Satisfied with the important results obtained by him, the Admiralty
appointed Parry to the command in 1821 of the -Hecla- and the -Fury-,
the latter built on the model of the former. On this new trip the
explorer surveyed with the greatest care the shores of Hudson's Bay and
the coast of the peninsula of Melville, not to be confounded with the
island of the same name. The winter was passed on Winter Island on the
eastern coast of this peninsula, and the same amusements were resorted
to which had succeeded so well on the previous expedition, supplemented
most effectively by the arrival on the 1st February of a party of
Esquimaux from across the ice. Their huts, which had not been
discovered by the English, were built on the beach; and numerous visits
paid to them during the eighteen months passed on Winter Island gave a
better notion than had ever before been obtained of the manners,
customs, character, &c., of this singular people.
The thorough survey of the Straits of Fury and Hecla, separating the
peninsula of Melville from Cockburn Island, involved the passing of a
second winter in the Arctic regions, and though the quarters were now
more comfortable, time dragged heavily, for the officers and men were
dreadfully disappointed at having to turn back just as they had thought
to start for Behring's Strait. On the 12th August the ice broke up, and
Parry wanted to send his men to Europe, and himself complete by land
the exploration of the districts he had discovered, but Captain Lyon
dissuaded him from a plan so desperate. The vessels therefore returned
to England with all hands after an absence of twenty-seven months,
having lost but five men, although two consecutive winters had been
spent in the Arctic regions.
Although the results of the second voyage were not equal to those of
the first, some of them were beyond price. It was now known that the
American coast did not extend beyond the 70 degrees N. lat., and that
the Atlantic was connected with the Arctic Ocean by an immense number
of straits and channels, most of them--the Fury, Hecla, and Fox, for
instance--obstructed with ice brought down by the currents. Whilst the
ice barrier on the south-east of Melville Peninsula appeared permanent,
that at Regent's Inlet was evidently the reverse. It might, therefore,
be possible to penetrate through it to the Polar basin, and it was with
this end in view that the -Fury- and -Hecla- were once more equipped,
and placed under the orders of Parry.
This voyage was the least fortunate of any undertaken by this skilful
seaman, not on account of any falling off in his work, but because he
was the victim of unlucky accidents and unfavourable circumstances.
Meeting, for instance, with an unusual quantity of ice in Baffin's Bay,
he had the greatest trouble to reach Prince Regent's inlet. Had he
arrived three weeks earlier he would probably have been able to land on
the American coast, but as it was he was obliged to make immediate
preparations for going into winter-quarters.
It was no very formidable matter to this experienced officer to spend a
winter under the Polar circle. He knew what precautions to take to
preserve the health of his crews, to keep himself well, and what
occupations and amusements would best relieve the tedium of a three
months' night. Races between the officers, masquerades and theatrical
entertainments, with the temperature maintained at 50 degrees
Fahrenheit kept all the men healthy and happy until the thaw, which set
in on the 20th July, 1825, enabled Parry to resume exploring
operations.
He now skirted along the eastern coast of Prince Regent's Inlet, but
the floating ice gathered about the vessels and drove them on shore.
The -Fury- was so much damaged that though four pumps were constantly
at work she could hardly be kept afloat, and Parry was trying to get
her repaired under shelter of a huge block of ice when a tempest came
on, broke in pieces the extemporary dock and flung the vessel again
upon the shore, where she had to be abandoned. Her crew were received
on the -Hecla-, which, after such an accident as this, was of course
obliged to return to England.
Parry's tempered spirit was not broken even by this last disaster. If
the Arctic Ocean could not be reached from Baffin's Bay, were there not
other routes still to be attempted? The vast tract of ocean between
Greenland and Spitsbergen, for instance, might turn out less dangerous,
freer as it of necessity would be from the huge icebergs which gather
about the Arctic coasts. The earliest expeditions in these latitudes of
which we have any record are those of Scoresby, who long cruised about
them in search of whales. In 1806 he penetrated in E. long. 16 degrees
(reckoning from Paris), beyond Spitzbergen, i.e. to N. lat. 81 degrees
30 minutes, where he saw ice stretching away in the E.N.E., whilst
between that and the S.E. the sea was open for a distance of thirty
miles. There was no land within 100 miles. It seems a matter of regret
that the whaler did not take advantage of the favourable state of the
sea to have advanced yet further north, when he might have made some
important discovery, perhaps even have reached the Pole itself.
