested on the
water, and such ice generally gives way without any warning or sound.
The party, however, pushed dauntlessly on, steadily, but not so fast as
Philip would have liked. He thought, indeed, at last, that they must
have passed the island; but Mr Norman was too good a navigator for
that--it rose up suddenly before them.

Philip shouted, "Harry--Charley--all right, boys--hurrah!" but there was
no answer. Again he cried out; no one replied. "They are hiding to try
to frighten me, Mr Norman," he said, laughing,--"the rogues." The
party landed and looked about. "O very well, they cannot be here, and
so we'll go away," he cried out, thinking that would make them appear;
it had no such effect. Philip began to grow anxious: they would
certainly not carry their joke so far. He went round the island,
sometimes on the ice and sometimes on shore. As he was hurrying on,
what was his dismay to see a large hole in the ice: his poor young
brothers had met the fate which he had so narrowly escaped. He saw
exactly how it had happened; one had gone through, and the other in
trying to help him out had fallen in likewise. There had been a
struggle, as there were prints of feet and knees in the snow round it;
some the water had washed over.

His exclamations of grief brought his companions to the spot. "Not so
certain that anything dreadful has occurred," said Mr Norman. "You
told me you had killed a bear: now Bruin has been deprived of his hinder
legs, which make the best hams; and his four paws, which turn into good
soup; and I don't think that they would have walked off by themselves.
Come, let us examine your hut. Ah! the skin too has disappeared."

"Yes, and I see that the remainder of the fish which D'Arcy gave us are
not here," said Philip, somewhat relieved. "But perhap