LAPLAND. 103 



valleys between the fells themselves, while the 

 lower landscape was covered with forests of 

 boundless extent, presenting to the eye every 

 shade of green — from the dark foliage of the fir, 

 to the lighter and more silvery tint of the birch 

 and the willow. Every object could be distin- 

 guished as clearly as by day ; but — 



" The scene was more beautiful far to the eye 



Than if day in its pride had arrayed it ; 

 The night wind blew soft, and the azure- arched sky 



Looked pure as the Spirit that made it. 

 I stood, and I gazed from the fell's rugged slope, 



Forgot was the world's rude commotion ; 

 And methought that the prospect looked lovely as hope — 



That star on life's tremulous ocean." 



Here was a landscape fresh from the Maker's 

 hands. Wo encroachments of man had marred 

 the rugged, natural beauty of this wild scene, 

 which was probably but little changed since that 

 day when some mighty convulsion of nature 

 raised these huge ironstone blocks into the posi- 

 tion which they now occupy. A solemn feeling 

 crept over me as I gazed upon the vast, the grand 

 panorama which lay outstretched around me ; and 

 as the night-breeze swept by in fitful gusts, it 

 seemed truly as if I then stood face to face witlc 

 the Almighty One in the wilderness. A dead 

 silence reigned over all, such as I once remember 

 during an eclipse of the sun, and for a short time 



