97 



THE SECRET OF THE NORTH POLE. 



IF an astronomer upon some distant planet has ever 

 thought the tiny orb we inhabit worthy of telescopic 

 study, there can be little doubt that the snowy regions 

 which surround the arctic and antarctic poles must have 

 attracted a large share of his attention. Waxing and 

 waning with the passing seasons, those two white patches 

 afford significant intelligence respecting the circum- 

 stances of our planet's constitution. They mark the 

 direction of the imaginary axial line upon which the 

 planet rotates ; so that we can imagine how an astro- 

 nomer on Mars or Venus would judge from their posi- 

 tion how it fares with terrestrial creatures. There may, 

 indeed, be Martial Whewells who laugh to scorn the 

 notion that a globe so inconveniently circumstanced 

 as ours can be inhabited, and are ready to show that if 

 there were living beings here they must be quickly 

 destroyed by excessive heat. On the other hand, there 

 are doubtless sceptics on Venus also who smile at the 

 vanity of those who can conceive a frozen world, such 

 as this our outer planet, to be inhabited by any sort 

 of living creature. But we doubt not that the more ad- 

 vanced thinkers both in Mars and Venus are ready to 

 admit that, though we must necessarily be far inferior 

 beings to themselves, we yet manage to ( live and move 

 and have our being' on this ill-conditioned globe of 



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