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THE BACKGROUND OF THE STORY 13

voyage of Magellan, then there is bound to follow a
profound change of thought and outlook, not so profound
as that of the Middle Ages, but nevertheless decisive
enough to mark an epoch.

Or perhaps the coming change of thought is more
exactly analogous to that connected with the develop-
ment of ocean-going ships. From the earliest prehistoric
times large bodies of water were must have been considered to separate
the lands; but with the development of sea-borne com-
merce came the idea that the oceans connect the lands.
Gradually this view got a firmer hold until it became a
commonplace that a city a hundred miles in the interior
was commercially and practically farther away than
another a hundred miles across the sea. Were it not
for the strictly modern development of railways, Pitts-
burgh would be farther from New York than London is.
Similarly, air commerce will emphasize not only that the
world is round from north to south, but also that the
Arctic connects America and Europe quite as much as
it separates them.

On our winter sledge journeys in the Arctic we are
sometimes stormbound for days. Then we sit cosy in
our snowhouses that are brightly lit and adequately
heated by seal oil lamps which we trim so carefully that
they produce neither smoke nor odor. On such occasions
we speculate for hours upon things for which we do not
spare minutes where telephones ring and movies lurk
around every corner. The winters of 1914 to 1918 we
used to talk a great deal about the coming era of northern
development and the part which our respective countries
would play therein. My companions were Canadians,
Scots, Australians, Americans, Norwegians, South Sea