242 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



Never before had they seemed so lustrous, so dazzl- 

 ing in brilliance. Marguerites in a sea of blue. 

 Little filmy clouds, shadow-like, flitted across the face 

 of the heavens. The stage was set for a drama. 



I had turned in for the night, but at the Leader's 

 call I turned out again to see that wonder of wonders, 

 the Aurora Borealis. Contrasted with the inky black- 

 ness of the ravines about us, the desolate wastes of 

 mountain, glacier, and stream, over which the marvel 

 cast the brilliance of its forked spears, the light 

 seemed extraordinary, awe-inspiring, and intense. 

 Right over the heavens from end to end the silver 

 glory shimmered, an emperor's diadem, and from 

 the glowing mass sudden flashes and tongues of white 

 flame quivered across the sky, putting the stars out. 

 The ravines gave up the secrets of the night, the 

 mountains, silver-tipped, limned clear their slopes 

 in the wondrous Polar lights. Marvel of the world, 

 how exquisite ! Never still, moving hither and 

 thither, tongues and forks and darts and spears of 

 molten silver. It seemed to me, watching, that from 

 such a vision of splendour a Jupiter must arise, 

 radiant, glorious, transfixing Phaethon in chariot of 

 gold. 



Contracting, spreading wide again the silver arrow 

 shafts, in even waves and billows of flame the lights 

 died out, suddenly as they came. Then again from 

 out the high blue arc the marguerite-like stars 

 twinkled and shone. For some seconds, to my de- 

 lighted eyes, the wondrous Aurora still glowed, 

 unforgetable, and with a brilliancy which seemed to 



