Five Nights

t that had not failed through all the night, for in this far northern latitude the sun only just dips beneath the horizon at midnight for an hour, leaving al

y on the buoyant blue water. How blue it was, the colouring of sea and sky! Both were so vividly blue, the note of each so deep, so intense, one seemed almost intoxicated with colour. I stepped to the ves

ntain peaks; the water a broad band of blue, the sky above a canopy of blue, and there at the end of the inlet, closing it, like some colossal

o come up to the glory above them, and I stood alone at the forward part of the vessel gliding on through this dream of lustrous blue. Slowly we advanced towards the Muir; very slowly, for these shining bergs carried death with them if they should graze hard against the steamer's side, and, cautiously, steered with infinite pains, the little boat crept on, zigzagging between them. A frail little toy of man, it seemed, to venture here alon

deepest hue of emerald mingling with the lightest sapphire, iridescent, sparkling, wonderful. As we crept still nearer, over the living blue of the water, the continual fall of the icebergs from the front wall of the glacier became apparent. At intervals of about five minutes, with a terrific crash like thunder a great wedge of the glittering wall would fall forward into the blue-green depths, and a cloud of snowy spray rise up hundre

es, it creeps forward slowly towards the sea to meet its doom. Formerly its lip touched the open ocean where now the Taku inlet commences to run inland. But the icy waters, that yet are so much warmer than itself, caressed it with eroding caresses and melted it, and broke bergs from it and rushed in

easonably safe and lie there at anchor for an hour, that the passengers might

. Yet it would be an hour of life, of deep emotion, face to face with this mon

undisturbed, trying to open my eyes still wider, to expand my heart, to stretch m

far from the ship's side I saw two seals at play. For many hundred miles past these seals were the only living things I had seen. The forests on the shore, so thick in the first part of the journey by the Alaskan coast, had long since given way to barren rocks, snow-capped peaks, and ice-filled clef

, and I watched them long through field-glasses as the joyous, turbul

kfast. I was chilled through, for the early morning air is keen, the pure breath of infi

oat had taken on board as we passed the mouth of the Stickeen river. They had started from Canada, lured by the light of the gold that lay under the snows of the Klondike, intendin

ed by starvation, the men had eaten those of their pack animals that had survive

snow-storm and ice-floe as I joined them, of the plans for

e as soon as I could, and spent the rest of the m

k and disaster everywhere. Above the flats of shimmering water, where the gold or crimson of sunset lay, rose constantly the tops of masts, shadowy and spectral, telling of the sunken hull, the pale corpses beneath those gleaming waves. Ship after ship went down out of those adventurous little coasting vessels that p

t with its monstrous crashing bergs and its possibility of sudden and furious storms. So the little steamer was here, creeping up slowly through thi

jumped out and walked away, eager to be alone to enjoy the glory of it all away from the rasping voices, t

ces followed me clearly, distinct

me to time, growing faint behind me, then the di

Some few black dots here and there disfiguring the snowy slopes and glittering ice-covered rocks was all that remained of them. In the midst of the vivid blue-green of the inlet behind me, a little wedge of black, lay the

the five-minute interval, and the accompanying splash of the water. I walked on up the strand, having the great glistening wall of the glacier's face somewhat on my left. It was impossible to approach it on land, as the fervid green water lay deep all about its base. It was only at the side of the inlet that littl

ove one's head, drawing all the light of the sunbeams into their glittering recesses, turning them there into violet, purple, and crimson hues, mauve, saffron, and emerald, blood-red and topaz, and then throwing them out in a million lance-like ra

the last chamber was coldest white but the outer rim seemed hung with blood-red fire and the middle wall glowed deepest emerald. On, on from one to another

ursuing my way up the beach, and ascended slowly the rocks, the huge morain at the side of the glacier, while impressively from the inl

