32 VOYAGE OUTWiVRD. 



of their dress with the men. After a stay of three hours they 

 departed. They came from some low islands north of Baal's 

 River : see Plate I. Fig. 2. Their lower extremities were re- 

 markably small. They strike an object at twenty yards dis- 

 tance with surprising dexterity. The figure of one, when 



sky overcast with dense, diffuse cirrostratus : sun in Corona : wind 

 increased to strong gale : * procellaria glacialis. 



INIarch 28 : ther. 38°, 43°, 36° : wind S. by W., fresh breeze : nimbus 

 with sno^^' : cumulostratus in masses. 



March 29 : ther. 38°, 38°, 36° : wind N. W., strong breeze : sky 

 generally clear : cumulostratus changing into nimbus, with mixed 

 showers of hail, rain, and snow : atmosphere unusually cold to sensa- 

 tion, even at the degree marked by the thermometer : ship steering 

 to S.W. : a large balaena physalus (finner) passed the ship. Larus 

 canus : at 8 p. m., the electric coruscations suddenly appeared, running 

 at about thirty degrees above the horizon, ascending in a perpendi- 

 cular direction from a base in a rapid succession of brassy yellow 

 flames from W. to E. and soon died away. 



Immediately after, from the westward there slowly extended up- 

 wards to the zenith four faintly marked radii, which diverged as they 

 ascended ; two, more, approximating to each other and nearly of 

 equal breadth throughout. One only remained, stretching in a mag- 

 nificent arch over the zenith, embracing the horizon E. and W., and 

 of a splendour exceedingly faint : it might, on hasty observation, be 



* This event proves the observations of the 26th to be correct. 



