THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 177 



The mind forgets the world of waters around, and, 

 in the enthusiasm of the hour, goes out in busy 

 imagination to that beautiful land, and roves among 

 its valleys and hills in dreamy enjoyment. We are 

 not, then, surprised that the imaginative Greeks 

 should have suncj of their Fortunate Islands, the 

 habitations of the blessed, placed far away in the 

 ocean of the west, and invested with more than 

 earthly loveliness ; nor that the existence of isles 

 of similar character, in the same mysterious because 

 unknown regions, should have found a place in 

 the mythology of even so remote a nation as the 

 Hindoos. 



Tlie beauteous scenes before us, however, are as 

 transitory as they are lovely : night comes on with 

 a rapidity startling to us accustomed to the long 

 twilight of the north ; the rich hues with which the 

 western sky is suffused, the crimson and ruddy gold, 

 speedily change to a warm and swarthy brown, and 

 one by one the stars come out, and light up the sky 

 with a stranj^e and unwonted effulgence. Humboldt 

 aescribes in the following terms his own emotions on 

 first seeing the brilliant stars of these regions : — 



"From the time we entered the torrid zone, we 

 were never wearied with admiring, every night, the 

 beauty of the southern sky, which, as we advanced 

 towards the south, opened new constellations to our 

 view. AVe feel an indescribable sensation, when, on 

 approaching the equator, and particularly on passing 

 from one hemisphere to the other, we see those stars 

 which we have contemplated from our infancy, 

 progressively sink, and finally disappear. Nothing 



