n6 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VIII. 



Only another half-dozen leagues more, and we would stand 

 on the threshold of a four months' day ! For the few pre- 

 ceding hours clouds had completely covered the heavens, 

 except where a clear interval of sky, that lay along the 

 northern horizon, promised a glowing stage for the sun's 

 last obsequies. But like the heroes of old he had veiled his 

 face to die, and it was not until he dropped down to the sea 

 that the whole hemisphere overflowed with glory and the 

 gilded pageant concerted for his funeral gathered in slow 

 procession round his grave ; reminding one of those tardy 

 honours paid to some great prince of song, who — left during 

 life to languish in a garret — is buried by nobles in West- 

 minster Abbey. A few minutes more the last fiery segment 

 had disappeared beneath the purple horizon, and all was 

 over. 



" The king is dead — the king is dead — the king is dead ! 

 Long live the king !" And up from the sea that had just 

 entombed his sire, rose the young monarch of a new day ; 

 while the courtier clouds, in their ruby robes, turned faces 

 still aglow with the favours of their dead lord, to borrow 

 brighter blazonry from the smile of a new master. 



A fairer or a stranger spectacle than the last Arctic sun- 

 set cannot well be conceived : Evening and Morning — like 

 kinsmen whose hearts some baseless feud has kept asunder 

 — clasping hands across the shadow of the vanished night. 



You must forgive me if sometimes I become a little 

 magniloquent ; — for really, amid the grandeur of that fresh 

 primaeval world, it was almost impossible to prevent one's 

 imagination from absorbing a dash of the local colouring. 

 We seemed to have suddenly waked up among the colossal 

 scenery of Keats' Hyperion. The pulses of young Titans 

 beat within our veins. Time itself, — no longer frittered 

 down into paltry divisions, — had assumed a more majestic 

 aspect. We had the appetite of giants — was it unnatural 

 we should also adopt "the large utterance of the early 

 gods ? " 



As the " Reine Hortense" could not cany coals sufficient 



