40. THE OCEAN WORLD. 



by whirlwinds, whicli seem capable of blowing the ships out of the 

 water, seizing them by the keel, whirling them round on an axis, 

 and finally capsizing them. "At the period of the changing mon- 

 soon, the winds, breaking loose from their controlling forces, seem to 

 rage with a fury capable of breaking up the very foundations of the 

 deep." 



The hurricanes of the Atlantic occur in the months of August and 

 September, while the south-west monsoon of Africa and the south- 

 east monsoon of the West Indies are at their height ; the agents of 

 the one drawing the north-east trade-winds into the interior of Mexico 

 and Texas, the other drawing them into the interior of Africa, greatly 

 disturbing the equilibrium of the atmosphere. 



The Arctic Regions. 



The extreme columns of the known world are Mount Parry, 

 situated at eight degrees from the North Pole, and Mount Ross, 

 twelve degrees from the South Pole. Beyond these limits our maps 

 tell us nothing ; a blank space marks each extremity of the terrestrial 

 axis. Will man ever succeed in passing these icy barriers ? Will he 

 ever justify the prediction of the poet Seneca, who tells us that " the 

 time will come in the distant future when Ocean will relax her hold 

 on the world, when the immense earth will be open, when Tethys 

 will appear amid new orbs, and where Thule (Iceland) shall no 

 longer be the extreme limit of the earth?" 



" Venient annis 

 Sjecula seris quibus oceanus 

 Vincula rerum laxet et ingens 

 Pateat tellus, Tethysque novos 

 Detegat orbes, nee sit terris 

 Ultima Thule." 



No one can say. Every step we have taken in order to approach 

 the North Pole has been dearly purchased ; and it is not without 

 reason that navigators have named the south point of Greenland 

 Cape Farewell. Of the number of expeditions, for the most part 

 English, which have been fitted out, at the cost of nearly a million 

 sterling, to explore the Frozen Ocean, one-twentieth have had for 

 their mission to ascertain the fate of the lamented Sir John Franklin. 

 Scandinavian traditions attribute the first attempts to penetrate 

 the Arctic circle to tlie son of the King Rodian, who lived in the 

 seventh century; to Osher, the Norwegian, in 873; and to the 

 Princes Harold and Magnus, in 1150; but the first navigator in 



