THE ARCTIC REGIONS,

AND THE

HOPES OF DISCOVERING THE LOST ADVENTURERS.

"There is a hand that guides."-TENNYSON. The Princess.

FAREWELL to mossy vale, and sapphire sky,
Green earth, and golden wood, and silver wave,
The lily, and the zephyr, and the rose!
Farewell! I may not rest the crowned harp
On emerald meads, or wreathe its fretted base
With blushing flowerets, while a gentle bride
Lists the sweet shiver of the ringing chords.
Ah no! away! away! another tone

Must gleam upon the lute, in snowy lands
Where not a bud can tinge its purple cup,
Or shake its dewy bell;-on icëd hills
I must imbed the pedals;-and my hands,
Ah me! the cold touch of my frozen hands,
Must trill and twangle on the glimmering strings
Until they all flash fire1.

For I must sing

Of hero-daring, and of woman's love,

And of a glorious nation's fearful hopes

All centred on a continent of snow.

1 Cf. maiàv dè λáμπel. Soph. ŒŒ. R. 186.
"His beams shall cheer my heart, and both so twine
Till e'en his beams sing, and my music shine."-Herbert.

Now on the yellow seashell-flowered sand
Floated the rose of eve, and each proud ship,
Enshadowed on the mirror of the waves,

Lay on the calmëd jasper, like a swan.

The cabin-boy had kissed his mother's lips,

And spake brave words of cheer, as tho' the light
That bathed the merry darkness of his eye
Were but a smile; the sailor on the shore
Clasped his fond wife; and the lieutenant stood
With strong hand on the fair and golden curls
Of his bright child; oh! it was hard indeed
To kiss the dew-gems from his fragrant cheek,
And, breathing still the lilies of his face,
Leave him for weary days-and still the boy
Clung sobbing on his hand, nor let it go.

"But hark, they call! Farewell! in three short years, Dearest...Farewell!" and in the boat he leapt,

And the oars dipp'd and flashed: and now they stand Upon the shining decks, and their white wings

The gallant vessels to the winds unfurled,

And left the fading shores. And stars came out
And looked upon the wave, and all was still,
Save the light flapping of the crimson flags,

And murmur of the breezes in the sail,

And shouting of the cleft phosphoric wave

Round the curved prows;-so did the light wind speed The Erebus and Terror on their way.

1 ἀμφὶ δὲ κῦμα Στείρῃ πορφύρεον μεγάλ ̓ ἴαχε νηὸς ἰούσης.

Hom. Il. i. 481.

Oft had the Orient at Hyperion's feet
Flushed into fire and flower, and from his arm

The rubied orb of his empyreal shield

Flamed thro' the zenith; often had he flung
Purpureal' mantles on the radiant foam
Down from his westering chariot, and the stars
Had gazed at twilight from their jewel-thrones
On the blue bosom of the twinkling deep:-
And still the shores swept by: and now by day,
Winging the cold air's lucent2 hyaline,
Strange birds were seen to flutter at the mast,
And irridescent in the moony wave

Strange3 fishes seen to flounder at the keel,
That thro' the floating crystals of the frost
Crisped a slow path: and still the light wind sped
The Erebus and Terror on their way.

Lo! it comes looming thro' the shadowed sea,
Towering and tossing on the crested swell
The mountain of bright ice! down fathom-deep
Swept by mysterious currents floateth strange
Its everlasting base, and to the sun

1 "As slowly he descended, carpeting The western waves with glory, ere he deigned To set his foot upon them."-T. E. Hankinson. 2 "The air is very transparent, and often filled with delicate floating icy crystals." Scoresby, Arctic Regions, p. 113. "The ethereal brilliancy of the polar sky."-Id. p. 19.

3 "We had numerous birds hovering round the ship."-Sir J. Franklin's Voyage to the Polar Seas. "A shoal of grampuses and porpoises came dancing and bounding about the bows of the vessel."-Private Journal of a distinguished officer on board the Erebus.

In mingling gleams of emerald and pearl

Flash out its opal peaks.

Beware! beware!

For terror haunts its beauty-hark! a crash
As of a thousand thunders, and with shock
Terrific as an earthquake the huge mass
Bursts with a shiver, while the writhing deep
Bellows, and rushing on with wrathful wave
Shakes the tall vessels on its howling surge!

The echoes of the rocking mountains heard
And shouted a reply; the ivory Lar1
Rose clanging on the wind; the tusked beast
Plunged to his depths, and fierce Leviathan
Slapping the maddened ocean with his tail
Wallowed in terror, till the hoary deep
Lay white for many a rood.

But they were safe,

Aye! they rode safely on the glassy green
Of silvery3 waters, and with thankful hearts
Prayed to the God of heaven; and it seemed
That angel-ministrants did guide them on
Thro' dangers of the wonder-peopled deep,
Wild waves, and floating lands, and rushing rocks,

1 "The Larus eburneus, remarkable for its immaculate whiteness." Scoresby.

2 "Rearing their tails high in the air they beat the water with awful violence; the sea is thrown into foam."-Id.

3 "The sea is of the most perfect transparency—a beautiful, delicate, cold-looking green."-Private Journal, &c.

Unfabled Strophades; so mercy sped
The Erebus and Terror on their way.

No longer! for the heaped and marble ice
Thickened in azure hummocks1 round the keels;
And, gemmed with icy stars, the idle ships
Lay locked and frozen on the frozen wave!

'Cold, weary, chilly-cold—the very breath
Falling in silvery circlets-and the blood
Beating and bounding in the throbbing pulse.
Ah! we must die! and yet the legends tell
Of a green3 Eden 'mid the whitening wastes
Of the wild North; but not a flower is here
Save crystals of the bright lamellar snow
And glitter of the cold unheeding stars1.

'O! for an emerald field, a sunny light,

A scent of lilies in the forest moss,
A waving in the coronal of trees!

O for the purple noon, the gorgeous noon,

Beneath the bright warm sun! but we must lie

心

1 "That splendid blue (of the ice), which is perhaps one of the richest colours that nature affords."-Parry, Vol. I. p. 20. "Hummocks somewhat relieve the uniformity of intense light by exhibiting shades of delicate blue."-Scoresby.

2 "An Arctic winter consists of the accumulation of almost all which is disagreeable to the feelings."-Id.

3 See the beautiful mythology of the Eddas and Sagas.

4 "The stars, those eternal flowers of heaven.”—Greg. Naz. "In the infinite meadows of heaven

Blossomed the lovely stars."-Longfellow's Evangeline.