676 THE UNIVERSE. 



they are contrasted with the horrible solitudes of the 

 boreal regions, where navigators have wintered several 

 seasons inclosed by bergs or mountains of ice, and where 

 they have sometimes traversed three or four hundred 

 leagues of frozen sea. 



For long a sombre and seemingly impenetrable mys- 

 tery veiled from us everything that happened in these lati- 

 tudes, and all that men knew of them was derived from 

 the mournful and obscure legends of superstitious whalers, 

 until a painful accident directed to these regions the atten- 

 tion of the civilized world. 



Towards the commencement of this centviry it was sup- 

 posed that the north of America, long considered as a 

 land that prolonged itself over the pole, was perhaps 

 occupied by a sea wdiich might permit a passage from 

 Euroj^e to Asia by a shorter route. 



Two intrepid navigators, Parry and Ross, had in the 

 course of their celebrated voyages in A^ain braved tempests 

 and wintered in the midst of ices in order to seek out this 

 passage. 



Bu^t after their attempts, a final expedition, commanded 

 by Sir John Franklin, already known for his arctic explo- 

 rations, not having returned, all the European nations wei'e 

 seized with a strong desire to find some traces of the 

 noble-minded navigator, and it was during the expeditions 

 fitted out everywhere for this purpose, that the jjassage 

 round the north of America was discovered by Captain 

 M'Clure. Being a man of great resolution he exclaimed 

 at starting, "I will discover Franklin or the passage;" 

 and he ke2)t one of his two promises. 



INIen had dreamed of the existence of a polar sea, but 

 it was thought to be completely blocked with eternal ice. 

 Captain Parry, when he started from Spitzbergen with 



