A MARVELLOUS SPECTACLE, 79

parts of these lofty mountains, I could see it at
midnight above the horizon. This spectacle I
considered as not one of the least of nature’s mira-
cles, for what inhabitant of other countries would |
not wish to behold it? O Lord, how wonderful
are ‘hy works !”

Bayard Taylor has thus strikingly described
the same marvellous and beautiful spectacle : “ We
were in the narrow strait between the Island of
Magerée, the northern extremity of which forms
the North Cape and the mainland. Here, where
the scurvy carries off half the inhabitants—where
pastors coming from Southern Norway die within
a year—where no trees grow, no vegetables come
to maturity, and gales from every quarter of the
icy sea beat the last faint life out of nature, men
will still persist in living, in apparent defiance of
all natural laws. Yet they have at least an excuse
for it in the marvellous provision which Providence
has made for their food and fuel. The sea and
fords are alive with fish, which are not only a
means of existence but of profit to them, while
the wonderful Gulf-stream, which crosses 5000
miles of the Atlantic to die upon this Ultima Thule
in a last struggle with the Polar Sea, casts up the
spoils of tropical forests to feed their fires. Think
of Arctic fishers burning upon their hearths the
palms of Hayti, the mahogany of Honduras, and