Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-12-16
The Midnight SUN.


midnight by our reckoning of time on
our voyage, and yet the sun is shining
in the north, full orbed, and as full Of
light as when within an hour of setting
in u clear sky in America. l look down
a beautiful Fiord, between two walls of
dark mountains and calm bright sea,
and in the utmost limit of the view is
the great orb of day pouring a flood Of
golden light upon the water. kindling
the fieeting clouds above him with all
the hues of the rainbow, crowning the
dark ridges of the mountains with rosy
tints, and covering the whole face Of
land and sea With a calm, sacred, awful
beauty, such as I never beheld in any
other region of the earth. 1t seems as
if had climbed so high up the ridge of
the round world that l could see over
into the secret chambers where the King
of Day retires to his golden rest. I feel
almost afraid to look at the awful mon
arch while he is putting ON his robes of
brightness and preparing to 60 forth and
shine upon subject world. 1t seems as
if had intruded with rude and imper-
tinent curiosity upon the secret place of
the King of light, and that he might
punish the intrusion by shifting me with
blindness. Never could this strange
sight of the midnight sun be seen to
greater advantage. The ship entered
this beautiful Fiord just in time to give
us the best possible position for behold
ing the two things which once seen are
never to be forgotten-the sun at mid
night, and the sun directly in the north.
The town of Hammerfest is the most
northerly town in the world. have been
up mountain this afternoon and look
ed over The North Cape into the Arctic
Sea. am now within nineteen degrees
of the North Pole. The scenery al the
way from Throndjem has been most won
derful'in variety and beauty. The steam
er does not go out to sea at all, but pass
ed from Fiord to Fiord, and from Island
to Island, always bringingus within view
of bold headlands and jagged peaks, and
quiet and green banks and meadows and
silver cascades leaping down the noun
tain sides, and snowy peaks, and blue
glaciers, all mingled, changing and null
tiplied in endless variety and succession.
1t is as if Lake Winnipiseogee and Lake
George. and Killarney, and Como, and
Geneva and Lucerne, and Maggiore,
and twenty others were all connected,
and linked and braided into every pos
sible form, and steamer should take us
through them all. The Lofoden are es-
pecially beautiful beyond all description.
| SHALLT THE SURPLUS SHEEP BE STARv-
ED Or PETTED.-W Winter is mean at hand
and every owner Of flock of sheep
should make his arrangements for it. In
most of the Northern States an exagger-
ated feeling encouragement still pervades
the growers of fine wool. Many of them
wintered their focks poorly last winter,
on the ground that they could not afford
to feed them well-and will probably do
the same this winter. This in our opin-
ion is a cruel and suicidal policy. Less
returns are thus obtained from given
amount of food. Thirty half starved
sheep will produce less good merchants
BILE wool than twenty we'll kept ones
) will lose twice or three times as many by
death, and will not raise half as many
lambs. And what farmer possessing a
spark of humanity is willing to see these
poor defenseless creatures-animals
which afford one Of the greatest and
most indispensable necessaries of human
life-driven to exc out scanty supply
: of hay or straw by digging through the
snow for it, or cropping from the icy and
storm-swept fields grass which has beer
rendered almost wholly innutricous by
freezing-the sheep every day growing
D thinner and weaker-all of them totter
ing before March closes-many of the
inlambed ewes incapable of rising witt
their burden, and dying.with parturition
A more painful specimen Of brute suffer
ing than flock in such condition neal
t the close of winter, cannot be witnessed
: And we believe that morality has 9
voice in this matter as we'll as humanity
q We believe that no man has the mora
right to subject the useful domestic ami
: mails, provided to supply his wants, t.
7 the gratuitous and brutal cruelty o
starving them to death by inches. It il
J, purely gratuitous cruelty. Every on'
!, has right. to kill his domestic animal
when necessary, and the mode shoult
: be prompt and instantaneous. Ever,
q flock master who has more sheep thar
$ he can attend to properly or sell, SHOULD
!; kill the surplus when winter sets in i
9 he gets nothing from them but the pelts
Y Death comes to them as a friend, saw
Al.