the Pacific, the
futility of the golden dreams of the greedy old merchants who tried to
reach the wealth of the Orient by short cuts through the ice has been
demonstrated. Although no money is likely to be made out of the
Arctic, we want information thence which it is almost impossible to
get; and the almost impossible is dear to every valiant heart.

We know a good deal about the state of matters near the poles, but yet
not enough to let us understand all the phenomena of our own lands. In
this respect, however, the South Pole is the most promising field, for
its surroundings probably conceal the mainspring of the great system
of winds which do the work of the air on every land and sea. Dr.
Nansen has promised to go there after returning from the North, and
solving its simpler problems. The chilly distinction of being the
coldest part of the earth is probably due to the northern parts of
Eastern Siberia, and not to the North Pole. The "magnetic pole," where
the needle hangs vertically, has been found in the Arctic archipelago
north of America, and in many ways scientific observations there are
worth more than at the North Pole itself.

We know that, if attained, the North Pole would probably be like
any other part of the Arctic regions, presenting a landscape of ice
and snow, perhaps with black rock showing here and there, containing
fossils of a former age of heat, perhaps broken by pools or lanes of
open water. The pole has no physical mark any more than the top of a
spinning coin has, and the pole is not even a fixed point; like
the end of the axis of the spinning coin, it moves a little to and
fro on the circumference. If the geographical point were reached, the
pole-star would be seen shining almost vertically overhead,
describing a tiny circle around the actual zenith; and all the
other stars of the northern half of the sky would appear slowly
wheeling in horizontal circles, never rising, never setting, and each
completing its circuit in the space of twenty-three hours and
fifty-six minutes. In summer the sun would appear similarly, never
far above the horizon, but circling for more than half the year in a
spiral, winding upward until about 25 deg. above the horizon, and winding
downward again until lost to view. The periods of daylight and
darkness at the poles do not last exactly six months each, as little
geography books are prone to assert. Such little books ignore the
atmosphere for the sake of simplicity,