THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 223 



and very curious curve, depending on the superficial heat or 

 cold in different latitudes. At the equator the depth of this 

 level of constant temperature is 7,200 feet; in latitude 56 

 it is at the surface ; in the Arctic regions it descends 

 again to 4,500 feet ; the temperature in each case being in- 

 variably the same (that is 39^), below the level of these 

 several depths. The value of such observations to every 

 theory of submarine currents will readily be perceived. 



To the domain of the North Atlantic belong those Arctic 

 Seas, which', stretching northwards on each side of the pro- 

 jecting continent of Greenland, lead on the western side to 

 the ice-bound recesses of Baffin and Hudson Bays on the 

 eastern to Iceland and Spitzbergen, possibly even wrapping 

 round the Pole itself; though we are yet ignorant (as in the 

 case of the southern Pole also) whether this great axis of our 

 globe terminates in land or water. These northern seas have 

 been during the last forty years the scene of those bold and 

 perilous enterprises of English navigators, which give us so 

 much to admire; alloyed by one great calamity which we 

 can never cease to deplore. The problem of the North-west 

 passage solved, and its utter uselessness ascertained, the stern 

 regions of the Northern Coast of America may wisely now be 

 left to their primitive solitude. If other attempt be made 

 hereafter in Arctic discovery, we would fain see it take a 

 direction to the east of Spitzbergen ; a route hitherto unat- 

 tempted by English navigators, and which would be aided by 

 means wholly unknown in the earlier days of Arctic dis- 

 covery. We confess our desire that the nearest approach of 

 man to the pole of his planet should be due to English en- 

 terprise and perseverance. 



In a chapter on ' Ocean Eoutes ' our author gives some 

 graphic narratives of that racing on the high seas, which, if 

 it be the pride and profit of modern navigation, is also often- 

 times to be accounted its folly and peril. The' struggle for 



