ASPECT of the Polar Regions-Natural Phenomena-Arctic Ocean-Early ExplorationsFate of Sir Hugh Willoughby-Davis's Discoveries--Misfortunes of Barentz-Hudson's Discoveries Hearne-Capt Cook-Parry and Franklin's Voyages-Franklin's Overland Journey--Intense Sufferings--Parry's third Voyage--Buchan--Scoresby--Ross--Back-Dease and Simpson--Russian Explorations--Behring's Discoveries--Wranyell--Franklin's Last Expedition.

THE varied physical aspect of the globe offers as much to charm or awe the eye of man as to minister to his comfort and well-being. From the glowing heat and gorgeous vegetation of the torrid zone, we move through all gradations of climate and feature to the frigid regions of either pole, where perpetual ice and a depressed temperature present an extraordinary contrast to the lands of the sun from intensest heat we pass to intensest cold; from the sandy deserts of the south, to the icy deserts of the north. Yet there is

as much in the frozen zone to impress and elevate the mind of the beholder, as in the countries where nature displays herself in rich and exuberant loveliness. Beyond the seventieth degree of latitude, not a tree meets the eye, wearied with the white waste of snow: forests, woods, even shrubs, have disappeared, and given place to a few lichens and creeping wood plants which scantily clothe the indurated soil. Still, in the farthest north, nature claims her birthright of beauty; and in the brief and rapid summer she brings forth numerous flowers and grasses to bloom for a few days, until again blasted by the swiftly-recurring winter.

In these regions certain mysterious phenomena exhibit their most powerful effects here is the point of attraction of the compass needle; and here the dipping needle, which lies horizontal at the equator, points straight downward. Slowly, in its cycle of nearly two thousand years, this center or pole of magnetic attraction revolves in obedience to laws as yet unknown. Two degrees farther toward the north is situated the pole of cold-a mystery, like the former, to science, but equally inciting to curiosity. If induction may be trusted, the pole of the earth is less cold than the latitudes 15° below it.

Round the shores and seas of the arctic regions ice ever accumulates: a circle of two thousand miles diameter is occupied by frozen fields and floes of vast extent, or piled high with hugest forms, awful yet fantastic as a dreamer's fancy. Mountain masses

"Whose blocks of sapphire seem, to mortal eye,
Hewn from cerulean quarries in the sky,

With glacier battlements that crowd the spheres,
The slow creation of six thousand years,
Amidst immensity they tower sublime,
Winter's eternal palace, built by Time."

Here the months are divided into long periods of daylight and darkness: for many weeks the sun sinks not below the horizon; for three dreary months he appears not above it—

"And morning comes, but comes not clad in light;
Uprisen day is but a paler night."

But, in the absence of the great luminary, the vivid coruscations of the aurora borealis illuminate the wintery landscape, streaming across the skies in broad sheets of light, flashing in multicolored rays, or quivering in faint and feathery scintillations-a light that takes away the irksomeness of gloom, and makes the long night wondrous.

When we contemplate the aspect of the northern world,-bleak, naked, dreary, beaten by the raging tempest, and subject to an extremity of cold which, with us, is fatal to life and to all by which life is supported,—we naturally imagine that animal nature must exist there on a small scale, and under diminutive forms. It might be expected, that only a few dwarf and stunted species would be scattered along its melancholy shores, and that life, as it attempted to penetrate these realms of desolation, would grow faint and expire. But the mighty Architect of nature, whose ways and power far surpass

human comprehension, makes here a full display of his inexhaustible resources. He has filled these naked rocks and wintery seas with a swarming profusion of life, such as he scarcely brings forth under the most genial glow of tropical suns. He has stored them with the mightiest of living beings, compared to whose enormous bulk the elephant and hippopotamus, which rear their immense shapes amid the marshy plains of the tropics, seem almost diminutive. Even the smaller species, as that of the herring, issue forth from the frozen depths of the Arctic zone in shoals which astonish by their immensity. Moving in close and countless columns, they fill all the southern seas, and minister food to nations. The air, too, is darkened by innumerable flocks of sea-fowl, while, even upon the frozen surface of the land, animals of peculiar structure find food suited to their wants.

By what means, or by what resources, does Nature support, amid the frozen world, this immensity of life? Wonderful as are her operations, they are always arranged agreeably to the general laws imposed upon the universe; and we shall find, in the structure and condition of the animal world, the powers by which it is enabled to defy this frightful rigor of the elements. Some of the provisions by which animal frames are adapted to the varying extremes of the climate have almost the appearance of direct interposition; yet a more profound investigation always discovers the causes of them to be deeply lodged in their physical organization.

