gentleman who succeeded him
was a bold, enterprising Scottish Highlander, whose experience in the
fur trade and energy of character were a sufficient guarantee that the
best and the utmost would be done for the interests of the Company in
that quarter. But however resolute a man may be, he cannot make furs of
hard rocks, nor convert a scene of desolation into a source of wealth.
Vigorously he wrought and long he suffered, but at length he was
compelled to advise the abandonment of the station. The Governor of the
Company--a man of extraordinary energy and success in developing the
resources of the sterile domains over which he ruled--was fain to admit
at last that the trade of Ungava would not pay. The order to retreat
was as prompt and decisive as the command to advance. A vessel was sent
out to remove the goods, and in a brief space of time Fort Chimo was
dismantled and deserted.

The Esquimaux and Indians soon tore down and appropriated to their own
use the frames of the buildings, and such of the materials of the fort
as had been left standing; and the few remnants that were deemed
worthless were finally swept away and every trace of them obliterated by
the howling storms that rage almost continually around these desolate
mountains.

And now, reader, it remains for me to dismiss the characters who have
played their part in this brief tale. Of most of them, however, I have
but little to say, for they are still alive, scattered far and wide
throughout the vast wilderness of Rupert's Land, each acting his busy
part in a new scene; for it is frequently the fate of those who enter
this wild and stirring service to be associated for a brief season under
one roof, and then broken up and scattered over the land, never again to
be reunited.

George Stanley, after a long sojourn in the backwoods, retired from the
service, and, with his family, proceeded to Canada, where he purchased a
small farm. Here Edith waxed strong and beautiful, and committed
appalling havoc among the hearts of the young men for thirty miles
around her father's farm. But she favoured no one, and at the age of
seventeen acquired the name of being the coldest as well as the most
beautiful and modest girl in the far west.

There was a thin young man, with weak limbs and a tendency to fall into
a desponding state of mind, who lived about three miles from Mr
Stanley's farm. This young man's feelings had been so often lacerated
by hopes and fears