ning commentary on the brave deeds and high
aspirations of such well-known men as Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, Ross,
Parry, Franklin, Kane, McClure, Rae, McClintock, Hayes, Hall, Nares,
Markham, and all the other heroes of Arctic story.

It was an era in the career of those three youths that stood out bright
and fresh--never to be forgotten--this first burst of the realities of
the Arctic world on minds which had been previously well informed by
books. The climax was reached on the day when the Eskimos of the far
north were met with.

But from that time a change took place in their experience. Fortune
seemed to frown from that memorable day. We say "seemed," because
knitted brows do not always or necessarily indicate what is meant by a
frown.

After the first fears of the Eskimos had been allayed, a party of them
were invited to go on board the ship. They accepted the invitation and
went, headed by Chingatok.

That noble savage required no persuasion. From the first he had shown
himself to be utterly devoid of fear. He felt that the grand craving of
his nature--a thirst for knowledge--was about to be gratified, and that
would have encouraged him to risk anything, even if he had been much
less of a hero than he was.

But if fear had no influence over our giant, the same cannot be said of
his companions. Oolichuk, indeed, was almost as bold, though he
exhibited a considerable amount of caution in his looks and movements;
but Eemerk, and one or two of his friends, betrayed their craven spirits
in frequent startled looks and changing colour. Ivitchuk was a strange
compound of nervousness and courage, while Akeetolik appeared to have
lost the power of expressing every feeling but one--that of blank
amazement. Indeed, surprise at what they saw on board the steam yacht
was the predominant feeling amongst these children of nature. Their
eyebrows seemed to have gone up and fixed themselves in the middle of
their foreheads, and their eyes and mouths to have opened wide
permanently. None of the women accepted the invitation to go aboard
except Tekkona, and Oblooria followed her, not because she was
courageous, but because she seemed to cling to the stronger nature as a
protection from undefined and mysterious dangers.

"Tell them," said Captain Vane to Anders, the Eskimo interpreter, "that
these are the machines that drive the ship along when there is no wind."

He pointed down the hatchway, where the complication