NOVEL MUSIC. 193 



frequented by the whale and the larger representa- 

 tives of ocean life. They were in numbers flitting 

 and hovering over the crests of the waves, like 

 their relatives of kinder climates, the Cape of 

 Good Hope pigeons, Mother Carey's chickens, and 

 the petrels everywhere else. 



" It must have been an imposing sight, as Morton 

 stood at this termination of his journey, looking 

 out upon the great waste of waters before him. 

 Not a speck of ice could be seen. There, from a 

 height of 480 feet, which commanded a horizon of 

 almost forty miles, his ears were gladdened with 

 the novel music of dashing waves ; and a surf, 

 breaking in among the rocks at his feet, stayed 

 his further progress." 



Strong presumptive evidence, all this, that there 

 is an ocean of open water round the pole, and a 

 milder climate there than exists nearer to the arctic 

 circle. Had the short barrier of ice that inter- 

 vened between the brig and that mysterious sea 

 been removed, as, perchance, it is sometimes re- 

 moved by a hot summer, Dr. Kane might have 

 been the first to reach the North Pole. This, how- 

 ever, is reserved for some other navigator. The 

 gallant Kane now lies in an early grave ; but some 

 of his enterprising comrades have returned to those 

 regions, bent on solving this problem ; and it is 

 possible that, even while we now write, their ad- 

 venturous keel may be ploughing the waters of the 

 hitherto untraversed and mysterious polar sea. 



(451) 13 



