its perfection; and this is removed
from the comparison by its inferiority in magnitude. This incomparable
hue appears wherever deep shadow is interposed between the eye and any
intense, shining white. The floe in question contained two caverns
excavated by the sea, both of which were partially open toward the ship.
And out of these shone, shone on us, the cerulean and sapphire glory!
Beyond this were the deep blue waters of York Bay; farther away, grouped
and pushing down, headland behind headland, into the bay, rose the
purple gneiss hills, broad and rounded, and flecked with party-colored
moss; while nearer glowed this immortal blue eye, like the bliss of
eternity looking into time!

Next day we rowed close to this: I hardly know how we dared! Heavens!
such blue! It grew, as we looked into the ice-cavern, deeper, intenser,
more luminous, more awful in beauty, the farther inward, till in the
depths it became not only a shrine to worship at, but a presence to bow
and be silent before! It is said that angels sing and move in joy before
the Eternal; but there I learned that silence is their only voice, and
stillness their ecstatic motion!

Meanwhile the portals of this sapphire sanctuary were of a warm rose
hue, rich and delicate,--looking like the blush of mortal beauty at its
nearness to the heavenly.

Bradford is all right in painting the intensest blue possible,--due
care, of course, being taken not to extend it uniformly over large
surfaces. If he can secure any suggestion of the subtilty and
luminousness,--if he can! As I come back, and utter a word, he says that
the only way will be to glaze over a white ground. It had already struck
me, that, as this is the method by which Nature obtains such effects, it
must be the method for Art also. He is on the right track. And how the
gentle soul works!

But while outward Nature here assumed aspects of beauty so surpassing,
man, as if to lend her the emphasis of contrast, appeared in the
sorriest shape. I name him here, that I may vindicate his claim to
remembrance, even when he is a blot upon the beauty around him. I will
not forget him, even though I can think of him only with shame. To
remember, however, is here enough. We will go back to Nature,--though
she, too, can suckle "killers."

On the evening before our departure,--for we remained several days, and
had a snow-storm meanwhile,--there was a glorious going down of the sun
over the hills beyond York Bay, with