The Winter Night. 259 



mackerel, reindeer ribs with baked cauliflower and 

 potatoes, macaroni pudding, and stewed pears with 

 milk Ringnes ale to wash it down." 



" Thursday, November 2nd. The temperature keeps 

 at about 22 F. below zero ( 30 C.) now; but it does not 

 feel very cold, the air is so still. We can see the aurora 

 borealis in the day-time too. I saw a very remarkable 

 display of it about 3 this afternoon. On the 

 south-western horizon lay the glow of the sun ; in front 

 of it light clouds were swept together like a cloud of 

 dust rising above a distant troop of riders. Then dark 

 streamers of gauze seemed to stretch from the dust- 

 cloud up over the sky, as if it came from the sun, or 

 perhaps rather as if the sun were sucking it in to itself 

 from the whole sky. It was only in the south-west that 

 these streamers were dark ; a little higher up, farther 

 from the sun glow, they grew white and shining, like 

 fine, glistening silver gauze. They spread over the 

 vault of heaven above us, and right away tow r ards the 

 north. They certainly resembled aurora borealis ; but 

 perhaps they might be only light vapours hovering high 

 up in the sky, and catching the sunlight ? I stood long 

 looking at them. They were singularly still, but they 

 iccre northern lights, changing gradually in the south- 

 west into dark cloud-streamers, and ending in the dust- 

 cloud over the sun. Hansen saw them too, later, when 

 it was dark. There was no doubt of their nature. His 

 impression was that the aurora borealis spread from the 



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