CHAPTER XII 



DAYBREAK IN^CUMBERLAND SOUND 

 "There shall be no night there" 



WHEN the two whalers, that called unexpectedly 

 at Blacklead Island on October 10, sailed 

 away to more genial climes, the weather began to 

 wax more severe ; the nights became longer, the 

 days shorter ; the ice formed and came closer and 

 closer round the island, and silence, as far as the 

 outer world was concerned, fell upon the little 

 station. " Quis separabit " may be a good motto 

 for the largest shipping company of the world, but 

 the question will hardly bear a satisfactory answer 

 as regards the navigation of Arctic seas in the winter. 



The long dreary winter, the darkness that over- 

 shadows an Arctic station, and the complete isola- 

 tion in which it is cut off, might almost be taken as 

 symbolic of the degradation of life of the inhabi- 

 tants, of the spiritual darkness of the kingdom of 

 Satan, and of the power of sin to separate from the 

 joys of the Sun of Righteousness. 



And as the two messengers of Light settled down 

 to their work in this condition of things, we can 



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