ed in the sides, as if it were the blue-green blood of the glacier. A tiny wind from the north, keen as a knife blade, blew in my face as I stood there, out of the calm blue sky, and seemed to whisper to me of the terrifying nights of storm, of the deadly wind before which all life goes down like a straw, that raged here in the winter. On every side, as far as the eyes could reach, wide white plains of undulating ice and snow, broken here and there

lue shadows in the snow. Beneath my feet glimmered sometimes the green glass-like surface of smooth ice, at others the thin crisp covering of drifted snow crackled at ev

he edge of the glacier and through the thin, glittering air their voices and laughter at intervals came faintly to me. I sprang over the crevasse

he ice showed itself clear of snow and was so slippery I could hardly stand. One false step now, one small slip and I should disappear down one of these green rents, swallowed up in between those gleaming crystal sides to remain one wit

slow death being dealt out to them, like one who dies brandishing to the last his sword in the face of his enemy. I longed to look over, down the glimmering wall, to the swelling rush of the green waters as they leapt up rejoicing to receive the colossal diamond-like berg as it crashed down to them, to see them seethe over it and fling their spray high up in the sunshine in mocking revelry; but it was impossible. The fissures in the ice multiplied themselves as one neared the edge and now were spread round

aving stored some provisions for me on the shore, and call again for me a few weeks later, in an

e, and not only the one human being, but the one life, with no companionshi

e shining sea, the gleaming ice-fields, and the glittering bergs, to be alone with Nature, to see her, as it

scination in

as one watched it growing smaller, dwindling ever, till it was a mere speck, and then saw it vanish, leaving the green riband of water unbroken save for the passing bergs? How one would realise solitude when the

ow starvation, the steamer having been lost on that dangerous rocky coast and none other having come in time, how would death seem to one here, already so far re

t of the delights of the world, with the baubles of life around us, or in the s

detachment, the isolation, would seem but as the laying down the head

d saved me many times before, for youth is usually greatly inclined to suicide, either directly or indirectly in the dangers it courts. But in an artist this is strangely balanced by his love for his w

y began to retrace my steps amongst the yawning pitfalls. As I did so I heard a hoarse hoot from the steamer lying

sailors awaited me. I took my seat in it, turning my eyes to the

last the blue distance swallowed it up. I could see no more than a silvery line dividing the blues of meeting sea and sky. Then I went down to my c

she would feel, for our brains were cast in the same mould. The letter finished, it was still too early to go to bed; so I picked up a curio

ld, passing through a thousand scenes, sometimes loving, sometimes warring, tasting and drinking of everything sweet and stimulating, knowing all t

not grant

o some extent I succeeded. Change, change, it is

hold a brush; for years in my teens I had studied painting under the best teachers of technique in Italy. For two or three years I had done really good work, with the divine afflatus thrilling through every vein. And last

at had come to my ears as a boy of seventeen sitting in a small bare bedroom, on the floor with the sheet of paper before me on which I had drawn a woman's head.

me not at all. My gift was mine, and I knew it. I held it straight from the Divine

a boundless delight in

il Service as he wished. Subsequently, when I had sold them all, and not one for less than a thousand guineas, he began to enter upon a placid state of contentment with me which induced him to say to other captious relations-"Let the boy alone, he will be an artist some day." At which I used to laugh inwardly and go awa

of exercising a really natural gift, it sounds as funn

d artists are artists; the artist may understand the

till I was twenty-two, and my father was sa

t was best in me, but the brain and the senses had come forward, demanding their share of recognition, too, and out of the many coloured strands

ld is full of both for those who desire and look for them, and now I had come on this coasting trip along the shores

the face and figure, as I was, could not hope to find a model amongst them. As our steamer had come up the coast I had looked in vain for even a decent-sized woman or child amongst them. They seem a race without a single beauty, p

my Alaskan tour, but I was naturally sang

ing if you visit them, and Si

nd Marys that had been connected with them. They seemed all to have been Mary or Minnie with Marias in Italy and France. I fell asleep