
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14ru. 
Polar Problems—Arctic and Antarctic, 
BY 
May NirLicER CHRISTY: F-G:S., 
With Lantern Illustrations. 
aa the old-time voyages of plucky Martin Frobisher, 
Columbus, and Magellan, through the long tale of daring 
captains such as Hudson, Ross, Franklin, Davis, who have 
dotted the realms of eternal ice with the record of their deeds, 
and have left,—many of them,—their frozen corpses to wait 
amid those awful solitudes until the crack of doom, the lecturer 
came to speak of our modern giant, Nansen, and his record 
yoyage within 227 miles of the North Pole without the loss of a 
single man, and to the still later exploit of the Duke of the 
Abruzzi’s sea-captain, who holds for the present the world’s 
championship by his approach of yet another 20 miles nearer to 
the coveted spot. By the aid of a number of interesting old 
maps, Mr. Christy was able to show his audience very clearly 
how, when men had as yet no notion of the existence of the 
American Continent, and thought the earth was smaller than we 
know it to be, minds of explorers were set on reaching the 
eastern shores of Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic, and 
how this idea prompted Columbus in undertaking his famous 
voyage. To the day of his death, he said, Columbus had 
probably no notion that the land he had come upon was other 
than the outlying coasts of Cepango (Japan), Cathay, or India. 
From this idea, of course, sprang the name West Indies as 
applied to the great islands now called by that denomination. 
When the mistake was discovered, the enormous extent of the 
new territory was not yet known, and attempt after attempt 
was made to round the northern coasts of America in order 
to continue the journey. It was with the same view of 
getting round the obstructing land that Magellan sailed south, 
and, having’ brought his brave little vessel through the glacier- 
bordered straits that bear his name, emerged among the 
monstrous billows that make that part of the South Pacific a 
terror to navigators of to-day. At the other extremity of the 
American Continent the persistent attempts to find a North- 
West passage led to discoveries and deeds of heroism too 
numerous to mention. Among the discoveries was that of 
