1856.] . The Mythie Sea. 



49 



His specifications read thus; "I do not claim the employment of 

 flanges or lips on the upper surface of the shoe, but I claim constructing 

 the shoe with a detatched flange, secured as described, so that the side 

 and front fancies shall firmly fasten tlie shoe to the hoof." 



It would seem, indeed, most desirable to secure some invention that 

 would obviate the many serious evils that attend our present mode of 

 shoeing horses. To such an inventor, all horsemen, as well as the 

 horses, would award a "vote of thanks." 



"THE MYTHIC SEA 



The following, from the Sandn..ky Re^jister, is a glowing descrip- 

 tion of the open sea said to have been discovered by Dr. Kane in the 

 hyperborean regions which he has recently explored : 

 _ " For ages," says the Jieyute,; " there has existed a myth concern- 

 ing a Northern Ocean, whose shores were the impenetrable barriers of 

 ice, and whose waters held a life and music all its own. The Seandi 

 navians remember the myth, and to this day, in Sweden, and Xorway" 

 and the Northern Islands, the great unknown sea has existence in the 

 belief of every superstitious mind. To us, who reason so philosophically 

 that nothing is hidden, it was not deemed probable that such a body of 

 water did or could exist ; and though many navigators asserted their 

 belief in the myth, it has not had suflicient data to claim attention 

 A few minds, keen from observation, and sagacious from nature, still 

 clung to the ancient story, and suffered it not to die. One of these 



^^hZld'' ^"''' ^^^ "'" '"''"™' ^'"^" ^'^^ *''^'"8' ^^^^ *« '»=* 

 Our readers doubtless perused the narrative of the Kane Expedition 

 with a breathless attention, and from it learned that the intrepid navi- 

 gator eft his vessel fast in the almost impenetrable mountains of ice, in 



Z]^t f /;«, *' "''"• ™'-*' P»«l^'°g ""i^ way in sledges and on foot 

 to latitude 82 deg. 30 min., where he stood upon the shores of, to his 

 eyes, a limitless sea. Three thousand square miles did he scan with 

 his eye and glass, and yet no bounds of that expanse of water were 

 found ; for bfty-two hours did a heavy gale from the north heave up 

 the heavy surf, and yet it brought down not a particle of ice-showing 



VOL. I, NO. I 4:. ° 



