230 TERRORS AND MYSTERIES OF THE POLAR REGION 



As he describes an auroral scene, witnessed by him, the dark- 

 ness was so profound as to be oppressive. Suddenly, from the rear 

 of the black cloud which obscured the horizon, flashed a bright ray ; 

 but before one could say "Behold!" the "jaws of darkness did 

 devour it up." Presently an arch of many colors fixed itself across 

 the sky, like a bridge for the armies of the Unseen, and the aurora 

 gradually developed. The space within the arch was filled by the 

 black cloud; but its borders brightened steadily, though the rays 

 discharged from it were exceedingly capricious now glaring like 

 a vast conflagration, now beaming like the glow of a summer morn. 

 More and more intense grew the light, until from irregular bursts 

 it matured into an almost uniform sheet of radiance. 



Towards the end of the display its character changed. The 

 heavenly dome was all aflame. Lurid fires flung their awful 

 portents across it, before which the stars grew pale, and seemed to 

 recede farther and farther from the earth. The color of the light 

 was chiefly red, but every hue had its turn, and sometimes two or 

 three were mingled; blue and yellow streamers shot across the 

 terrible glare, or, starting side by side from the wide expanse of 

 the radiant arch, melted into each other, and flung a strange shade 

 of emerald over the illuminated landscape. Again this green sub- 

 dues and overcomes the red; then azure and orange blend in rapid 

 flight; subtle rays of violet pierce through "a broad flush of 

 yellow," and the combined streams issue in innumerable tongues 

 of white flame, which mount towards the zenith. 



It may well be credited that the play of these orange and red 

 and violet and emerald lights upon the surrounding objects pro- 

 duced the most marvelous effects. "The weird forms of countless 

 icebergs," says Hayes, "singly and in clusters, loomed above the 

 sea, and around their summits the strange gleam shone as the fires 

 of Vesuvius over the doomed temples of Campania. Upon the 

 mountain-tops, along the white surface of the frozen waters, upon 

 the lofty cliffs, the light glowed, and grew dim, and glowed again, 



