Long before the game at football was suggested they had obtained leave of absence from the captain, and, loaded with game-bag, a botanical box and geological hammer, and a musket, were off along the coast on a semi-scientific cruise.  Young Singleton carried the botanical box and hammer, being an enthusiastic geologist and botanist, while Fred carried the game-bag and musket.

“You see, Tom,” he said as they stumbled along over the loose ice towards the ice-belt that lined the cliffs—­“you see, I’m a great dab at ornithology, especially when I’ve got a gun on my shoulder.  When I haven’t a gun, strange to say, I don’t feel half so enthusiastic about birds!”

“That’s a very peculiar style of regarding the science.  Don’t you think it would be worth while communicating your views on the subject to one of the scientific bodies when we get home again.  They might elect you a member, Fred.”

“Well, perhaps I shall,” replied Fred gravely; “but I say, to be serious, I’m really going to screw up my energies as much as possible, and make coloured drawings of all the birds I can get hold of in the Arctic Regions.  At least, I would like to try.”

Fred finished his remark with a sigh, for just then the object for which he had gone out to those regions occurred to him; and although the natural buoyancy and hopefulness of his feelings enabled him generally to throw off anxiety in regard to his father’s fate, and join in the laugh, and jest, and game as heartily as any one on board, there were times when his heart failed him, and he almost despaired of ever seeing his father again, and these feelings of despondency had been more frequent since the day on which he witnessed the sudden and utter destruction of the strange brig.

“Don’t let your spirits down, Fred,” said Tom, whose hopeful and earnest disposition often reanimated his friend’s drooping spirits; “it will only unfit you for doing any good service.  Besides, I think we have no cause yet to despair.  We know that your father came up this inlet, or strait, or whatever it is, and he had a good stock of provisions with him, according to the account we got at Upernavik, and it is not more than a year since he was there.  Many and many a whaler and discovery ship has wintered more than a year in these regions.  And then, consider the immense amount of animal life all round us.  They might have laid up provisions for many months long before winter set in.”

“I know all that,” replied Fred, with a shake of his head; “but think of yon brig that we saw go down in about ten minutes.”

“Well, so I do think of it.  No doubt the brig was lost very suddenly, but there was ample time, had there been any one on board, to have leaped upon the ice, and they might have got to land by jumping from one piece to another.  Such things have happened before frequently.  To say truth, at every point of land we turn, I feel a sort of expectation amounting almost to certainty that we shall find your father and his party travelling southward on their way to the Danish settlements.”