Parry now resolved to do what the exigencies of his profession had
rendered impossible to Scoresby, and leaving London on the -Hecla- on
the 27th March, 1827, he reached Lapland in safety, and having at
Hammerfest embarked dogs, reindeer, and canoes, he proceeded on his way
to Spitzbergen. Port Snweerenburg, where he wished to touch, was still
shut in with ice; and against this barrier the -Hecla- struggled until
the 24th May, when Parry left her in Hinlopen Strait, and advanced
northwards with Ross, Crozier, a dozen men, and provisions for
seventy-two days in a couple of canoes. After leaving a depôt of
provisions at Seven Islands he packed his food and boats on sledges
specially constructed for the occasion, hoping to cross in them the
barrier of solid ice, and to find beyond a navigable if not an entirely
open sea. The ice did not, however, as Parry expected, turn out to form
a homogeneous mass. There were here and there vast gaps to be forded or
steep hills to be climbed, and in four days the explorers only advanced
about eight miles in a northerly direction. On the 2nd July, in a dense
fog, the thermometer marked 1 degree 9' above zero in the shade, and 8
degrees 3' in the sun; and as may be imagined the march across the
broken surface, gaping everywhere with fissures, was terribly arduous,
whilst the difficulties were aggravated by the continual glare from the
snow and ice. In spite, however, of all obstacles the party pressed
bravely on, and on the 20th July found they had got no further than N.
lat. 82 degrees 37 minutes, i.e. only about five miles beyond the point
reached three days previously. Now, as they had undoubtedly made at
least about fourteen miles in the interval, it was evident that the ice
on which they were was being drifted southwards by a strong current.
Parry at first concealed this most discouraging fact from his men; but
it soon became evident to every one that no progress was being made,
but the slight difference between their own speed as they struggled
over the many obstacles in their path and that of the current bearing
the ice-field in the opposite direction. Moreover, the expedition now
came to a place where the half-broken ice was not fit to bear the
weight of the men or of the sledges. It was in fact nothing more than
an immense accumulation of blocks of ice, which, tossed about by the
waves, made a deafening noise as they crashed against each other;
provisions too were running short, the men were discouraged, Ross was
hurt, Parry was suffering from inflammation of the eyes, and the wind
had veered into a contrary direction, driving the explorers southwards.
There was nothing for it but to turn back.
This venturesome trip, throughout which the thermometer had not sunk
beneath 2 degrees 2, might have succeeded had it been undertaken a
little earlier in the season, for then the explorers could have
penetrated beyond 82 degrees 4 minutes. In any case they would
certainly not have had to turn back on account of rain, snow, and damp,
all signs of the summer thaw.
When Parry got back to the -Hecla-, he found that she had been in the
greatest danger. Driven before a violent gale, her chains had been
broken by the ice, and she had been flung upon the beach, and run
aground. When got off, she had been taken to Waygat Strait. All dangers
past, however, the explorers got back safely in the rescued vessel to
the Orkneys, where they landed, and whence they returned to London,
arriving there on the 30th September.
Whilst Parry was seeking a passage to the Pacific, by way of Baffin's
or Hudson's Bay, several expeditions were organized to complete the
discoveries of Mackenzie, and survey the North American coast. These
expeditions were not fraught with any great danger, and the results
might be of the most vital importance alike to geographical and
nautical science. The command of the first was entrusted to Franklin
afterwards so justly celebrated, with whom were associated Dr.
Richardson, George Back, then a midshipman in the royal navy, and two
common seamen.
The explorers arrived on the 30th August at York Factory on the shores
of Hudson's Bay, and having obtained from the fur-hunters all the
information necessary to their success, they started again on the 9th
September, reaching Cumberland House, 690 miles further, on the 22nd
October. The season was now nearly at an end, but Franklin and Back
nevertheless succeeded in penetrating to Fort Chippeway on the western
side of Lake Athabasca, where they proposed making preparations for the
expedition of the ensuing summer. This trip of 857 miles was
accomplished in the depth of winter with the thermometer at between 40
degrees and 50 degrees below zero.
