28 
FROM TENERIFFE TO BERMUDAS. 
HALIFAX. 
Nature celebrated the “ Challenger’s ” arrival off Halifax on the morning of the 9th 
by a mirage. It was a calm frosty morning; the sun had just risen, and our attention 
was first attracted by an extraordinary distortion of the coast-line, whose rocks rose into 
the air like the huge towers of a baronial castle; while elsewhere the sea, mingling with 
the sky, bore a number of ships, some real, some mere phantom-ships sailing through the air. 
“ As when, far off at sea, a fleet descried 
Hangs in the clouds.” 
Halifax, as seen from the water, has a grey and dingy appearance. As we stepped 
on shore, a keen wind was blowing clouds of dust before us. There had been a fall of 
ON BEDFORD BASIN, HALIFAX. 
snow not many days before, and, altogether, the contrast with the sunny isles we had left 
behind us was most striking. We were now in a land of granite and pine forests, where 
the struggle of man with the wilderness still continues, and might be witnessed at a short 
IN ACADIA. 
