Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-01

blue background, so far behind so many
films of various-tinted clouds. the great sun
was now and then to be seen fitting in
downward course straight for the all-snow
peaks of Spitzbergen. In the forecastle
stood Capt. Bottelfsen. sextant in hand.
waiting an opportunity to take midnight
altitude.
Another glimpse of the great white red
orb, and he is gone. Darker clouds inter-
vene, but his rays, through reflection from
the glaciers and the snow peaks, are paint
ing all the northern horizon golden yell
lew. Will the sun reappear? Yes: there he
Is. His lower edge dips below the clouds.
Now his equator is to be seen, and now
lcok quickly-he stands completely unmask-
out in the north. The spectacle has passed
beyond the art of the scene painter. Nature
shows herself to be without rivals.
The Midnight Sun.
An instant or two thus, and the sun
stands still 1t quivers in the heavens as
If undetermined whether to honor earth by
nearer approach. And then it starts up
again on another twenty four-hour sweep
through the polar sky. The sun has set
and the sun has risen all in one glorious
process. One day is gone. Another is here
and 1t is time to crawl into our hunks and
draw closer the curtains over the port
holes
months We have bid goodbye to night, and
that the sun we are to have always in the
heavens. The midnight sun, now SO won-
derful spectacle because new to most of
US, Will soon be commonplace enough. 1t
Is beautiful yet a sad thought-the
thought that as far as We are from home,
there is one thing our friends there may
gaze upon at the same instant We do, and
that thus the sun as common object may
be made the medium of thought transfer
ence from polar regions to the haunts of
civilization and back again. From a
thought like this we are reused by the
NrfNf< Of
Steady as the Ragnvald Jarl gives her
hundred milliouth lurch to port since morn
irg.
The good doctor imagines 1t to be his duty
TO run the ship. and he goes out on deck
and converses with the good natured cap
tain as to the ACCESSIBILITY of Hanging
some more curtains on those things that
stick out over the sides from the front
pole" meaning thereby. of course. more
SAN Oh the yardarms of the mainmast.
When the captain laughingly declines. the
good doctor expresses himself as being
Wiling 10 compromise on a smaller cur
tain on the back pole. The little after
deck OF the Jarl. wherein a few of us sur
prise the sailors by ordering them to pour
buckets of sea water upon our naked bod
les early in the morning-this away up in
the arctic region, near the pole. in early
May-the good doctor calls this deck our
back porch.
Calm Sea at Last.
This morning We rose to find a bright sun,
a calm sea and Spitzbergen but a few miles
on our starboard BOW. The sharp pointed
peaks from which the group takes its name
line the whole coast. the snow line running
clear down to the waters EDGE. Nothing
colder or more fo-bidding than this ice
mantled region could be imagined, but to
those of us who had been talking Spitzber-
gen, scheming Spitzbergen, dreaming Spitz-
bergen, for many a long month ii was a
har
work soon to come After three DAYS of
tempest tossing the men crawled out of
their hunks and the dogs were lifted out of
their rocking hold to bask in the sunshine.
Our first day in the Spitzbergen seas Is
one of brightness and confidence. We have
still to meet the ice which every one pre-
dlcted would block our way. But stay
What is that? The Ragnvald Jarl strikes
some obstacle and shivers in every bone of
her body. 1t is the ice at last! All rush on
deck to behold. for the first time for most
OF us, the sea of ice. Another crash which
makes everything in the cabin of the Jarl
rattle and shake. How serious is the OBJ
stacle? How long are we to be delayed?
WALTER WELLMAN.