78 Star an& Meatber (gossip 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 



A Scandinavian Arctic explorer, I see from an 

 extract from one of his books, tells us how very prosaic 

 a spectacle the midnight sun really is, so different 

 from what he thinks people believe it to be, for, says 

 he, " one ought, of course, to paint a splendid sky, 

 with colours such as never mortal saw." Now, I have 

 conversed with a good many folk from between Tees 

 and Tyne who have seen the sun at midnight ; I have 

 also spoken on the same subject with many Scan- 

 dinavian seamen, but I cannot honestly say that they 

 expected anything in the nature of a " splendid sky 

 with colours such as never mortal saw." I rather 

 think that the spectacle attracted the Britishers, at 

 any rate, because of its novelty, merely because it 

 was that of a midnight sun. Explorers ought to 

 consider that we who have never entered the Arctic 

 Circle and who are so accustomed to see the sun shine 

 by day would deem it a very novel spectacle indeed 

 to see it above the horizon in the dead of night. At 

 the same time, I do not see why under certain atmos- 

 pheric conditions it should not be set in a more or less 

 beautiful sky and scene, instead of being, as the 

 explorer is quoted as saying, " just a common or 

 garden picture." 



Almost at the first page on opening Dr. Hayes' 

 Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North 

 Pole, recently, I read this : " MIDNIGHT. I have just 

 come below, lost in the wondrous beauty of the night. 

 The sea is smooth as glass ; not a ripple breaks its 

 dead surface, not a breath of air stirring. The sun 

 hangs close upon the northern horizon ; the fog has 



