98 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 



of hail and wind and the thick weather compelled 

 the captain to lay to for some hours. 



On the return journey the weather was more 

 favourable and we had a wonderful view of the coast 

 line near the southern extremity of Greenland. On 

 the horizon forty or fifty miles to the north we saw 

 a jagged line of Alpine peaks, some tapering to 

 slender conical points, others having the form of 

 more massive pyramids separated from one another 

 by depressions which seemed to show against a 

 greenish blue band of sky glimpses of the inland ice; 

 though it may be we were looking along arms of 

 some of the tortuous fjords that cut deep into the 

 coast. The light of the sea contrasted with the 

 deep blue of the mountainous headlands against a 

 pale steely-blue background cut off by an over- 

 hanging bank of dark cloud. Later in the evening 

 the clouds dispersed and the serrated profile of 

 the mountains was sharply outlined against a 

 luminous sky; the 'golden splendour of the north' 

 faded into night. The rapidly changing scene pro- 

 duced an impression of sadness and majesty; it was 

 our farewell to a land which in some aspects merits 

 the name given to it more than three hundred 

 years ago the Land of Desolation; it is a land 

 remarkable for the splendid dignity of its scenery 

 and possessed of a subtle power of inspiring affec- 

 tion tempered by a sense of awe. 



