102 The Northwest Passage, ^c. 



whom the polar star, could he see it, would appear in the zenith. 

 Such are some of the most obvious results of a position on the 

 pole. The man who first establishes himself on this sublime 

 point, will have more reason for self-congratulation than he 

 who led the Persian myriads into Greece, or he who pushed 

 the Macedonians to the Indus. 



On these interesting subjects, we beg leave to refer our 

 readers to a very able treatise in the Quarterly Review for 

 February, 1818, where all the topics at the head of this article 

 are discussed with much learning and ability. — We extract the 

 following passage : 



" If an open navigation should be discovered across the 

 polar basin, the passage over the pole or close to it, will be 

 one of the most interesting events to science that has ever 

 occurred. It will be the first time that the problem was prac- 

 tically solved with which the learners of geography are some- 

 times puzzled — that of going the shortest way between two 

 places lying east and west, by taking a direction of north and 

 south. The passage of the pole will require the undivided 

 attention of the navigator. On approaching this point, from 

 which the northern coasts of Europe, Asia, and America, and 

 every part of them, will bear south of him, nothing can possibly 

 assist him in determining his course, and keeping on the right 

 meridian of his destined place, but a correct knowledge of the 

 time : and yet no means of ascertaining that time will be 

 afforded him. The only time he can have, with any degree 

 of certainty, as long as he remains on or near the pole, must 

 be that of Greenwich, and this he can know only from good 

 chronometers ; for, from the general hazy state of the atmos- 

 phere, and particularly about the horizon, and the sameness 

 in the altitude of the sun at every hour in the four-and-twenty, 

 he must not expect to obtain an approximation even of the 

 apparent time, by observation, and he will have no stars to 

 assist him. All his ideas respecting the heavens and the reck- 

 onings of his time will be reversed, and the change not gradual, 

 as in proceeding from the east to the west, or the contrary, 

 but instantaneous. The magnetic needle will point to its 



