Chap. IX. PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 319 



is the wall of China? which has not only been 

 seen by Lord Macartney and his party, but scaled, 

 and its broad parapet trodden on, by them. With 

 how much more brilliant a lustre would this great 

 moralist have decorated the descendants of that 

 man, who had stood on the pivot whereon this 

 globe of ours for ever turns, and hoisted the British 

 flag on the most remarkable spot on the earth's 

 surface? The wall of China may be seen any day, 

 and any one without the least difficulty might ob- 

 tain a view of it, by a trip in one of our yachts to 

 the Gulf of Leatung, into which it descends and 

 terminates. 



To describe what a visitor to the Pole might ob- 

 tain 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 circum- 

 stances, 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 acquir- 

 ing information ? In all respects an open sea 

 would appear to be the most disadvantageous. In 

 the first place it would in all probability be so 

 deep, that the ship could not anchor; or deep 



