Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

SHORES OF FINLAND.6Õ

abodes of the blest, unchangeable, inhabitants of an immutable heaven.

Such were the feelings I experienced in approach-ins; the Gulf of Bothnia, whose northern limits ex-tend to Toraeo.

The coast of Finland, generally considered mountainous, appears to me but a succession of gentle, imperceptible hills; all is lost in the distance and indistinctness of the misty horizon. This untransparent atmosphere deprives objects of their lively colours ; every thing is dulled and dimmed beneath its heavens of mother-of-pearl. The vessels, just visible in the horizon, quickly disappear again; for the glimmering of the perpetual twilight, to which they here give the name of day, scarcely lights up the waters; it has not powTer to gild the sails of a distant vessel. The canvas of a ship under full sail- in northern seas, in place of shining as it does in other latitudes, is darkly figured against the grey curtain of heaven, which resembles a sheet spread out for the representation of Chinese figures. I am ashamed to confess it, but the view of nature in the north reminds me, in spite of myself, of an enormous magic lantern, whose lamp gives a bad light, and the figures on whose glasses are worn with use. I dislike comparisons which degrade the subject; but we must, at any rate, endeavour to describe our conceptions. It is easier to admire than to disparage ; nevertheless, to describe with truth, the feeling that prompts both sentiments must be suffered to operate.

On entering these whitened deserts, a poetic terror takes possession of the soul: you pause, affrighted, on the threshold of the palace of winter. As you ad-