ATMOSPHERIC DUST IN THE ARCTIC REGIOKS. 15d 



which constitute such a picturesque feature among the moun- 

 tains of temperate and tropical countries. The clouds were 

 usually stratus, and when not covering the whole sky had ill- 

 defined edges, often fading off into watery mist. 



When not wrapped in clouds or dim in the mist the rocky 

 peaks were projected against a cold, gray sky. I have been told 

 by travellers who have been frozen up over winter in the Arctic 

 seas that as the sun leaves them in the autumn, and before it 

 appears in the spring, there are very brilliant red sunset 

 cloud-effects, but they were seen but sparingly during our 

 visit. "We had, however, the beautiful rosy " alpenglow " 

 twice at sunset upon the great snow-fields and glaciers. 

 It was, however, less pronounced than I have seen it 

 on the snowy peaks of Oregon, California, Wyoming, and 

 Switzerland. It is probable, however, that in the clearer 

 and cooler weather of April and May the colors would be 

 stronger. 



Where there was any haze over the Greenland landscape it 

 was a gray, watery haze, entirely unlike either the white haze 

 sometimes seen over dry deserts or the blue haze seen over 

 civilized lands and where there is smoke in the atmosphere. 

 There was absolutely none of that blue haze which gives such 

 a special charm to our own landscapes, where all the minor 

 details are indistinct in the distance, and which produces such 

 charming effects of color when the sun is low in the brilliant 

 sky, glowing with yellow, orange, or red, as the case may be, 

 the shadows of sunset fading from the glowing sky above into 

 the indistinctness of the valleys, ending in a flaming red on 

 the horizon above the spot where the sun has set. 



We saw smoky haze in Labrador as we looked inland from 

 the heights, but it was much fainter than in the regions far- 

 ther north, and when we arrived at Sydney, on our return, 

 the valley beyond the town was filled with it, the landscape 

 fading into indistinctness in the blue distance ; this effect 