Early in spring, Dr. Richardson joined the rest of the party at Fort
Chippeway, and all started together on the 18th July, 1820, in the hope
of reaching comfortable quarters at the mouth of the Coppermine before
the bad season set in; Franklin and his people did not, however, make
sufficient allowance for the difficulties of the route or for the
obstacles resulting from the severity of the weather, and it took them
till the 20th August to cross the waterfalls, shallows, lakes, rivers,
and portages which impeded their progress. Game too was scarce. At the
first appearance of ice on the ponds the Canadian guides began to
complain; and when flocks of wild geese were seen flying southwards
they refused to go any further. Annoyed as he was at this absence of
good will in the people in his service, Franklin was compelled to give
up his schemes, and when 550 miles from Fort Chippeway, in N. lat. 64
degrees 28 minutes, W. long. 118 degrees 6 minutes, he built on the
banks of Winter River a wooden house, which he called Fort Enterprise.
Here the explorers collected as much food as they could, manufacturing
with reindeer flesh what is known throughout North America as
-pemmican-. At first the number of reindeer seen was considerable; no
less than 2000 were once sighted in a single day, but this was only a
proof that they were migrating to more clement latitudes. The
-pemmican- prepared from eighty reindeer and the fish obtained in
Winter River both run short before the expedition was able to proceed.
Whole tribes of Indians, on hearing of the arrival of the whites,
collected about the camp, greatly harassing the explorers by their
begging, and soon exhausted the supply of blankets, tobacco, &c., which
had been brought as means of barter.
Disappointed at the non-arrival of reinforcements with provisions,
Franklin sent Back with an escort of Canadians to Fort Chippeway on the
18th October.
"I had the pleasure," says Back, writing after his return, "of meeting
my friends all in good health, after an absence of nearly five months,
during which I travelled 1104 miles in snow-shoes, and had no other
covering at night in the woods than a blanket and deerskin, with the
thermometer frequently at 40 degrees, and once at 57 degrees below
zero, and sometimes passing two or three days without tasting food."
Those who remained at the fort also suffered terribly from cold, the
thermometer sinking three degrees lower than it had done when Parry was
at Melville Island, nine degrees nearer the pole. Not only did the men
suffer from the extreme severity of the cold, but the trees were frozen
to the pith, and axes broke against them without making so much as a
notch.
Two interpreters from Hudson's Bay had accompanied Back to Fort
Enterprise, one of whom had a daughter said to be the loveliest
creature ever seen, and who, though only sixteen, had already been
married twice. One of the English officers took her portrait, to the
terrible distress of her mother, who feared that if the "great chief of
England" saw the inanimate representation he would fall in love with
the original.
On the 14th June the Coppermine River was sufficiently free from ice to
be navigable, and although their provisions were all but exhausted, the
explorers embarked upon it. As it fortunately turned out, however, game
was very plentiful on the green banks of the river, and enough musk
oxen were killed to feed the whole party.
The mouth of the Coppermine was reached on the 18th July, when the
Indians, afraid of meeting their enemies, the Esquimaux, at once
returned to Fort Enterprise, whilst the Canadians scarcely dared to
launch their frail boats on the angry sea. Franklin at last succeeded
in persuading them to run the risk; but he could not get them to go
further than Cape Turn-again in N. lat. 68 degrees 30 minutes, a
promontory at the opening of a deep gulf dotted with islands, to which
the leader of the expedition gave the name of Coronation, in memory of
the accession of George IV.
Franklin had begun to ascend Hood River, when he was stopped by a
cataract 250 feet high, compelling him to make his way overland across
a barren, unknown district, and through snow more than two feet deep.
The fatigue and suffering involved in this return journey can be more
easily imagined than described; suffice it to say that the party
arrived on the 11th October in a state of complete exhaustion--having
eaten nothing for five days--at Fort Enterprise, which they found
utterly deserted. Ill and without food, there seemed to be nothing left
for Franklin to do but to die. The next day, however, he set to work to
look for the Indians, and those of his party who had started before
him, but the snow was so thick he had to return without accomplishing
anything. For the next eighteen days life was supported by a kind of
bouilli made from the bones and the skin of the game killed the
previous year, and at last, on the 29th October, Dr. Richardson arrived
with John Hepburn, only looking thin and worn, and scarcely able to
speak above a whisper. It seemed as if they were doomed! We quote the
following from Desborough Cooley:--
"Dr. Richardson had now a melancholy tale to relate. For the first two
days his party had nothing whatever to eat. On the third day, Michel
arrived with a hare and partridge, which afforded each a small morsel.
Then another day passed without food. On the 11th, Michel offered them
some flesh, which he said was part of a wolf; but they afterwards
became convinced that it was the flesh of one of the unfortunate men
who had left Captain Franklin's party to return to Dr. Richardson.
