midnight
For some hours we continued much of Captain Rink 's opinion , till at last I had an opportunity of asking Andrew what he thought about the matter . He then told me that , on account of the clearness of the atmosphere , and the brightness of the snow-covered hills or icy plains , they appear to a person unaccustomed to look on them to be very much nearer than they really are . He assured me that it would be a long time before I should be able to judge of distances ; and that he had known a person mistake a few stunted shrubs appearing above the snow a few yards off for a forest in the distance , while land many miles off appeared , as it had to me , close at hand . It was evening , or I should rather say near midnight , when we really got close in , when we found that the valleys were magnificent fiords , or gulfs running far inland , and that the rocks and icebergs were of vast height . As we sailed along the coast , nothing could be more beautiful than the different effects of light and shade -- the summits of the distant inland ranges shining in the sunlight like masses of gold , and the icebergs in the foreground tinged with the most beautiful and dazzling colours . Beautiful as was the scene , I had no idea that any civilised beings dwelt in such a region of eternal snows . What was my surprise , then , to find the ship brought to an anchor off a small town called Leifly , belonging to the Danes !