28 
LETTEES FEOM HIGH LATITUDES. 
since leaving the Hebrides, the sun had got the better 
of the clouds, and driven them in confusion before his 
face. The sea, losing its dead leaden colour, had 
become quite crisp and burnished, darkling into a deep 
sapphire blue against the horizon; beyond which, at 
about nine o’clock, there suddenly shot up towards the 
zenith, a pale, gold aureole, such as precedes the 
appearance of the good fairy at a pantomime farce; 
then, gradually lifting its huge back above the water, 
rose a silver pyramid of snow, which I knew must be 
the cone of an ice mountain, miles away in the interior 
of the island. From the moment we got hold of the 
land, our cruise, as you may suppose, doubled in interest* 
Unfortunately, however, the fair morning did not keep 
its promise; about one o’clock, the glittering mountain 
vanished in mist; the sky again became like an inverted 
pewter cup, and we had to return for two more days to 
our old practice of threshing to windward. So provoked 
was I at this relapse of the weather, that, perceiving 
a whale blowing convenient , I could not help suggesting 
to Sigurdr, son of Jonas, that it was an occasion for 
observing the traditions of his family; but he excused 
himself on the plea of their having become obsolete. 
