The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-03-13

sess in our language. Like others, he
was now and then frozen in, and had
the experience of those remarkably
beautiful winter nights, which he de-
scribes in the following language
mo words can depict the glory that
met our eyes. The glowing fire.
masses had divided into glistening,
many-colored bands, which were
writhing and twisting across the sky
both in the south and north. The
rays sparkled with the purest, most
most crystalline rainbow colors, chief
| ly violet-red or carmine and the clear
est green. Most frequently the rays
OF the arch we're red at the ends, and
changed higher up into sparkling
green, which quite at the top turned
darker, and went over into blue or
violet before disappearing in the blue
of the sky; or the rays in one and the
same arch might change from clear
red to clear green, coming and going
as if driven by storm. 1t was an
endless phantasmagoria of sparkling
color, surprising anything that one
can dream. Sometimes the spectacle
reached such climax that ones
breath was taken away; one felt that
now something extraordinary must
happen-at the very least the sky
must fall. But as one stands in
breathless expectation, down the
whole thing trips, as if in few quick,
light scale-runs, into bare nothing
ness"
Then, again, he muses. on the North
ern scenes and presents in the fol-
lowing way:-"The ice fields stretch
all around, bathed in the silver moon
light, here and there dark, cold sha-
dows project from the hummocks,
whose sides family reflect the twi-
light. Far, far out dark line marks
the horizon formed by the packed-up
ice, over it simmer of silvery va
por and above all the boundless
deep blue, starry sky, where the full
moon sails through the ether. But
in the south is faint glimmer of day
low down of dark, glowing red hue,
and higher up clear yellow and
pale green arch, that loses itself in
the blue above. The whole melts
into pure harmony, one and indis-
cribable. At times one longs to be
able to translate such scenes into
music. What mighty chords one
would require to interpret theml
Silent, oh, so SILENT You can hear
the vibrations of your own nerves.
seem as if were gliding over and
over these plains into infinite space.
Is this not an image of what is to
come? Eternity end peace are here.
Thoughts come and thoughts go.
l cannot forget, and l cannot sleep.
Everything is still; all are asleep.
| only hear the quiet step of the
watch on deck; and the wind rustling
in the rigging and the canvas, and
the clock gently hacking the time in
pieces there on the wall. If 60 on
deck there is black night, stars
sparkling high overhead, and faint
aurora Pickering across the gloomy
vault, and out in the darkness l can
see the glimmer of the great monoto-
nous plain of the ice; it is all so in
expressibly forlorn, so far, far re-
moved from the noise and unrest of
men and all their striving. What is
life thus isolated?"
He gives also very graphic des-
criptions of the breaking up of the ice
in the spring:-"The ice is pressing
and packing round us with noise
like thunder. 1t is piling itself up
into long walls, and heaps high
enough to reach good way up the
Fram's rigging; in fact, it is trying
its very utmost to grind the Fran
into powder" He has very much to
say about the contending forces of
the masterful pack-ice: "Such con-
flict is undoubtedly stupendous
spectacle. For when the packing be-
gins in earnest it seems as though
there could be no spot on the earth's
surface left unshaken. First you hear
sound like the laundering rumble
of an earthquake far away on the
great waste; then you hear it in sew
eral places, always coming nearer and
nearer. The silent ice-world re-echo-
es and thunders; Natures giants are
awakening to the battle. The ice
cracks on every side of you and be-
gins to pile itself up; all of sudden
you find yourself in the midst of the
struggle. There are howlings and
thunderings around you; you feel
the ice trembling and hear it rumb-
ling under your feet; there is no peace
anywhere. In the semi darkness you
can see it piling and tossing itself up
into high ridges nearer and nearer to