NIGHT ON THE OCEAN. 345, 
ern sky, and illumined the ocean’s surface with their reflected 
light. At other times the zodiacal light, for several hours after. 
the sun had set, rose like a monument, a huge pyramid of beauty, 
delicate, spirituelle, but well defined, upon the lofty apex of 
which rested the Pleiades. It was first observed by our venerable 
ex-Chief Justice, who seemed delighted to watch it during the. 
early evening hours; he appeared to be very much at home among 
the beautiful stars of the southern sky, and to derive great pleas- 
ure in viewing the heavenly hosts, as, arranged in familiar con- 
stellations, they in solemn, silent majesty passed slowly by. The 
beauty of such skies is closely allied to the spiritual; their grand- 
eur and solemnity is indeed divine; the undevout gazer upon 
such heavens is mad. But how dwarfed everything appeared 
when we looked down! 
While still at sea, a beautiful silver crescent, like the visible eye 
of some invisible god, gazed from the western sky upon the 
setting sun. It added a new element of beauty to the night, but,. 
as it increased in size, many a star retired, and the mysterious 
zodiacal light was unrevealed. It, like the ghosts, exists omiy 
in shadows. 
On Saturday evening, the 13th day of March, we made“ Isaac’s 
Light” upon Isaac’s Island, one of the Bahama Archipelago, 
and knew that the crossing of the gulf of Florida was, with. 
us, an accomplished fact, and that a run during the night of 
about one hundred and twenty miles in the somewhat sheltered. 
“‘ New Providence Channel,” among the islands, and towards the 
center of the group, would complete our voyage. We left the 
upper deck, with its brilliant canopy of gleaming stars, and re- 
tired early to our stateroom, that we might secure a good night’s. 
sleep and be able, at the break of day, to greet the rising sun 
and watch for the first indications of the lovely isle upon which 
Nassau, in the shade of its palms and other tropical trees, re- 
poses. 
