and--fogs
permitting.--Don't eat so much, Butterface, else bu'stin' will surely be
your doom."

"Your picture is perhaps a little overdrawn, Ben," rejoined Alf with a
smile.

"So would the ancients have said," retorted Benjy, "if you had
prophesied that in the nineteenth century our steamers would pass
through the Straits of Hercules, up the Mediterranean, and over the land
to India; or that our cousins' steam cars would go rattling across the
great prairies of America, through the vast forests, over and under the
Rocky Mountains from the States to California, in seven days; or that
the telephone or electric light should ever come into being."

"Well, you see, Butterface," said Alf, "there is a great deal to be said
in favour of Arctic exploration, even at the present day, and despite
all the rebuffs that we have received. Sir Edward Sabine, one of the
greatest Arctic authorities, says of the route from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, that it is the greatest geographical achievement which can be
attempted, and that it will be the crowning enterprise of those Arctic
researches in which England has hitherto had the pre-eminence. Why,
Butterface," continued Alf, warming with his subject, while the
enthusiastic negro listened as it were with every feature of his
expressive face, and even the volatile Benjy became attentive, "why,
there is no telling what might be the advantages that would arise from
systematic exploration of these unknown regions, which cover a space of
not less than two million, five hundred thousand square miles. It would
advance the science of hydrography, and help to solve some of the
difficult problems connected with Equatorial and Polar currents. It
would enable us, it is said, by a series of pendulum observations at or
near the Pole, to render essential service to the science of geology, to
form a mathematical theory of the physical condition of the earth, and
to ascertain its exact conformation. It would probably throw light on
the wonderful phenomena of magnetism and atmospheric electricity and the
mysterious Aurora Borealis--to say nothing of the flora of these regions
and the animal life on the land and in the sea."

"Why, Alf," exclaimed Benjy in surprise, "I had no idea you were so
deeply learned on these subjects."

"Deeply learned!" echoed Alf with a laugh, "why, I have only a
smattering of them. Just knowledge enough to enable me in some small
degree to appreciate the vast amount of