632 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



WONDERS OF THE ARCTIC WORLD. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



MYSTERY, FABLE AND MARVELLOUS FACTS. 



THE wonders of Nature are distributed throughout all space, 

 except that there is no space, for all conceivable distances in the 

 apparent void are inhabited by atoms of life ; airy motes, yet 

 living, and performing the duties of their several spheres accord- 

 ing to creation's law. So, in the hyperborean regions of per- 

 petual ice, where freezing cold repels every effort at exploration, 

 there, also, animal life teems, though with less diversification 

 than in tropical climates. 



The mystery which surrounds the impenetrable region of the 

 North Pole is embalmed in numerous stories and wild theories, 

 ill which goblins, ghouls, and ice-sprites figure conspicuously. 

 There sits a siren, wrapped in a mantle of snow, decorated with 

 glittering icicles and her hair sparkling with frost spangles, 

 crooning a lay which the north wind sings so monotonously in 

 winter. Her voice is husky, but her eyes are bright as Venus 

 shining over a waste of sleet on a cold, clear night. The light 

 of her eye attracts explorers, who follow as it recedes, until 

 drawn within the magnetic circle of her power, she sends a shiver 

 of death through them, and they become spirits of her frost 

 realm. There is also a phantom ship, manned by a phantom 

 crew. Her rigging hangs thick with jagged ice, and the shrouds 

 are clothed with snow. The silent men are muffled in overcoats 

 white with frost, while their hair and beards are hoary, but not 

 with age. This phantom vessel appears in the offing to Arctic 

 travelers, and is the sure precursor to fatal calamity. These and 

 other wild stories are told of the mysterious North to deter ad- 



