rew.

CHAPTER XXVII

A DARK NIGHT AT SEA.--WAKE OF THE _RAGNILD_.--THOUSANDS OF PHOSPHORESCENT
LIGHTS.--A LIGHT AHEAD.--AN ARCTIC FAIR.--A FISHING SETTLEMENT.--HOW
THE COD ARE CURED.--FISH AND FERTILIZER FRAGRANCE.

The weather having moderated, we raised our anchor and with a fair wind
continued our voyage. When the night came it was so pitch-dark that I
could not distinguish the sea from the horizon and the sky. It was
impressive. I felt so little in the immensity that surrounded our craft.
Our ship, to my eyes, when compared with the size of the ocean, was not
bigger than a tiny hazelnut tossed to and fro upon it.

Once in a while the crest of a wave broke into a long snowy-white line
which appeared to be filled with a thousand lights; this effect was
caused by the infinite number of animalculae, which are struck together
by the movement of the wave and give out phosphorescence. These
animalculae are living creatures which cannot be seen without the help of
the microscope. It is wonderful that such small things can give such
glowing light.

The long heavy swells, pushed by the southerly gales that had passed
away, moved irresistibly on towards the North, one after another, to
break the wall of ice the Long Night had built round the pole. What
terrific booming must take place there at times, when the ice gives way,
breaks up, and rises in great ridges over the Long Wall!

A light at our masthead told of our presence to the mariners of the
fishing boats, or the vessels coming from far northern ports across our
course, and warned them of danger.

Our ship ploughed her way through the sea, raising a mass of foam
brilliant with globules of light. These globules swept astern along the
sides of the ship, and disappeared further on. We left behind us an
undulating luminous wake, resembling a long bright snake following us,
which was gradually in the distance engulfed by the ocean. This luminous
track seemed to be reeled off from a windlass at the stern of the ship.

As I watched this white serpentine phosphorescent pathway, I thought of
the countless wakes that had been made in like manner since vessels
sailed upon the seas, on their way to different lands, for thousands of
years past, yet not one of those tracks has ever been seen again. No
wonder that the Norsemen called the sea "The Hidden Path."

On deck were four men on the watch, who guarded the lives of those who
had gone below to sleep. T