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THE NORTHERN MIDNIGHT.
5
upon it, as upon a screen. It marks distinctly the
position of the sun, and thus we are able to watch him
gliding on slowly from the west to north, sinking in
the meanwhile a little more. Now it is midnight, and
the subterranean sun due north. There is light enough
o o
to read a newspaper if it face the north. Just over
the sun is a vanishing semicircle of buff light:
westward it grows to orange, and from this orange zone
broad bands of browning red stretch upwards and
outwards. On the eastern side the buff tint melts and
darkens into a fresh cool gray. Further on, in a
widening circle, extending upwards, and eastwards, and
westwards, to the south horizon, all these colours melt
away gradually to neutral gloominess. There, at the
southern meeting-place of sea and sky, both are
mingled in one heavy leaden semi-darkness. This is
the region of night. Farther on over the bending sea,
o o o 7
men have been burning gas and candles for the last
three hours or more. We have all learned book-wise
that it is so, but here the southward darkness is visible.
So are the sunny midnights of the further north.
There is the sun, obvious though unseen: his body
hidden by the earth’s rotundity; but the lighted
atmosphere, visible beyond the distant mountain-tops, shows
both his presence and position in the region of
continuous summer day.
Thus visible all at once from the ship’s deck are
evening and morning, night and day; sunrise and
sunset seen together, though definitely separated by the
north midnight glow; the character of each marked
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