that mathematical point which marks the northern termination of the axis of our earth, is of no more importance than any other point within the unknown polar area; but it is of much more importance that this particular point be reached, because there clings about it in the imagination of all mankind, such fascination that, till the Pole is discovered, all Arctic research must be affected, if not overshadowed, by the yearning to attain it.”

George W. Melville, chief engineer of the United States Navy, who did such notable service in the Jeanette expedition of 1879, writes in words that stir the pulse: 

“Is there a better school of heroic endeavor than the Arctic zone?  It is something to stand where the foot of man has never trod.  It is something to do that which has defied the energy of the race for the last twenty years.  It is something to have the consciousness that you are adding your modicum of knowledge to the world’s store.  It is worth a year of the life of a man with a soul larger than a turnip, to see a real iceberg in all its majesty and grandeur.  It is worth some sacrifice to be alone, just once, amid the awful silence of the Arctic snows, there to communicate with the God of nature, whom the thoughtful man finds best in solitude and silence, far from the haunts of men—­alone with the Creator.”

Thus the explorers.  The scientists look less upon the picturesque and exciting side of Arctic exploration, and more upon its useful phases.  “It helps to solve useful problems in the physics of the world,” wrote Professor Todd of Amherst college.  “The meteorology of the United States to-day; perfection of theories of the earth’s magnetism, requisite in conducting surveys and navigating ships; the origin and development of terrestrial fauna and flora; secular variation of climate; behavior of ocean currents—­all these are fields of practical investigation in which the phenomena of the Arctic and Antarctic worlds play a very significant role.”

Lieutenant Maury, whose eminent services in mapping the ocean won him international honors, writes of the polar regions: 

“There icebergs are launched and glaciers formed.  There the tides have their cradle, the whales their nursery.  There the winds complete their circuits, and the currents of the sea their round in the wonderful system of inter-oceanic circulation.  There the aurora borealis is lighted up, and the trembling needle brought to rest, and there, too, in the mazes of that mystic circle, terrestrial forces of occult power, and vast influence upon the well-being of men, are continually at play....  Noble daring has made Arctic ice and waters classic ground.  It is no feverish excitement nor vain ambition that leads man there.  It is a higher feeling, a holier motive, a desire to look into the works of creation, to comprehend the economy of our planet, and to grow wiser and better by the knowledge.”

Nor can it be said fairly that the polar regions have failed to repay, in actual financial profit, their persistent invasion by man.  It is estimated by competent statisticians, that in the last two centuries no less than two thousand million dollars’ worth of furs, fish, whale-oil, whalebone, and minerals, have been taken out of the ice-bound seas.