In the essay, Stevenson uses both descriptive and narrative techniques to organize his ideas. He describes the setting around him in several parts of the essay. The following passage is an example of descriptive writing:
The country to which I refer was a level and tree-less plateau, over which the winds cut like a whip. For miles and miles it was the same. . . there was nothing left to fancy, nothing to expect, nothing to see by the wayside. . . and you were only accompanied, as you went doggedly forward, by the gaunt telegraph-posts and the hum of the resonant wires in the keen sea-wind. . . this was the nakedness of the North; the earth seemed to know that it was naked, and was ashamed and cold.
Stevenson also uses the narrative technique. He tells a story about a man who peered from the top of a cathedral and learned to appreciate a brief experience of beauty.
