10 THE IMPORTANCE OF 



mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating 

 into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's and 

 Davis's Straits, while we are looking for them be- 

 neath the Arctic circle, we hear that they have 

 pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, 

 that they are at the Antipodes, and engaged under 

 the frozen serpent of the south. Faulkland isl- 

 and, which seemed too remote and romantic an 

 object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a 

 stage and resting place for their victorious indus- 

 try. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discourag- 

 ing to them, than the accumulated winter of both 

 poles. We know that while some of them draw 

 the line or strike the harpoon on the coast of Af- 

 rica, others run the longitude, and pursue their 

 gigantic game on the coast of Brazil. No sea, but 

 what is vexed . with their fisheries. Neither the 

 perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of 

 France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of 

 English enterprise, have carried their most perilous 

 mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it 

 has been pursued by this recent people, who are 

 still in the gristle, and not hardened into man- 

 hood." 



The war of our independence, however, gave a 

 new direction to the " victorious industry," which 

 was carried to an extent which far surpassed " the 

 sagacity of English enterprise," whether in the 



