ICEBERGS AND POLAR BEARS.
"Here Winter holds his cold and cheerless court;
And through his airy halls the loud misrule
Of driving tempests is for ever heard;

Here arms his winds with all-subduing storms,
Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snow."

IN our temperate zone, changeable as is the climate, and bleak sometimes the seasons which should be warm, we yet know nothing of the rigour which prevails in regions nearer to the Pole, where a winter of many months and a summer of a few weeks constitutes the entire circle of seasons. There is something inexpressibly awful to one who sees the sun shine for twelve months in the year-even if November has fogs and February frosts-in the contemplation of those

frozen regions of sterility, where ice and snow are the only elements of the landscape, and even the blade of grass perishes in lack of the little warmth needed for its sustenance. In other points of view these silent solitudes of ice and snow are invested with a deep interest, and of late years human sympathies have most strangely tended thitherward. Public anxiety, in regard to the fate of one of our ablest and most energetic navigators, Sir John Franklin and his crew, is now hopeless. Numerous expeditions have been equipped to search the most probable localities of the missing ships, though in each case, as is well known, with a most painful result. Independent of the strange interest which attaches to these scenes, the events just referred to lend an additional attraction, and it seems seasonable as well as appropriate for us to say something here of the nature of the northern ice-fields.

The intense cold during many months at the poles is owing to the absence of the sun's rays, and during the long season of winter the fresh waters and the seas get frozen considerably below the surface, and when the sheets of ice thus produced are broken by the succeeding summer, huge blocks of disengaged ice float on the surface, and constitute, in one case icebergs, and in the other, immense fields of sheet ice.

In high northern latitudes, as early as the month of August, snow begins to fall, and a formation of ice rapidly ensues. The hoar-frost covers with fantastic clusters every prominence on land, and the frost-smoke appears upon the sea, giving it the aspect of a vast steaming lime-kiln; the vapour being produced by the temperature of the water

being relatively higher than that of the incumbent atmosphere. The fresh water poured from rivulets, or drained from the former collections of snow, becomes quickly congealed along the shores and bays, and the surface of the ocean is converted into one solid mass of ice for some distance from the coast. As early as the middle of September, Captain Parry found the bay of the Hecla and Griper so completely covered with ice, that his men were obliged to open a canal with saws to admit the ships, an operation which occupied them three days, during which they cut through more than two miles of new ice, the average thickness of which was seven inches. The sun left them on the 11th of November in a scene of death-like stillness, surrounded by a waste of frozen waters, without the flutter of leaf or wing to break the dreary desolation.

"How dread and awful is this solitude!
Nature herself is surely dead, and o'er
Her cold and stiffen'd corse a winding-sheet,
Of bright unsullied purity is thrown."

In this position, the atmosphere was so calm that their voices could be heard at the distance of half a mile; darkness prevailed during the whole twenty-four hours, and the sun was not seen again till it had been absent eighty-four days. Upon the return of the sun, the bonds which connect the masses of ice with the land are dissolved, and the ice itself-broken by storms and currents into fragments of every size and shape-is set loose upon the surface, and a scene of horrible confusion ensues.

In this region of ice and snow and storms, the great

white bear delights to roam. These bears are dreadful creatures, some of them measuring upwards of eight feet in length, and weighing from twelve to sixteen hundred pounds. Like the snow-clad regions it inhabits, the Polar bear is white, leaning to a straw colour; the limbs are of massive thickness, the body and neck long, the head flattened, the mouth very small. The fur is long and woolly; but the texture is fine, and the fur valuable. This species is quite aquatic; living amidst the waves and ice of the arctic seas, and drawing his meat as well as bis drink from the deep waters, in seals, walruses, fish, and dead whales. Indeed, those regions are so barren of sustenance, from the endless rigours of the climate, and the size and voracity of the creature itself, that any animal substance, living or dead and putrid, is devoured with avidity. Their scent is very keen, and the melting of the blubber of a whale frequently brings them from a great distance to procure a share of the spoil. The crews of whalers have had frequent encounters with them, and sometimes at very imminent hazard of life.

It is related of the late Lord Nelson, that when a boy, one of his first voyages was to the northern regions. One day, while the vessel was among the ice, he left the ship, and was absent for some time, and the officers of the ship became alarmed for his safety. At length they saw him returning ; and when asked where he had been, the daring boy replied, that he had been chasing a white bear, as he wanted to obtain its skin for his mother!

TEMPLE RUINS AT ATHENS.

ATHENS was once the most celebrated city of Greece. Its mighty temples were the wonder and admiration of the world. Many have passed away, but the ruins of others yet give to the beholder some idea of their

former magnificence. Of one of these-the Parthenon-a traveller says:

"At first sight it rather disappointed my expectations, and appeared less than its fame. The eye, however, soon became filled with the magnitude of its dimensions, the beauty of its materials, the exquisite perfection of its symmetry, and the harmonious analogy of its proportions. It is the most unrivalled triumph of sculpture and architecture that the world ever saw. The delight which it inspires on a superficial view is heightened in proportion as it is attentively surveyed. If we admire the whole of the gorgeous fabric, that admiration will be augmented by a minute investigation of all the ramified details. Every part has been finished with such exquisite taste, that not the smallest instance of negligence can be discovered in the execution of those particulars which are the least exposed to observation; the most concealed parts of the structure having been perfected with minute scrupulosity."

The Parthenon was entirely buillt of Pentalic marble, so