profit can be gained by solving the problems associated with the solar corona. The tree of science has its blossoms as well as its fruits, and perhaps the results of the observations we are advocating will belong to the former rather than the latter. But what then? Can we limit science to remunerative researches alone? As well might we attempt to get fruit from a tree whose leaves and blossoms we systematically plucked off. Latent though the power of science now is in great part, yet science is the greatest power our country possesses. It has been treated for a long while as a troublesome beggar-a few hundreds doled out here and a few thousands there. The country does not yet know its own interest. Because little has been asked, it has thought little could be returned. The time is coming when not hundreds or thousands will be asked for science, but millions freely and eagerly givenwhen the example of other countries, rapidly passing in advance of England through their scientific resources, will force on our attention the folly of a system which grants thirty millions yearly to secure the means of carrying on war, and refuses a few paltry thousands to secure the noblest portion of our strength.

(From the Daily News for November 5, 1870.)

97

THE SECRET OF THE NORTH POLE.

If an astronomer upon some distant planet has ever thought the tiny orb we inhabit worthy of telescopic study, there can be little doubt that the snowy regions which surround the arctic and antarctic poles must have attracted a large share of his attention. Waxing and waning with the passing seasons, those two white patches afford significant intelligence respecting the circumstances of our planet's constitution. They mark the direction of the imaginary axial line upon which the planet rotates; so that we can imagine how an astronomer on Mars or Venus would judge from their position how it fares with terrestrial creatures. There may, indeed, be Martial Whewells who laugh to scorn the notion that a globe so inconveniently circumstanced as ours can be inhabited, and are ready to show that if there were living beings here they must be quickly destroyed by excessive heat. On the other hand, there are doubtless sceptics on Venus also who smile at the vanity of those who can conceive a frozen world, such as this our outer planet, to be inhabited by any sort of living creature. But we doubt not that the more advanced thinkers both in Mars and Venus are ready to admit that, though we must necessarily be far inferior beings to themselves, we yet manage to 'live and move and have our being' on this ill-conditioned globe of

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ours. And these, observing the earth's polar snow-caps, must be led to several important conclusions respecting physical relations here.

It is, indeed, rather a singular fact to contemplate, that ex-terrestrial observers, such as these, may know much more than we ourselves do respecting those mysterious regions which lie close around the two poles. Their eyes may have rested on spots which with all our endeavours we have hitherto failed to reach. Whether, as some have thought, the arctic pole is in summer surrounded by a wide and tide-swayed ocean; whether there lies around the antarctic pole a wide continent bespread with volcanic mountains larger and more energetic than the two burning cones which Ross found on the outskirts of this desolate region; or whether the habitudes prevailing near either pole are wholly different from those suggested by geographers and voyagers --such questions as these might possibly be resolved at once, could our astronomers take their stand on some neighbouring planet, and direct the searching power of their telescopes upon this terrestrial orb. For this is one of those cases referred to by Humboldt, when he said that there are circumstances under which man is able to learn more respecting objects millions of miles away from him than respecting the very globe which he inhabits.

If we take a terrestrial globe, and examine the actual region near the North Pole which has as yet remained unvisited by man, it will be found to be far smaller than most people are in the habit of imagining. In nearly

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all maps the requirements of charting result in a considerable exaggeration of the polar regions. This is the case in the ordinary maps of the two hemispheres ' which are to be found in all atlases. And it is, of course, the case to a much more remarkable extent in what is termed Mercator's projection. In a Mercator's chart we see Greenland, for example, exaggerated into a continent fully as large as South America, or to seven or eight times its real dimensions.

There are three principal directions in which explorers have attempted to approach the North Pole. The first is that by way of the sea which lies between Greenland and Spitzbergen. We include under this head Sir Edward Parry's attempt to reach the pole by crossing the ice-fields which lie to the north of Spitzbergen. The second is that by way of the straits which lie to the west of Greenland. The third is that pursued by Russian explorers who have attempted to cross the frozen seas which surround the northern shores of Siberia.

In considering the limits of the unknown north-polar regions, we shall also have to take into account the voyages which have been made around the northern shores of the American continent in the search for a "north-western passage.' The explorers who set out upon this search found themselves gradually forced to seek higher and higher latitudes if they would find a way round the complicated barriers presented by the ice-bound straits and islands which lie to the north of the American continent. And it may be noticed in

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passing, as a remarkable and unforeseen circumstance, that the farther north the voyagers went the less severe was the cold they had to encounter. We shall see that this circumstance has an important bearing on the considerations we shall presently have to deal with.

One other circumstance respecting the search for the north-west passage, though not connected very closely with our subject, is so singular and so little known that we feel tempted to make mention of it at this point. The notion with which the seekers after a north-west passage set out was simply this, that the easiest way of reaching China and the East Indies was to pursue a course resembling as nearly as possible that on which Columbus had set out-if only it should appear that no impassable barriers rendered such a course impracticable. They quickly found that the American continents present an unbroken line of land from high northern latitudes far away towards the antarctic seas. But it is a circumstance worth noticing, that if the American continents had no existence, the direct westerly course pursued by Columbus was not only not the nearest way to the East Indian Archipelago, but was one of the longest routes which could possibly have been selected. Surprising as it may seem at first sight, a voyager from Spain for China and the East Indies ought, if he sought the absolutely shortest path, to set out on an almost direct northerly route! He would pass close by Ireland and Iceland, and so, near the North Pole, and onwards into the Pacific. This is what is called the great-circle route; and if it were only