The Argosy — page 145: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ae About Norway. son and dark violet to the purest aqua-marine, loveliest of all tints. Again streaks of flaming crimson flashed across the heaven, changing with every moment. It almost seemed as if these glorious pheno- mena of nature—lI can call them by no other name—spoke to the world in a language for which words were unneeded. If volumes were written about these glorious sunsets in the North Sea ; if all the super- lative adjectives were exhausted in their praise ; description would yet fall infinitely short of their beauty. To those who really enjoyed them and felt their full power, it was only possible to gaze in silence—and, if it might be, in solitude: nothing before you but this grand, almost incomprehensible glory, filling you as much with reverence as with delight. To-night, though not yet within the Arctic Circle, the sun did not disappear for very long. With his reappearance this multitude of shades and tones died out, to give place to the more certain light. Before this, Lieutenant X. and A. ‘had gone down, and indifferent for the time being to the romantic and beautiful in nature, were pledging each other in nothing nearer to nectar than Norwegian beer. It was hard lines upon Herr X., this voyage. When he joined at Aalesund every berth on board was taken, and they had to make up one for him in the saloon, in company with four or five other passengers. Therefore turn in at what hour he might, he had to turn out again the next morning at six, in order that the saloon might be prepared for breakfast. It was hard lines, I say; but I never found anyone take life so good-naturedly ; take the rough with the smooth so amiably ; submit so patiently to small encroachments upon his rights: encroachments that are quite sure to take place where many passengers are met together, and some, perhaps, exact a little more than their due. Rather an exception to his race, Herr X. was full of gentleness and courtesy. Our chief companion during the voyage, by his intelligent remarks, his keen appreciation of scenery, his humour, and his readiness to join in the laugh against himself in his mistakes in speaking English, he contributed not a little to its enjoyment. | Sunday morning proved as beautiful as ever, the sky as cloudless : so far the mirage had brought no ill-fortune. But the captain had said that if bad weather came it would not be for three or four days. Coming up on deck we found ourselves at anchor at Halsound, an English settlement given up to the timber trade. In this little bay, with the mountains close upon us, we were scorched by the heat and blinded by the glare. Yet the place was quaint and pretty, and from the stacks of pine-wood in the timber-yards came a refreshing scent, wafted to us by the gentlest breeze in the world. A melancholy incident here cast a temporary gloom over the passengers. Just before breakfast the second steward came up and informed me that one of the steerage passengers had just died. A young man of twenty, who had joined the ship at Christiania, in the Eomichbooks.co 1