A FAIRY-LIKE SCENE. 75 



the shore near by. The sunshine was warm and bright, the 

 bay was clear of ice, and the mountains around were decked 

 in green. 



Continuing on to a position northwestward of Spitzbergen, 

 the ship again approached the ice-pack, and steamed slowly 

 forward in a dense fog. As it grew colder the fog condensed 

 on the ship's rigging, froze, and hung in fringes of icicles 

 from every rope. About ten P. M. the fog suddenly disap- 

 peared, and the soft sunlight illuminated the glistening- 

 fringes of icicles, and seemed to change them into raining 

 diamonds. The scene was dazzling and fairy-like. 



The ship was now at the foot of the ice-pack, and the 

 navigator announced a latitude of 80 deg. min. 55 sec. 

 north, longitude 11 deg. 22 min. east. "The effect of this 

 news on a company of men who were informed before they 

 left the States that they could not get to Iceland, and when 

 they got to Iceland were told they would never reach Spitz- 

 bergen, and who in Norway were pleasantly smiled at and 

 told they would be back there again in a fortnight, was quite 

 exhilarating." 



."We were," says Mr. Macdonna, "in fact, 590 geograph- 

 ical miles from the North Pole ; but who that lias seen this 

 desert of ice, piled up in hummocks and forced into moun- 

 tainous ridges by a force that the mind cannot comprehend, 

 will venture an opinion as to the years of dreary endeavor 

 yet to be endured before man shall reach that supreme 

 spot ? 



" Of all the desolate sights the human eye has rested on, 

 this desert of ice, stretched out like a gaunt, bleached beg- 

 gar, hand to heaven, is the most subduing. Even the sea 

 loses its music as it beats against the barrier. It moans 

 monotonously and melancholy all the dreary years, and frets 

 against a hydra-like impediment that, in centuries flown, 

 was overcome and overcome only to present itself again, 

 season after season, rejuvenated and incorrigible. The 

 dominion of the ice is not disputed here." 



From his elevated position in the crow's nest Captain 



