ATMOSPHERIC ILLUSIONS.' 133 



brilliancy, while the delicate whiteness of these 

 floating islands, and the magical atmospheric illu- 

 sions by which they are frequently surrounded, 

 render the scene pre-eminently fairy-like. 



All the navigators who have penetrated into the 

 arctic seas speak with enthusiasm of the splendour 

 of floating ice-masses. They take the most curious 

 and fantastic shapes ; sometimes appearing like great 

 cities of white marble, with domes and towers and 

 spires in profusion ; sometimes looming huge and 

 grand like fortresses, and many of them with their 

 summits overhanging so much as to suggest the 

 idea that they are about to fall. This, indeed, they 

 often do, adding to the grandeur of the scene, and 

 not a little to the danger, should ships chance to be 

 in the neighbourhood. 



The atmospheric illusions, before mentioned, are 

 the result of different temperatures existing within 

 a few miles of each other, and which are caused by 

 the presence of large bodies of ice. The effect of 

 this is to cause the ice-masses on the horizon to 

 appear as if floating in the air, and to distort them 

 into all sorts of shapes, even turning them upside 

 down, and thus affording to an imaginative mind a 

 most ample and attractive field wherein to expatiate. 



To ascertain the causes of facts and effects so 

 curious must prove interesting to all who have 

 inquiring minds. We will, therefore, attempt to 

 describe and account for arctic phenomena in the 

 following chapters as simply as may be. 



