98 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 
of hail and wind and the thick weather compelled 
the captain to lay to for some hours. 
On the return journey the weather was more 
favourable and we had a wonderful view of the coast 
line near the southern extremity of Greenland. On 
the horizon forty or fifty miles to the north we saw 
a jagged line of Alpine peaks, some tapering to 
slender conical points, others having the form of 
more massive pyramids separated from one another 
by depressions which seemed to show against a 
greenish blue band of sky glimpses of the inland ice; 
though it may be we were looking along arms of 
some of the tortuous fjords that cut deep into the 
coast. The light of the sea contrasted with the 
deep blue of the mountainous headlands against a 
pale steely-blue background cut off by an over- 
hanging bank of dark cloud. Later in the evening 
the clouds dispersed and the serrated profile of 
the mountains was sharply outlined against a 
luminous sky; the ‘golden splendour of the north’ 
faded into night. The rapidly changing scene pro- 
duced an impression of sadness and majesty; it was 
our farewell to a land which in some aspects merits 
the name given to it more than three hundred 
years ago—the Land of Desolation; it is a land 
remarkable for the splendid dignity of its scenery 
and possessed of a subtle power of inspiring affec- 
tion tempered by a sense of awe. 
