490 Chapter VIII. 



prevails everywhere. It is the infinite loveliness of death 



N 



irvana. 



"Monday, October 22nd. It is beginning to be cold 

 now ; the thermometer was 34*6 C. (3O'2 F. below 

 zero) last night, and this evening it is - - 36 C. (3 2 "8 F. 

 below zero). 



"A lovely aurora this evening (11.30). A brilliant 

 corona encircled the zenith with a wreath of streamers 

 in several layers, one outside the other ; then larger and 

 smaller sheaves of streamers spread over the sky, 

 especially low clown towards S.W. and E.S.E. All of 

 them, however, tended upwards towards the corona, 

 which shone like a halo. I stood watching it a long 

 while. Every now and then I could discern a dark patch 

 in its middle, at the point where all the rays converged. 

 It lay a little south of the Pole Star, and approached 

 Cassiopeia in the position it then occupied. But the 

 halo kept smouldering and shifting just as if a gale in 

 the upper strata of the atmosphere were playing the 

 bellows to it. Presently fresh streamers shot out of the 

 darkness outside the inner halo, followed by other bright 

 shafts of light in a still wider circle, and meanwhile the 

 dark space in the middle was clearly visible ; at other 

 times it was entirely covered with masses of light. Then 

 it appeared as if the storm abated, and the whole turned 

 pale, and glowed with a faint whitish hue for a little 

 while, only to shoot wildly up once more and to begin 

 the same dance over aofain. Then the entire mass of 



o 



