228 TERRORS AND MYSTERIES OF THE POLAR REGION 



along the shore; fragments, falling loose upon it, skid across the 

 surface with the ringing sound which travels so far. In the spring 

 the melting ice-floes groan as they break asunder; with a mighty 

 crash the unbalanced bergs fall over, churning the water into foam 

 with their plunge, and bears and foxes and all the other Arctic 

 animals call and bark to one another as they awaken from their 

 winter sleep. Just as these incidents occur to-day, so did they occur' 

 a thousand years ago; and if to modern ears they sound weird and 

 awe-inspiring, what must they have been to the men who succeeded 

 Pytheas ? 



Nor does this exhaust the marvel of this bleak and fascinating 

 region. In the long winter nights the aurora borealis glares and 

 blazes in the sky, "roaring and flashing about a ship enough to 

 frighten a fellow," as an old quartermaster, who was with Sir 

 F. L. McClintock in his search for Sir John Franklin, used to tell 

 the midshipmen. In the prolonged sunset and sunrise the sky is 

 ablaze with color, and, when the sun has gone, the rarefied atmos- 

 phere produces many curious astronomical figures. As explorers 

 penetrate farther into the great ice-bound region they encounter 

 fresh peculiarities. The moon, which shines continuously during 

 the three weeks of its course, frequently appears surrounded by 

 belts and bands of light, in which mock moons are visible. Long 

 after the sun has disappeared a mock sun will often shine in the 

 sky, and in the twilight, when shadows are no longer cast, men 

 and dogs are liable to walk over cliffs and fall down crevices in the 

 ice through being unable to distinguish them. Penetrating farther 

 into the ice world, they learn that throughout the winter the ice 

 heaves and crashes upon itself, making an incessant uproar as it 

 groans and creaks. The experience of Nansen and the "Fram" 

 emphasized this, but in the earlier days of Polar research silence 

 was presumed to reign in the vicinity of the Arctic basin. 



General Greely adds his testimony to the above in the fol- 

 lowing graphic statement : 



