chap, xvi BY SASSEN BAY 223 



wondrous cloud-drama was played, and every variety of mist, 

 densely packed, and rounded, or finely drawn and evanes- 

 cent, all shining in sunlight, climbed about the hills or 

 draped their slopes, whilst the faint grey haze lay below, 

 and a sky mottled with brilliant flocks of cloudlets canopied 

 the whole. For foreground to this lovely prospect was the 

 crisp water, tumbled into frequent waves by a steady breeze 

 which also blew in from Hyperite Hat, and finally stranded 

 at the very doors of our camp a splendid block of ice, melted 

 into spires and knobs of clearest crystal, wherein the sun- 

 light played, and about which the waves broke in glistening 

 foam. It was like Galatea's chariot, but alas ! there was 

 no Galatea, and no mermen and maidens to grace the 

 laughing shore. 



Out of sheer idleness I gathered a pile of driftwood 

 together and set it burning, freeing at all events some of 

 its long-imprisoned and oft-frozen particles, to fly into the 

 air and escape, perhaps to warmer climes, more probably 

 to fall on the neighbouring snow and remain in this Arctic 

 prison. Where, I wondered, did the various trees grow, 

 and who was J. N. P., whose initials were carved on a bit of 

 board ? Up to the sky they all went in a blue cloud, 

 leaving only a few ashes behind amidst the hyperite blocks 

 that made the hearth. Gregory had fossils to trim and 

 pack, so he was saved from utter boredom, and could sit 

 chipping away in a relatively happy state of mind ; but I 

 had nothing that needed to be done, and was in no inven- 

 tive humour. I could but watch the clouds growing 

 heavier, and note how the sunlight became golden as the 

 sun went to the north, clipping visibly lower than it did a 

 month before, and already beginning to foretell the day of 

 its long setting. 



Ultimately the sky was wholly overcast, and the hills 

 buried in cloud, which powdered them over with new 



