"Shades of evening, close not o'er us,
Leave our lonely bark awhile,
Morn, alas! will not restore us
Yonder dim and distant isle."
Ah, reader! what a glorious thing music is; I tell you, honestly and
truthfully, that I do not believe I could have come through half the
trials and troubles and griefs and worries I have had in life, if I had
not at times been able to seek solace and comfort from my old cremona.
Our heroes thought at first they would greatly miss the light of the
sun, but they soon got quite used to the strange electric light emitted
by the splendid Aurora, combined with that which gleamed more steadily
downwards from the brilliant stars. These stars were seen to best
advantage in the south; they seemed very large and very near, and
whether it was the reflection of the Aurora, or whether it was real, I
never could tell, but they seemed to shine with differently coloured
lights. There were pure white stars, mostly low on the horizon; there
were crimson and green changing stars, and yellow and rose-coloured
changing stars, and some of a pale-golden hue, the soft light of which
was inexpressibly lovely. But any effort of mine to paint in words the
extreme beauty of the heavens on clear nights would prove but a painful
failure, so I leave it alone. The chief bow of the Aurora is, I may
just mention, composed apparently of spears of ever-changing
rainbow-coloured light continually falling back into masses and
phalanxes, and anon advancing and clashing, as it were. While walking
on the ice-fields, if you listen, you can hear a strange whispering,
hissing sound emitted from these clashing, mixing spears. The following
letters, whispered rapidly, give some faint idea of this mysterious
sound,--
"Ush-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh."
You can also produce a somewhat similar noise by rubbing your fingers
swiftly backwards and forwards on a sheet of paper.
But indeed the whole firmament, when the sky was clear, was precisely as
Rory described it--"one beautiful poem."
Many bears were now seen, and nearly all that were seen were killed.
They were enormously large and fierce, foolishly fierce indeed, for they
seldom thought of taking to flight.
There were unicorns (narwhals) in the sea in scores, and walruses on the
flat ice by the dozen. It was after these latter that Master Bruin came
prowling.
A nice juicy walrus-steak a Greenland bear will tell you is the best
thing in the world for keeping the cold out.
Old trapper Seth had strange ways of hunting at times. One example must
suffice.
Our heroes had been out after a walrus which they had succeeded in
killing. A bear or two had been seen an hour or two before that,
evidently on the prowl, and probably very hungry. Now, nothing will
fetch these kings of the northern ice more surely than the scent of
blood.
"Young gentlemen," said Seth, "there's a b'ar about somewheres, and I
reckon he ain't far off either. Now, we'll just whip this old walrus
out o' his skin, and Seth will creep in, and you'll see what you'll
see."
He was very busy with his knife as he spoke, and in a few minutes the
crang was got out and thrown into the water, the head being left on.
Into the skin crept the trapper, lying down at full length with his
rifle close by his side, and by his directions away pulled the boat.
It was not two hundred yards off, when up out of the sea scrambled a
huge bear.
"Hullo," says Bruin, shaking himself like a dozen great Newfoundland
dogs rolled into one--"hullo! they've killed the wallie and left him.
Now won't I have a blow-out just?" and he licked his great chops in
anticipation.
"Dear me?" continued Bruin, as the walrus turned right round and
confronted him; "why, they haven't quite killed you! Never mind,
wallie, I'll put you out of pain, and I'll do it ever so gently. Then
I'll just have one leetle bite out of your loin, you know."
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"I guess you won't this journey," said Seth, bringing his rifle into
position as the bear prepared to spring. "I reckon it'll be the other
way on, and b'ar's steak ain't to be sneezed at when it's nicely
cooked."
Bang!
It was very soon over with that poor bear; he never even changed the
position into which he had thrown himself, but lay there dead, with his
great head on his paws like a gigantic dog asleep.