Ix | THE SEA 267 
red stretching round the whole heavens. 
Gradually as the sun retreated deeper and 
deeper, the sky became a marvellous golden 
curtain, in front of which the gray clouds 
coiled themselves into weird forms before 
dissolving into space. . . .” 
THE POLES 
The Arctic and Antarctic regions have 
always exercised a peculiar fascination over 
the human mind. Until now every attempt 
to reach the North Pole has failed, and the 
South has proved even more inaccessible. 
In the north, Parry all but reached lat. 83 ; 
in the south no one has penetrated beyond 
lat. 71.11. And yet, while no one can say 
what there may be round the North Pole, and 
some still imagine that open water might be 
found there, we can picture to ourselves the 
extreme South with somewhat more confidence. 
Whenever ships have sailed southwards, 
except at a few places where land has been 
met with, they have come at last to a wall of 
ice, from fifty to four hundred feet high. In 
