38 SUN AT MIDNIGHT. 



vessel steering between them, but, nevertheless, 

 occasionally interposing material obstruction to 

 our passage. 



The progress of a vessel through such a 

 labyrinth of frozen masses is one of the most 

 interesting sights that offer in the Arctic seas, 

 and being at this time wholly new to us, many, 

 even of those persons not naturally curious, 

 were kept out of their beds until a late hour 

 to partake of the enjoyment of the scene. 



There was, besides, on this occasion an ad- 

 ditional motive for remaining up : very few of 

 us had ever seen the sun at midnight, and this 

 night happening to be particularly clear, his 

 broad red disc, curiously distorted by refraction, 

 and sweeping majestically along the northern ho- 

 rizon, was an object of imposing grandeur, which 

 riveted to the deck some of our crew who would, 

 perhaps, have beheld with indifference the less 

 imposing effect of the icebergs. Or it might 

 have been a combination of both these pheno- 

 mena; for it cannot be denied that the novelty, 

 occasioned by the floating masses, was materially 

 heightened by the singular effect produced by 

 the very low altitude at which the sun cast 

 his fiery beams over the icy surface of the sea. 

 The rays were too oblique to illuminate more 

 than the inequalities of the floes, and falling 