Michel was daily growing more insolent and shy, and it was strongly
suspected that he had a hidden supply of meat for his own use. On the
20th, while Hepburn was cutting wood near the tent, he heard the report
of a gun, and looking towards the spot saw Michel dart into the tent.
Mr. Hood was found dead; a ball had entered the back part of his head,
and there could be no doubt but that Michel was the murderer. He now
became more mistrustful and outrageous than before; and as his strength
was superior to that of the English who survived, and he was well
armed, they became satisfied that there was no safety for them but in
his death. 'I determined,' says Dr. Richardson, 'as I was thoroughly
convinced of the necessity of such a dreadful act, to take the whole
responsibility upon myself; and, upon Michel coming up, I put an end to
his life by shooting him through the head!'"
Many of the Indians who had accompanied Richardson and Hepburn had died
of hunger, and the two leaders were on the brink of the grave when, on
the 7th November, three Indians, sent by Back, brought them help. As
soon as they felt a little stronger, the two Englishmen made for the
Company's settlement, where they found Back, to whom they had twice
owed their lives on this one expedition.
The results of this journey, in which 5500 miles had been traversed,
were of the greatest importance to geographical, magnetic, and
meteorological science, and the coast of America had been surveyed as
far as Cape Turn-again.
In spite of all the fatigue and suffering so bravely borne, the
explorers were quite ready to make yet another attempt to reach the
shores of the Polar Sea, and at the end of 1823 Franklin received
instructions to survey the coast west of Mackenzie River, all the
agents of the Company being ordered to supply his party with
provisions, boats, guides, and everything else they might require.
After a hearty reception at New York, Franklin went to Albany, by way
of the Hudson, ascended the Niagara from Lewiston to the famous Falls,
made his way thence to Fort St. George on the Ontario, crossed the
lake, landed at York, the capital of Upper Canada (-sic-), passed Lakes
Siamese, Huron, and Superior, where he was joined by twenty-four
Canadians, and on the 29th June, 1825, came to Lake Methye, then alive
with boats.
Whilst Dr. Richardson was surveying the eastern coast of Great Bear
Lake, and Back was superintending the preparations for the winter,
Franklin reached the mouth of the Mackenzie, the navigation of which
was very easy, no obstacles being met with, except in the Delta. The
sea was free from ice, and black and white whales and seals were
playing about at the top of the water. Franklin landed on the small
island of Garry, the position of which he determined as N. lat. 69
degrees 2 minutes, W. long. 135 degrees 41 minutes, a valuable fact,
proving as it did, how much confidence was to be placed in the
observations of Mackenzie.
The return journey was made without difficulty, and on the 5th
September the explorers arrived at the fort to which Dr. Richardson had
given the name of Franklin. The winter was passed in festivities, such
as balls, &c., in which Canadians, English, Scotch, French, Esquimaux,
and Indians of various tribes took part.
On the 22nd June a fresh start was made, and on the 4th July the fort
was reached where the Mackenzie divides into two branches. There the
expedition separated into two parties, one going to the east and the
other to the west, to explore the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Franklin
and his companions had hardly left the river when he met near a large
bay a numerous party of Esquimaux, who at first testified great delight
at the rencontre, but soon became obstreperous, and tried to carry off
the boat. Only by the exercise of wonderful patience and tact were the
English able to avert bloodshed on this emergency.
Franklin now surveyed and gave the name of Clarence to the river
separating the English from the Russian territories, and a little
further on was discovered another stream, which he called the Canning.
On the 16th April, finding he had only made half of the distance
between Mackenzie River and Icy Cape, though the winter was rapidly
approaching, Franklin turned back and embarked on the beautiful Peel
River, which he mistook for that of Mackenzie, not discovering his
error till he came in sight of a chain of mountains on the east. On the
21st September he got back to the fort, after having in the course of
three months traversed 2048 miles, and surveyed 372 miles of the
American coast.
Richardson meanwhile had advanced into much deeper water with far less
floating ice, and had met with a great many Esquimaux of mild and
hospitable manners. He surveyed Liverpool and Franklin Bays, and
discovered opposite the mouth of the Coppermine a tract of land
separated from the continent by a channel not more than twenty miles
wide, to which he gave the name of Wollaston. His boats arrived at
Coronation Gulf, explored on the previous trip, on the 7th August; and
on the 1st September they got back to Fort Franklin, without having
sustained any damage.
