The sun is shining with that hard brightness only seen in the Arctic world--keen as silver, cold as steel.

It plays upon the hummocks, and they send out shafts of light at fantastic angles, and a thin blue line runs between the almost unbearable general radiance and the sea of ice stretching indefinitely away.

But to the west is a shore, and on it stands a fort and a few detached houses.

Upon the walls of the fort are some guns, and the British flag is flying above.

Beyond these again are the plains of the north--the home of the elk, musk-ox, silver fox, the white bear and the lonely races of the Pole.