A LABRADOR LANDSCAPE. 211 



The sun, seen through this, became a globe of glowing 

 ruby, and its glade on the sea looke"d as if the water had 

 been strewn, almost enough to conceal it, with a crystal- 

 line ruby dust, or with fine mineral spicules of vermilion 

 bordering upon crimson. The peculiarity of this ruddy 

 dust was that it seemed to possess body, and, while it 

 glowed, did not in the smallest degree dazzle, — as if the 

 brilliancy of each ruby particle came from the heart of it 

 rather than from the surface. The effect was in truth 

 indescribable, and I try to suggest it with more sense of 

 helplessness than I have felt hitherto in preparing these 

 papers. It was beautiful beyond expression, — any ex- 

 pression, at least, which is at my command. 



" Such a spectade, I suppose, one might chance to see 

 anywhere, though the chance certainly never occurred 

 to me before. It could scarcely have escaped mp through 

 want of attention, for I could well believe myself a child 

 of the sun, so deep an appeal to my feeling is made by 

 effects of light and color : light before all. 



" But the atmosphere of Labrador has its own secret 

 of beauty, and charms the eye with aspects which one 

 may be pardoned for believing incomparable in their 

 way. The blue of distant hills and mountains, when ob- 

 served in clear sunshine, is subtile and luminous to a 

 degree that surpasses admiration. I have seen the Cam- 

 den Heights across the waters of Penobscot Bay when 

 their blue was equally profound ; for these hills, beheld 

 over twenty miles or more of sea, do a wonderful thing 

 in the way of color, lifting themselves up there through 

 all the long summer days, a very marvel of solemn and 

 glorious beauty. The ^gean Sea has a charm of at- 

 mosphere which is wanting to Penobscot Bay, but the 



