ild
some safe place for them, and a house for ourselves. We have plenty of
material, and we can settle ourselves very comfortably. I hope, Bell,"
he added, turning to the carpenter, "that you are going to distinguish
yourself; I may be able to help you too, I trust."

"I'm ready, Doctor," answered Bell; "if it were necessary I could
easily build a whole city with houses and streets out of these blocks
of ice--"

"We sha'n't need as much as that; let us follow the example of the
agents of the Hudson's Bay Company; they build forts which protect
them from the wild beasts and the Indians; that is all we need; let us
make it no larger than necessary; on one side the dwelling, on the
other the stores, with a sort of curtain, and two bastions. I'll try
to rub up what I know about fortification."

"Upon my word, Doctor," said Johnson, "I don't doubt that we shall
make something very fine under your direction."

"Well, my friends, we must first choose a site; a good engineer should
first study the lay of the land. Will you come with me, Hatteras?"

"I shall trust to you, Doctor," answered the captain. "You see about
that, while I explore the coast."

Altamont, who was still too feeble to get to work, was left on board
of his ship, and the two Englishmen set foot on the mainland. The
weather was thick and stormy; at noon the thermometer stood at -11
degrees, but, there being no wind, that temperature was comfortable.
Judging from the outline of the shore, a large sea, at that time
wholly frozen, stretched out farther than eye could reach in the west;
on the east it was limited by a rounded coast, cut into by numerous
estuaries, and rising suddenly about two hundred yards from the shore;
it formed a large bay, full of dangerous rocks, on which the
_Porpoise_ had been wrecked; far off on the land rose a mountain,
which the doctor conjectured to be about three thousand feet high.
Towards the north a promontory ran into the sea, after hiding a part
of the bay. An island of moderate size rose from the field of ice,
three miles from the mainland, so that it offered a safe anchorage to
any ship that could enter the bay. In a hollow cut of the shore was a
little inlet, easily reached by ships, if this part of the arctic seas
was ever open. Yet, according to the accounts of Beecher and Penny,
this whole sea was open in the summer months.

In the middle of the coast the doctor noticed a sort of plateau about
two hundred feet in d