After this season of congealed dampness came a spell of dry frost , when strange birds from behind the north pole began to arrive silently on the upland of flintcomb - ash ; gaunt spectral creatures with tragical eyes - eyes which had witnessed scenes of cataclysmal horror in inaccessible polar regions of a magnitude such as no human being had ever conceived , in curdling temperatures that no man could endure ; which had beheld the crash of icebergs and the slide of snow hills by the shooting light of the aurora ; been half blinded by the whirl of colossal storms and terraqueous distortions ; and retained the expression of feature that such scenes had engendered 潮气结为雾淞的季节过去了，接着而来的是一段干燥的霜冻时期，北极后面一些奇怪的鸟儿开始悄悄地飞到燧石山的高地上来这些骨瘦如柴的鬼怪似的鸟儿，长着悲伤的眼睛，在人类无法想象其广袤寥廓的人迹罕至的极地，在人类无法忍受的凝固血液的气温里，这种眼睛曾经目睹过灾难性地质变迁的恐怖在黎明女神播洒出来的光明里，亲眼看到过冰山的崩裂，雪山的滑动在巨大的暴风雪和海水陆地的巨变所引起的漩流中，它们的眼睛被弄得瞎了一半在它们的眼睛里，至今还保留着当时看到这种场面的表情特点。
