THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF THE SEA, ETC. 199 



towards the mystic cii'cles of the polar regions : there icebergs are 

 framed and glaciers launched : there the tides have their cradle, the 

 whales then* nursery : there the winds complete their circuits, and 

 the cmTents of the sea their round in the wonderful system of 

 oceanic circulation : there the Am'ora Borealis is hghted up and 

 the trembling needle brought to rest ; and there too, in the mazes 

 of that mystic circle, terrestrial forces of occult power and of vast 

 influence upon the well-being of man are continually at play. 

 Within the arctic circle is the pole of the Avinds and the poles of 

 the cold ; the pole of the earth and of the magnet. It is a circle 

 of mysteries ; and the desire to enter it, to explore its untrodden 

 wastes and secret chambers, and to study its physical aspects, has 

 gro"\vii into a longing. Noble daring has made arctic ice and 

 snow-clad seas classic ground. It is no feverish excitement nor 

 vain ambition that leads man there. It is a higher feeling, a hoKer 

 motive — a deshe to look into the works of creation, to comprehend 

 the economy of our planet, and to grow wiser and better by the 

 knowledge. Soon after the discovery of America, John Cabot and 

 his sons, mth five ships, sailed upon the first arctic expedition. 

 Between that year and the present no less than 155 vessels, besides 

 boat and land parties, have at various periods, and mth divers 

 objects in view, been sent from Europe and America, up into those 

 inhospitable regions. Whatever may have been the immediate 

 object of these various expeditions, whether to enlarge the fields of 

 commerce, to carry the Bible, to spread civihzation, to push con- 

 quests, or to bring back contriliutions to science, they have never lost 

 sight of the promise made by Colmnbus of a western route to India. 

 422. Like the ah', Hke the body, the ocean must have a system 

 The first suggestions of circulatiou for its waters. No other h-vTothesis 



ot an open sea in the ^^^ i • ji o i t • ^ i /• " i 



Arctic Ocean. Will cxplam the lact w^hicn observations reveal con- 



cerning the saltness of the sea, the constituents of sea water, and 

 many other phenomena. An attentive study of the ciuTents of 

 the sea, and a close examination of the laws which govern the 

 movements of the waters in their channels of cn'culation through 

 the ocean, wiU lead any one irresistibly to the conclusion that 

 always, in simimer and winter, there must be, somevfhere within 

 the arctic chcle, a large body of open water. This open water 

 must impress a curious featm^e upon the physical aspects of those 

 regions. The whales had taught us to suspect the existence of 

 open water in the arctic basin, and in their mute way told of a 

 passage there, at least sometimes. It is the custom among whalers 



