Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Exploration, Physical Geography, Heat,

    Discusses a letter in The Times from Sherard Osborn who proposes to travel to the Arctic this winter. Observing the extreme coldness of the present season, the writer suggests that explorers would be better to travel to the interior of Africa than the North Pole, and that only a 'blazing hot' summer could explain 'a man's' wish 'to be afloat in the Polar Sea'. Concludes by suggesting that Osborn must have a very 'ardent temperament' and be motivated by 'mere geographical curiosity'.