316 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. IX. 



would be afforded of deciding the question. The 

 trial would soon be made, and from the experience 

 of Parry would be made without danger of loss 

 to ships or men, for it is probable they would 

 not have any ice-bound shores to contend with. 

 The distance from Hakluyt's Headland to the 

 Pole is 600 geographical miles. Granting the 

 ships to make only twenty miles in twenty-four 

 hours (on the supposition 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 ne- 

 cessary, 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 ob- 

 jections against this, and other daring enterprises 

 if not attended with the prospect of probable pro- 

 fit, let them receive the answer given by that 

 brave old navigator, Sir Martin Frobisher, 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 that is 

 left yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be 

 made famous and fortunate." We may still say — 

 " The North-Pole is the only thing in the world 

 about which we know nothing ; and that want of 

 all knowledge ought to operate as a spur to adopt 