In dwelling on Parry's voyages, we have, for the time, turned aside
from those made at the same time by Ross, whose extraordinary
exploration of Baffin's Bay had brought upon him the censure of the
Admiralty, and who was anxious to regain his reputation for skill and
courage. Though the Government had lost confidence in him, he won the
esteem of a rich ship-owner, who did not hesitate to entrust to him the
command of the steamship -Victory-, on which he started for Baffin's
Bay on the 25th May, 1830.
For four years nothing was heard of the courageous navigator, but on
his return, at the end of that time, it turned out that his voyage had
been as rich in discoveries as had been Parry's first trip. Ross,
entering Prince Regent's Inlet, by way of Barrow and Lancaster Sounds,
had revisited the spot where the -Fury- had been abandoned four years
previously; and continuing his voyage in a southerly direction, he
wintered in Felix Harbour--so named after the equipper of the
expedition--ascertaining whilst there that the lands he had passed
formed a large peninsula attached on the south to the northern coast of
America.
In April, 1830, James Ross, nephew of the leader of the party, set out
in a canoe to examine the shores of this peninsula, and those of King
William's Land; and in November of the same year all had once more to
go into winter-quarters in Sherif Harbour, it being impossible to get
the vessel more than a few miles further north. The cold was intense,
and it was agreed by the sailors of the -Victory- that this was the
very severest winter ever spent by them in the Arctic regions.
The summer of 1831 was devoted to various surveys, which proved that
there was no connexion between the two seas. All that was accomplished
this season was to bring the -Victory- as far as Discovery Harbour, a
very little further north than that of Sherif. The ensuing winter was
so intensely severe, that the vessel could not be extricated from her
ice prison, and but for the fortunate discovery of the provisions left
by the -Fury-, the English would have died of hunger. As it was, they
endured daily greater and greater privations and sufferings before the
summer of 1833 at last enabled them finally to leave their
winter-quarters and go by land to Prince Regent's and Barrow Straits.
They had just reached the shores of Baffin's Bay when a vessel
appeared, which turned out to be the -Isabel-, once commanded by Ross
himself, and which now received the refugees from the -Victory-.
But England had not all this time been forgetful of her children, and
had sent an expedition in search of them every year. In 1833 Back,
Franklin's companion, was the leader, and he starting from Fort
Revolution, on the shore of Slave Lake, made his way northwards,
discovered Thloni-Tcho-Deseth River, and settled down in
winter-quarters, with the intention of reaching the next year the Polar
Sea, where he supposed Ross to be held prisoner, when he heard of his
incredible return journey overland. Back, therefore, gave up the next
season to the survey of the fine Fish River, discovered the previous
year, and sighted the Queen Adelaide Mts., with Capes Booth and Ross.
1836 found him at the head of a new expedition, which was to attempt to
connect by sea the discoveries of Ross and Franklin. It failed, and the
accomplishment of the task assigned to it was reserved to Peter
Williams, Dease, and Thomas Simpson, all officers in the service of the
Hudson's Bay Company, who, leaving Fort Chippeway on the 1st June,
1837, went down the Mackenzie, arriving on the sea-coast on the 9th
July, and making their way along it to N. lat. 71 degrees 3 minutes and
W. long. 156 degrees 46 minutes, i.e. to a cape they named Simpson,
after the governor of their company.
Thomas Simpson now made his way overland with five men to Port Barrow,
already sighted in the direction of Behring Strait by one of Beechey's
officers, so that the whole of the North American coast from Cape
Turn-again to Behring's Strait was now complete, and there was nothing
left to do but to explore the space between the former and Point Ogle,
a task accomplished by the explorers in a later expedition.
Leaving the Coppermine in 1838, they followed the eastern coast,
arriving on the 9th August at Cape Turn-again, which was too much
encumbered with ice to be rounded. Thomas Simpson therefore remained
near it for the winter, discovered Victoria Land, and on the 12th
August, 1839, arrived at Back River. The rest of the month he devoted
to the exploration of Boothia.
[Illustration: Discovery of Victoria Land.]
The whole of the coast-line of North America was now accurately laid
down, but at the cost of what struggles, devotion, privations, and
sufferings? What, however, is human life when weighed in the balance
with the progress of science? and with what disinterestedness and
enthusiasm must be embued the savants, sailors, and explorers, who give
up all the joys of existence to contribute to the best of their power
to the progress of knowledge and to the moral and intellectual
development of humanity.
With the voyages last recorded the discovery of the earth was
completed, and with our account of them our work, which began with the
first attempts of the earliest explorers, also closes. The shape of the
earth is now known, the task of explorers, is done. The land on which
man lives is henceforth familiar to him, and he has now only to turn to
account the vast resources of the countries to which access has
recently become easy, or of which he can without difficulty possess
himself.
