Importance of a Visit to the North Pole. 297 



bound shores to contend with. The distance from Hakluvt's 

 Headland to the Pole is 600 geographical miles. Granting 

 the ships to make only 20 miles in 24 hours (on the supposi- 

 tion of much sailing-ice to go through), even in that case it 

 would require but a month to enable the explorer to put his 

 foot on the pivot or point of the axis on which the globe of 

 the earth turns ; remain there a month, if necessary, to 

 obtain the sought-for information ; and then, with a southerly 

 current, a fortnight — probably less — would bring him back to 

 Spitzbergen. 



To such as may venture to raise their feeble objections 

 against this, and other daring enterprises if not attended 

 with the prospect of probable profit, let them receive the 

 answer given by that brave old navigator, Sir Martin Fro- 

 bisher, when attempts were made by his friends to dissuade 

 him from engaging in the discovery of a north-west passage 

 — " It is the only thing in the world left yet undone, where 

 a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate.'' We 

 may still say — " The North Pole is the only thing in the 

 world about w^hich we know nothing ; and that want of all 

 knowledge ought to operate as a spur to adopt the means of 

 wiping away that stain of ignorance from this enlightened 

 age." — Arctic Voyages of Discovery, by Sir John Barrorv, 

 Bart., F.B.S., p. 313. 



2." What a Visitor to the Pole of the Earth might obtain in the 

 way of Science. 



To describe what a visitor to the Pole might obtain in the 

 way of science, it can only be said, in our present state of 

 ignorance, that the whole field would be open to him ; every 

 thing would be novel, and that alone would rouse his attentive 

 faculties — Est hominum natura novitatis avida. The difficulties 

 that would occur may be appreciated at home, but they will 

 be greater or less according to circumstances, of which we 

 yet know nothing ; that is, whether the pole be covered with 

 an open sea, an icy sea, or by land ; and which of the three 

 would create the greatest difficulties in the way of acquiring 

 information \ In all respects an open sea would appear t<) 



VOL. XTi. NO. LXXX. — APRIL 1846. U 



