THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Reading edition
As seen from the North of Iceland.
Extract from the Notes of an Iceland Tourist.
On board S. S. “Camoens.”
The entire day had been lovely. Hardly any wind was blowing, and the few clouds, that in the morning had given some relief to the landscape before us, had melted away with the declining sun. We were all on deck that night, to watch when the sun would set. That there would be no visible difference in the daylight, we knew from the experience of the last two days; but as we were now at the highest latitude that we could reach (66 deg. 40 sec.), some eight miles inside the Arctic circle, there was a good deal of hope that the sun might perhaps not set at all. Deeper and deeper it sank, assuming a fiery red colour, and painting the snow-covered mountains with the most delicate touches of pink and purple. However, when it came within 2 degrees of the horizon, it seemed to stop on its downward course, and before we knew of anything we heard eight bells. Here was twelve o’clock at night, and the sun right in the north a considerable distance above the water, not a cloud on the sky, not a wrinkle on the water, not a sound to disturb the exquisite picture. Was it a wonder that we could not leave the deck? As the sun slowly rose again, a quantity of light feather-clouds gathered on the northern half of the sky, which were all fringed with crimson and gold, while the sky itself ran through all the shades, from the palest yellow in the north, to the deepest purple over the island to the south of us.
i“Iceland shone with glorious lore renowned,
A northern light when all was gloom around.”
Montgomery.