How rich in lessons of every kind is this history of twenty centuries
of exploration. Let us cast a glance behind us and enumerate the main
features of the progress made in this long series of years. If we take
the map of the world of Hecatæus, who lived 500 years before the
Christian era, what do we see? When it was published the known world
did not extend beyond the basin of the Mediterranean, and the whole,
with a terribly distorted outline, is represented only by a very small
portion of southern Europe, the interior of Asia, and part of North
Africa; whilst encircling them all is a river without beginning or end,
to which is given the name of Ocean.
Side by side with this map, ancient monument as it is of antique
science, let us place a planisphere representing the world as known in
1840, and on this vast surface we shall find the portion known, and
that but imperfectly to Hecatæus, occupying but an infinitesimal space.
Taking these two typical maps as our starting-point, we shall be able
to judge of the magnitude of the discoveries of modern times. Imagine
for a moment all that is involved in thorough knowledge of the whole
world, and you will marvel at the results achieved by the efforts of so
many explorers and martyrs, you will grasp the importance of their
discoveries and the intimate relations between geography and all the
other sciences. This is the point of view from which can best be seen
all the philosophic bearings of a work to which so many generations
have devoted themselves.
Doubtless the motives actuating these various explorers differ greatly.
First, we have the natural curiosity of the owner anxious to know
thoroughly every part of the domain belonging to him, so that he may
estimate the extent of the habitable districts, and determine the
boundaries of the seas, &c.; and secondly, we have the natural outcome
of a trade, which, though still in its infancy, introduced even in
remote Norway the products of Central Asian industry. In the time of
Herodotus the aim of explorers was loftier: they wished to learn the
history, manners, customs, and religion of foreign races; and later,
the Crusades, which, whatever else they accomplished, certainly
vulgarized oriental studies, inspired some few with a fervent desire to
wrest from infidels the scene of our Lord's Passion, but the greater
number with a lust of pillage and a yearning to explore the unknown.
Columbus, seeking a new route to the Indies, came across America on the
way, and his successors were only anxious to make rapid fortunes,
differing greatly indeed from the noble Portuguese who sacrificed their
private interests to the glory and colonial prosperity of their
country, and were the poorer for the offices conferred on them with a
view to doing them honour.
In the sixteenth century religious persecution and civil war drove to
the New World the Huguenots and Puritans, who, whilst laying for
England the foundations of colonial prosperity, were to bring about a
radical change in America. The next century was essentially one of
colonization. In America the French, in India the English, and in
Oceania the Dutch established counting-houses and offices, whilst
missionaries endeavoured to win over to the Christian faith and modern
ideas the unchangeable "Empire of the Mean."
The eighteenth century, ushering in our own, rectified received errors,
and surveyed minutely alike continents and archipelagoes; in a word
brought to perfection the work of its predecessors. The same task has
occupied modern explorers, who pride themselves on not passing over in
their surveys the smallest corner of the earth, or the tiniest islet.
With a similar enthusiasm are imbued the intrepid navigators who
penetrate the ice-bound solitudes of the two poles, and tear away the
last fragments of the veil which has so long hidden from us the
extremities of the globe.
All then is now known, classed, catalogued, and labelled! Will the
results of so much toil be buried in some carefully laid down atlas, to
be sought only by professional -savants-? No! it is reserved to our
use, and to develope the resources of the globe, conquered for us by
our fathers at the cost of so much danger and fatigue. Our heritage is
too grand to be relinquished. We have at our command all the facilities
of modern science for surveying, clearing, and working our property. No
more lands lying fallow, no more impassable deserts, no more useless
streams, no more unfathomable seas, no more inaccessible mountains!
We suppress the obstacles nature throws in our way. The isthmuses of
Panama and Suez are in our way; we cut through them! The Sahara
interferes with the connexion of Algeria and Senegal; we will throw a
railway across it. The Pas de Calais prevents two nations so well
fitted for cordial friendship from shaking each other by the hand; we
will pierce it with a railway!
This is our task and that of our contemporaries. Is it less grand than
that of our predecessors, that it has not yet succeeded in inspiring
any great writer of fiction? To dwell upon it ourselves would be to
exceed the limits we laid down for our work. We meant to write the
History of the Discovery of the World, and we have written it. Our task
therefore is complete.
FINIS.
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