CHANGELESS ARCTIC TEMPLES OF ICE.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1, 2 June 1910, Page 2

CHANGELESS ARCTIC TEMPLES OF ICE.

Amid the bleak icy deserts of Greenland the survivors of the recent ill-fated Erichsen expedition discovered a crystal palace of superhuman architecture vaster than a dozen cathedrals and Egypt,,, temples, resplendent with jc and

endless decorations of ice. Created by nature in a forbidding wilderness, it frightened the eyes of tlie explorers and awed them with unimaginable magnificence. The dreams of poets and the fancies of epic bards were surpassed by this vision of colossal loveliness, which the painter, Achton Friis, a member of the expedition, endeavoured to carry away for the benefit of the dwellers in civilisation. More than a mile in length, the lofty nave of this artistic temple of ice was pierced at intervals with windows through which the glancing sun-rays sparkled on columns and cubes and immense clusters of stalactites like pendent jewels. Through the centre of the ice palace flowed a stream of water, whose occasional ripple and plashing fall broke the majestic silence. Far north it is possible that ice palaces and temples should endure without change longer than human structures of stone. The carcases of prehistoric monsters have remained inviolate in Arctic tombs for thousands of years, while granite pyramids have worn away and Babylonian civilisation has been buried de;p in the earth. Home day the world may decide to store its most valuable records for posterity at the poles.