204 GORGEOUS SPECTACLES. 



of such a^ galaxy of curious, and bright, and emi- 

 nently beautiful combinations as are sometimes dis- 

 played in the arctic regions. None of the fabulous 

 conceptions of man, even though profoundly elabo- 

 rated and brightly gilded with the coruscations of 

 the most sparkling genius and fancy, ever produced 

 so gorgeous a spectacle as may be witnessed there 

 every summer day. Four or five suns in the blue 

 sky, with lines and circles of light shooting from or 

 circling round them ! Ice in all its quaint, majestic, 

 and shining forms, rendered still more quaint and 

 grand by the influence of refraction ; and, by the 

 same power, ships sailing in the sky, sometimes, as 

 if Nature's laws were abrogated, with their keels 

 upwards, and their masts pointing to the sea ! Walls 

 of pure ice hundreds of feet high, many miles in 

 extent, clear as crystal, and sending back the rays 

 of heaven's luminaries in broad blazing beams ; while 

 the icebergs' pinnacles -reflect them in sparkling 

 points ! White luminous fogs, like curtains of gauze, 

 too thin to dim the general brightness, yet dense 

 enough to invest the whole scene with a silver robe 

 of mystery, and to refract the light and compel it to 

 shine in great circles of prismatic colours ! And 

 everything from the nature of the materials of 

 which the gay scenery is composed either white 

 or blue, varying in all gradations from the fairest 

 snow to the deepest azure, save where the rain- 

 bow's delicate hues are allowed to intermingle 

 enough of pink, yellow, purple, orange, and green 



