362 MARVELS OF THE NORTH 



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'I dreamt I lay on a grassy bank, 

 And the sun shone warm and clear; 

 I wakened on a desert isle, 

 And the sky was black and drear.' 



"One more look at the star* of home, the one that stood that evening 

 over Cape Chelyuskin, and I creep on board, where the windmill is turning 

 in the cold wind, and electric light is streaming out from the skylight upon 

 the icy desolation of the Arctic night." 



Other poetic descriptive passages are these: 



MATCHLESS BEAUTY OF NORTHERN LIGHTS. 



"I went on deck this evening in rather a gloomy frame of mind, but was 

 nailed to the spot the moment I got outside. There is the supernatural for 

 you — the northern lights flashing in matchless power and beauty over the 

 sky in all the colors of the rainbow ! Seldom or never have I seen the colors 

 so brilliant. The prevailing one at first was yellow, but that gradually 

 flickered over into green, and then a sparkling ruby-red began to show at 

 the bottom of the rays on the under side of the arch, soon spreading over 

 the whole arch. And now from the far-away western horizon a fiery serpent 

 writhed itself up over the sky, shining brighter and brighter as it came. 

 It split into three, all brilliantly glittering. Then the colors changed. The 

 serpent to the south turned almost ruby-red, with spots of yellow; the one 

 in the middle, yellow ; and the one to the north, greenish-white. Sheaves of 

 rays swept along the side of the serpents driven through the ether-like wa-ves 

 before a storm-wind. They sway backward and forward, now strong, now 

 fainter again. The serpents reached and passed the zenith. Though I was 

 thinly dressed and shivering with cold, I could not tear myself away till the 

 spectacle was over, and only a faintly glowing fiery serpent near the western 

 horizon showed where it had begun. When I came on deck later the masses 

 of light had passed northward and spread themselves in complete arches over 

 the northern sky. If one wants to read mystic meanings into the phenomena 

 of nature, here, surely, is the opportunity. 



THE WHOLE SKY ABLAZE. 



"Later in the evening Hansen came down to give notice of what really 

 was a remarkable appearance of aurora borealis. The deck was brightly 



