168 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
a death-like stillness prevailed, interrupted only by the voices of 
the crew, or the occasional barking of the dogs. The distance 
at which sounds were heard in the open air, during the conti¬ 
nuance of intense frost, seems almost incredible; persons have 
been distinctly heard conversing in a common tone of voice, at 
the distance of a mile. 
On seeing the sun set for the period of three months , the follow¬ 
ing beautiful lines were written . 
Behold yon glorious orb whose feeble ray 
Mocks the proud glare of summer’s lovelier day, 
His noon-tide beam shot upward thro’ the sky, 
Scarce gilds the vault of heaven’s blue canopy— 
A fainter yet, and a fainter light, 
And lo ! he leaves us now to one long cheerless night! 
And is his glorious course for ever o’er 1 
And has he set indeed—to rise no more 1 
To us no more shall spring’s enlivening beam, 
Unlock the fountains of the fetter’d stream; 
No more the wild bird carol through the sky, 
And cheer yon mountains with rude melody l . 
Yes! once more shall spring her energy resume. 
And chase the horrors of this wintry gloom— 
Once more shall summers animating ray 
Enliven nature with perpetual day— 
Yon radiant orb, with self-inherent light, 
Shall rise and dissipate the shades of night j 
In peerless splendour re-possess the sky, 
And shine in renovated majesty. 
In yon departing orb methinks I see, 
A counterpart of frail mortality, 
Emblem of man! when life’s declining sun, 
Proclaims this awful truth!—thy race is run. 
His sun once set—its bright effulgence gone 
All all is darkness—as it ne’ei had shone! 
