They were not yet too far away to make out the general features of the
continents and oceans, and fortunately the hemisphere presented to them
happened to be singularly free from clouds.
To the right spread out the majestic outlines of the continents of North
and South America, and to the left Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and
Australia. At the top was a vast, roughly circular area of dazzling
whiteness, and Redgrave, pointing to this, said:
"There, look up a little further north than the middle of that white
patch, and you'll see what no eyes but yours and mine have ever
seen--the North Pole! When we come back we shall see the South Pole,
because we shall approach the earth from the other end, as it were.
"I suppose you recognise a good deal of the picture. All that bright
part up to the north, with the black spots on it, is Canada. The black
spots are forests. That long white line to the left is the Rockies. You
see they're all bright at the north, and as you go south you only see a
few bright dots. Those are the snow-peaks.
"Those long thin white lines in South America are the tops of the Andes,
and the big, dark patches to the right of them are the forests and
plains of Brazil and the Argentine. Not a bad way of studying geography,
is it? If we stopped here long enough we should see the whole earth spin
right round under us, but we haven't time for that.
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