30 DUBLIN UNIVERSITY 



nemara currach, perhaps without a sail, and certainly without a mag- 

 net, guided solely by the stars of heaven ? Yet it is difficult to believe 

 that St. Brendan had it in his power to man a better sort of craft than 

 the skin-covered boat still used by the adventurous fishermen on the 

 west coast of Ireland. It may, perhaps, be matter of doubt whether a 

 voyage to America was possible in such a vessel, although the canoes of 

 the Pacific have often been driven before a gale to incredible distances, 

 without swamping ; but this at least is quite certain, that, whatever boat 

 St. Brendan had, it was immeasurably inferior to the good ship Fox, in 

 which my friend made his successful voyage to the Arctic regions. The 

 discovery of St. Brendan, if indeed he did discover the great conti- 

 nent of America, was allowed to fall into oblivion ; and a thousand 

 years passed away before anybody attempted to follow his footsteps. 

 He himself knew not the value of his discovery, nor did any of his con- 

 temporaries. But the discoveries of our M'Clures and M'Clintocks are 

 not likely to meet with such an end. They are hailed with applause, 

 and have been received with all the intelligent sympathies of a scientific 

 age, well able to appreciate and to make use of them ; and I trust be- 

 fore long we shall be called upon to appreciate new and further discove- 

 ries in the same fertile field of investigation, for I am not one of those 

 who think that the success which has attended the intrepid voyages of 

 our modern Arctic navigators is an argument against a continuation of 

 the search. It may be that a north-west passage, which cannot be 

 passed except by such daring and undaunted spirits as our Franklins, 

 and M'Clures, and M'Clintocks, is not worth much to the interests of 

 commerce ; but is it nothing to have the knowledge of the geography of 

 those mysterious regions which their perils have won for us ? Is it no- 

 thing to have careful observations of the astronomical and meteorological 

 phenomena of such high latitudes ? Is it nothing to learn something of 

 the Flora and Fauna of the Polar regions, and the conditions on which 

 animal and vegetable life may be sustained under the disadvantage of a 

 temperature 100° below zero ? Is it nothing to learn the variations of the 

 needle, and the laws of terrestrial magnetism, at a degree or two from 

 the Poles ? It is impossible to say what benefits to science and to man- 

 kind may be the result of such knowledge ; and I would therefore hope 

 that the success which has attended these investigations, perilous as they 

 doubtless are, will not be converted into an argument against continuing 

 them. I do hope and trust that many well-appointed ships will yet 

 go forth, manned by our British hearts of oak, and commanded by 



