38 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



washed away. It was then October, and snow was 

 on the ground. All the survivors left as soon as 

 possible. On returning next year an old man of 

 this vessel was found dead beneath the snow, his 

 hands crossed, his eyes bandaged. Evidently he had 

 laid himself out for burial. On October 9, 1867, in 

 one of these sudden gales, forty vessels were hurled 

 on the rocks. Forty poor souls lost their lives, and 

 fifteen hundred people were cast ashore 



Again on October 26, 1885, in a similar hurricane 

 80 vessels were lost, 70 lives, and 2,000 men, women, 

 and children left on the coast. The Newfoundland 

 Government had to send up special steamers to 

 bring these people home. 



Easterly gales especially, as the water is deep, 

 heave in a most wonderful ground-swell. Close to 

 the land, I have in our little steamer been so low 

 down in these great watery valleys, that, standing 

 on deck, we could not see even the tops of the hills 

 over the crest of the next wave. Admiral Bayfield 

 says, " It bursts with fury right over islands thirty 

 feet in height, sending sheets of foam and spray, 

 sparkling in the sunbeams fifty feet up the sides of 

 precipices." 



One feature, however, of rare beauty is peculiar 

 to these Arctic regions. I mean the Aurora Bor- 

 ealis. At times one radiant crown circles the zenith ; 

 at others, vast columns of light advancing across 

 the heavens keep changing shape like battalions of 

 men attacking, the varying uniforms of these flying 



