The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-23
I. l.. GUL|CK
IN NORWAY
Trondjem, Spitzbergen
North Cape.
SAW THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Interesting Description of One of THE
Most Popular of European '
Tours by Sea.

| STEAMER NeSleIddIeH, july 10, 1893.
We passed into the Arctic zone about
| midnight. 1t was so light we could
read on deck all night. This has been
a serene and cloudless day, one of
George Herbert's
| Sweet day! so cool. so calm, SO bright,
Bridal of earth and sky"
| Much of the time the sea is as smooth
as glass AS we glide by these lofty
mountains and islands surrounding us,
some near and some on the dim hori-
| zon, | could easier believe myself on
| Lago Maggiore, skimming by Isola
| Bella, than in this Ultima Thule of the
Far North. The atmosphere is clear.
| Now and then we come into an open
space in this continuous inland sea,
and find ranges of mountains stretch
| ing far away SO delicately limned
Iagainst the violet sky in varying shades
of exquisite color, as no painters
brush could suggest 1t is bewilder-
| ingly beautiful; superlatives would
only belittle it.
| Many of the mountains are sharp
and jagged and of very serious forms;
nearly all are fiecked and streaked with
snow.
| The glorious panorama is unfolding
and changing every minute, so that
| begrudge the moments that keep me
below eating, sleeping. or Writing. We
can sit on deck and read and look up,
| SO losing nothing. We walk by the
hour, taking in the enchanting scene
| at every step. There is much more va
riety of color than | had anticipated;
white rocks, black rocks, grey rocks,
and purple rocks and islands; noun
tains green, yellow, purple, pink, rose,
grey, and blue of all shades, according
to the distance and all of delicate
tints.
We are passing inside of islands or
through fjords nearly all the time,
which gives us smooth seas and noun
tains on all sides. 1t is often difficult
to tell which is island and which main
land. At noon we stopped in the
charming land-locked harbor of Bodo.
where we found twelve steamers and
many other craft.
The Emperor William came in his
yacht Hohenzollern to Trondjem while
we were there; the salutes reverber-
ated among the hills. Two other
steamers came with him.
Gulls and other sea birds are con-
stantly following us for food. There
are many elder ducks. This morning
We saw enormous flocks Of white birds
settling close together on the water to
catch what they could of great schools
of herring. Some saw a school of dSl-
phins leaping from the water. A few
moments ago ! deserted a large fish
near US. From his fin and part of his
back which appeared above water, he
must have been fifteen or twenty feet
long; whether it was young whale or
a narwhal or shark we do not know,
but | believe it could have swallowed
Jonah comfortably. We have just come
to dock in the wild craggy, and attract
i've LOfoten Islands, where two liter
ary and sociable Englishmen have left
us to climb the mountains. They were
very friendly with us Americans and
We shall miss them.
First Midnight Sun.
Tromsoe, July 18th, a. IN,
Last night Unexpectedly we saw our
first midnight sun. 1t was extraordi-
narily beautiful-in fact, one of the
most splendid and inspiring scenes
ever looked upon. 1t is very doubtful
Wnetnef we Sndll again on our trip, Or
in our lives, see another equal to it.
The pilot says in all the years he has
been plotting through these waters he
has never seen its equal. I was the
more delighted because | had said to |
myself many times, The midnight |
sun will not be different from any |
other sun except that we shall see it |
at midnight"
I have Travelled through the stern |
and wild mountains of Africa. studied |
many phases of the Alps by day and |
by night camped out amid the unique |
wonders of the Yellowstone Park, rev. |
eled for weeks in the grandeurs of the |
Yosemite, seen the sun rise on gold
en- sea of clouds from the lofty summit /
of HaIeakala and looked down into it's |
crater 1900 feet deep; / |
have f1oated by day and by night on
the enhancing Bay Of Naples, where
Calm Capri waits
Her sapphire gates
Beguiling to her bright estates;"
q