TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 275 



places. And then this spell of twilight, ghostly, 

 vague, elusive, stirring the heart with fearful long- 

 forgotten dreams of evil, of wild despair, and death. 

 It is the fascination that the secret, the unknown, the 

 terrible, have always exercised over the heart of man 

 a survival, may be, of the primeval belief in the 

 cruelty of Nature, and of the unseen spirits who do 

 her will." 



The writer of those lines was surely one who in 

 youthful dreams had wandered through the land of 

 Faery, and whose thoughts perchance still roam out 

 beyond the great divide to that shore where the 

 waves of Time lie tideless, " soft by the walls of that 

 fair city whose foundations are builded in Eternity." 

 For him, for such of us who feel its spell, the glamour 

 of the wild still murmurs softly through the silent 

 wastes, or beckons with out-spreading arms of beauty, 

 luring us onwards to those Elysian fields 'midst 

 enchanted solitudes of far-distant lands. 



What is it, this undefined sensation, this indescrib- 

 able fascination of the magnetic North, wakening in 

 men's hearts such weird feelings as they gaze from 

 lofty heights across boundless unknown regions, 

 where fathomless waters and vast, silent spaces rest 

 peacefully beneath the Arctic sun ? 



All the air is laden with perfumes, as Countless 

 soft, subtle scents are wafted upwards, borne on the 

 breath of gentle breezes as yet untainted by smoke 

 and dust of cities. Here we stand face to face with 

 Nature in her every mood. Thoughts drift back un- 

 known ages, as we wonder if in bygone years these 