It is on the seas and shores of the Arctic zone that we chiefly observe this boundless profusion of life; and in conformity with that arrangement by which Nature supports the inhabitants of the seas, by making them the food of each other, so here also we observe a continued gradation of animals, rising one above another, the higher preying upon the lower, till food is at last found for those of largest bulk and most devouring appetite.

The basis of subsistence for the numerous tribes of the Arctic world is found in the genus medusa, which the sailors graphically describe as seablubber. The medusa is a soft, elastic, gelatinous substance, specimens of which may be seen lying on our own shores, exhibiting no signs of life except that of shrinking when touched. Beyond the Arctic circle it increases in an extraordinary degree, and is eagerly devoured by the finny tribes of all shapes and sizes. By far the most numerous, however, of the medusan races are of dimensions too small to be discerned without the aid of the microscope, -the application of which instrument shows them to be the cause of a peculiar color, which tinges a great extent of the Greenland Sea. This color is olive-green, and the water is dark and opaque compared to that which bears the common cerulean hue. These olive waters occupy about a fourth of the Greenland Sea, or above twenty thousand square miles; and hence the number of medusan animalcules which they contain is far beyond calculation. Mr. Scoresby estimates that two square miles contain 23,888,000,000,000; and as this number is beyond the range of human words and conceptions, he illustrates it by observing, that 80,000 persons would have been employed since the creation in counting it. This green sea may be considered as the polar pasture-ground, where whales are always seen in the greatest numbers. These prodigious animals cannot derive any direct subsistence from such

small invisible particles; but these form the food of other minute creatures, which then support others, till at length animals are produced of such size as to afford a morsel for their mighty devourers. The genus cancer, larger in size than the medusa, appears to rank second in number and importance. It presents itself under the various species of the crab, and, above all, of the shrimp, whose multitudes rival those of the medusa, and which in all quarters feed and are fed upon.

“There is," as observed by Lieutenant-Colonel Sabine, "a striking resemblance in the configuration of the northern coasts of the continents of Asia and America for several hundred miles on either side of Behring's Strait; the general direction of the coast is the same in both continents, the latitude is nearly the same, and each has its attendant group of islands to the north -the Asiatic continent, those usually known as the New Siberian Islandsand the American, those called by Sir Edward Parry, the North Georgian Group, and since fitly named, from their discoverer, the Parry Islands. The resemblance includes the islands also, both in general character and latitude."

With respect to the Arctic Ocean, a late writer explains-"We may view this great polar sea as inclosed within a circle whose diameter is 40°, or 2,400 geographical miles, and circumference 7,200 miles. On the Asiatic side of this sea are Nova Zembla and the New Siberian Islands, each extending to about the 76th degree of latitude. On the European and American sides are Spitzbergen, extending to about 80°, and a part of Old Greenland, whose northern extremity is yet unknown. Facing America is the large island washed by Regent's Inlet, Parry's or Melville's Islands, with some others, in latitude 70° to 76°, and beyond these nothing is known of any other land or islands; and if we may form an opinion, by inspecting the general chart of the earth, it would be, that no islands exist which could in any shape obstruct navigation." It is to these regions, and the labors of which they have been the scene, that we have for a short period to direct our attention.

The history of Arctic explorations properly begins at a period earlier by several centuries than is generally believed. Careful researches promoted and carried on of late years by the Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen, and others interested in the subject, have established the fact, that Newfoundland, Greenland, and several parts of the American coast, were visited by the Scandinavians-the Northmen and Sea-Kings of old-in the ninth and tenth centuries. While Alfred was engaged in expelling the Danes from England, and bestowing the rudiments of civilization on his country, and Charles the Bald was defending his kingdom against a host of competitors, the daring sea-rovers were forming settlements in Iceland. One hundred and twenty-five years later, A. D. 1000, Leif Erickson led the way to the westward, and landed on the shores of New England, between Boston and New York, naming the country Vinland, from the wild vines which grew in the woods. These adventurers made their way also to a higher northern latitude, and set up stones, carved with Runic inscriptions, with the date 1135, on Women's Islands-latitude 72° 55'-Baffin's Bay, where they were discovered in 1824. The colonists on the eastern coast of this great bay made regu lar trips to Lancaster Sound, and part of Barrow's Strait, in pursuit of fish,

The solid black line shows the outward course of the vessels; the dotted line denotes the drift of the vessels, their baffled attempt to reach Lancaster Sound a second time, and their return home.