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قراءة كتاب Adventurers of the Far North: A Chronicle of the Frozen Seas
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Adventurers of the Far North: A Chronicle of the Frozen Seas
The Arctic Council, discussing a plan of search for Sir John Franklin.
From the National Portrait Gallery.
ADVENTURERS
OF THE FAR NORTH
A Chronicle of the Frozen Seas
BY
STEPHEN LEACOCK
TORONTO
GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY
1914
Copyright in all Countries subscribing to
the Berne Convention
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE ARCTIC COUNCIL DISCUSSING A PLAN OF SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN From the National Portrait Gallery. |
Frontispiece |
ROUTES OF EXPLORERS IN THE FAR NORTH Map by Bartholomew. |
Facing page 1 |
SAMUEL HEARNE From the Dominion Archives. |
" " 42 |
FORT CHURCHILL OR PRINCE OF WALES From a drawing by Samuel Hearne. |
" " 50 |
SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE From a painting by Lawrence. |
" " 70 |
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN From the National Portrait Gallery. |
" " 112 |
CHAPTER I
THE GREAT ELIZABETHAN NAVIGATORS
The map of Canada offers to the eye and to the imagination a vast country more than three thousand miles in width. Its eastern face presents a broken outline to the wild surges of the Atlantic. Its western coast commands from majestic heights the broad bosom of the Pacific. Along its southern boundary is a fertile country of lake and plain and woodland, loud already with the murmur of a rising industry, and in summer waving with the golden wealth of the harvest.
But on its northern side Canada is set fast against the frozen seas of the Pole and the desolate region of barren rock and ice-bound island that is joined to the polar ocean by a common mantle of snow. For hundreds and hundreds of miles the vast fortress of ice rears its battlements of shining glaciers. The unending sunshine of the Arctic summer falls upon untrodden snow. The cold light of the aurora illumines in winter an endless desolation. There is no sound, save when at times the melting water falls from the glistening sides of some vast pinnacle of ice, or when the leaden sea forces its tide between the rock-bound islands. Here in this vast territory civilization has no part and man no place. Life struggles northward only to die out in the Arctic cold. The green woods of the lake district and the blossoms of the prairies are left behind. The fertility of the Great West gives place to the rock-strewn wilderness of the barren grounds. A stunted and deformed vegetation fights its way to the Arctic Circle. Rude grasses and thin moss cling desperately to the naked rock. Animal