eight o’clock in the morning
An inner court had been constructed , in the shape of a half-moon , fenced with tall pointed stakes , fifteen feet high , to which a postern gave entrance . Jaspar Hobson favoured the system of an unbroken enclosure with detached forts -LRB- a great improvement upon the tactics of Vauban and Cormontaigne -RRB- , and knew that to make his defence complete the summit of Cape Bathurst , which was the key of the position , must be fortified ; until that could be done , however , he thought the palisading would be a sufficient protection , at least against quadrupeds . The next thing was to lay in a supply of oil and lights , and accordingly an expedition was organised to a spot about fifteen miles distant where seals were plentiful , Mrs Paulina Barnett being invited to accompany the sportsmen , not indeed for the sake of watching the poor creatures slaughtered , but to satisfy her curiosity with regard to the country around Cape Bathurst , and to see some cliffs on that part of the coast which were worthy of notice . The Lieutenant chose as his other companions , Sergeant Long , and the soldiers Petersen , Hope , and Kellet , and the party set off at eight o'clock in the morning in two sledges , each drawn by six dogs , on which the bodies of the seals were to be brought back . The weather was fine , but the fog which lay low along the horizon veiled the rays of the sun , whose yellow disk was now beginning to disappear for some hours during the night , a circumstance which attracted the Lieutenant 's attention , for reasons which we will explain . That part of the shore to the west of Cape Bathurst rises but a few inches above the level of the sea , and the tides are-or are said to be-very high in the Arctic Ocean-many navigators , such as Parry , Franklin , the two Rosses , M'Clure , and M'Clintock , having observed that when the sun and moon were in conjunction the waters were sometimes twenty-five feet above the ordinary level . How then was it to be explained that the sea did not at high tide inundate Cape Bathurst , which possessed no natural defences such as cliffs or downs ?