Descriere
You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompaniedthe commencement of an enterprise which you have regardedwith such evil forebodings. I arrived here yesterday, andmy first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare andincreasing confidence in the success of my undertaking.I am already far north of London, and as I walk in thestreets of Petersburgh, I feel a cold northern breeze playupon my cheeks, which braces my nerves and fills mewith delight. Do you understand this feeling? This breeze,which has travelled from the regions towards which I amadvancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspiritedby this wind of promise, my daydreams become morefervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that thepole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itselfto my imagination as the region of beauty and delight.There, Margaret, the sun is forever visible, its broad disk justskirting the horizon and diffusing a perpetual splendour.There—for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trustin preceding navigators— there snow and frost are banished;and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted toa land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every regionhitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions
