The long Cyclopean wall and vast
Gothic roof of the side, including many an arched, rounded, and waving
line, emphasized by straight lines of blue seam, are set off against the
strange shining traceries of the facade; while the union of flower-like
softness and eternal strength, the fretted silver of surface, the
combination of peak and cave, the fringe of blazing emerald on the
ridge, the glancing, flashing lights contrasting with twilight blues and
purples of deep shadow, and over all the stainless azure, and beneath
and around all a sea of beryl strown with sun-dust,--these associate to
engrave on the soul an impression which even death and the tomb, I would
fain believe, will be powerless to efface. And if Art study hard and
labor long and vehemently aspire to publish the truth of this, she does
well. Her task is worthy, but is not easy: I think a greater, of the
kind, has never been attempted. The height of this berg was determined
by instruments--but with a conjecture only of the distance--to be one
hundred and eighteen feet. Captain Brown, however, who went aloft, and
thence formed a judgment, pronounced it not less than one hundred and
fifty feet. One naturally inclines to the more moderate computation.
But, as subsequent experience showed me that judgments of distance in
such cases are almost always below the mark, I am of opinion that here,
as sometimes in politics and religion, seeming moderation may be less
accurate than seeming excess.

And, by the way, Noble's descriptions of icebergs, which, in the absence
of personal observation, might seem excessive, are of real value.
Finding a copy of his book on board, I read it with pleasure, having
first fully made my own notes,--and refer to him any reader who may have
appetite for more after concluding this chapter.

Early this evening we entered between bold cliffs into Square Island
Harbor, latitude about 53 deg.. It is a deep and deeply sheltered dog's
hole,--dogs and dirt could make it such,--but overhung by purple hills,
which proved, on subsequent inspection, to be largely composed of an
impure labradorite. Labradorite, the reader may know, is a crystallized
feldspar, with traces of other minerals. In its pure state it is
opalescent, exhibiting vivid gleams of blue, green, gold, and
copper-color, and, more rarely, of rose,--and is then, and deservedly,
reckoned a precious stone. The general character of the rock here is
sienitic; but, besides this peculiar