Though much less has been
written or said concerning the interminable day, its effects are almost
as deleterious upon the stranger as the prolonged night. Indeed, to the
sojourner in high latitudes the day is much more appreciable, for at no
point yet visited by man is the darkness the total darkness of night
throughout the entire day, while the "midnight sun" makes the night
like noon-day. Even when the sun passes below the horizon at its upper
culmination, the daylight is as intense as at noon in lower latitudes
when the sun's disk is obscured by thin clouds. The long twilight in
the north, where the sun's apparent path around the earth varies so
little in altitude at its upper and lower culminations, takes some of
the edge off of the prolonged night at the highest latitude ever
attained by the Arctic explorer; but there is nothing to relieve the
"long, long, weary day" of its full power upon the system.
In this latitude the sun goes down at night, and we retire to our
couches and sleep. In the morning the sun returns, and we arise to the
pursuit of our various daily avocations. But there, in the spring, the
sun never sets. There is no morning and no night. It is one continuous
day for months. At first it seems very difficult to understand this
strange thing in nature. One never knows when to sleep.
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