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Various

"The Illustrated London Reading Book"


This, this is freedom, such as Angels use,
And kindred to the liberty of God!
POLLOCK.
* * * * *


THE POLAR REGIONS.

The adventurous spirit of Englishmen has caused them to fit out no less
than sixty expeditions within the last three centuries and a half, with
the sole object of discovering a north-west passage to India. Without
attempting even to enumerate these baffled essays, we will at once carry
our young readers to these dreary regions--dreary, merely because their
capabilities are unsuited to the necessities which are obvious to all,
yet performing their allotted office in the economy of the world, and
manifesting the majesty and the glory of our great Creator.
[Illustration: SIR JAMES ROSS'S SHIPS BESET IN A PACK OF ICE.]
Winter in the Arctic Circle is winter indeed: there is no sun to
gladden with his beams the hearts of the voyagers; but all is wrapt in
darkness, day and night, save when the moon chances to obtrude her faint
rays, only to make visible the desolation of the scene. The approach of
winter is strongly marked. Snow begins to fall in August, and the ground
is covered to the depth of two or three feet before October.


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