94 



RECORD OP AURORAL PHENOMENA. 



Strait was never entirely closed; a probability confirmed by the appearance of it at all times of 

 the year in which it is accessible by ships." — Ibid., p. 76. 



N. B. — 1. No want of well-defined clouds this winter. 



2. They were almost entirely cirro-stratus. 



3. Cumuli and cirro-cumuli occurred only with the approach of spring. 



4. Fogs and dark water-sky. 



"Lieutenant Ross tried the thickness of the salt-water ice during different periods of the winter, by 

 digging holes in that formed upon the canal by which the ships had entered, and found it to 

 have increased in the following ratio: — 



Date. 



77. 



N. B. — Thickness of the salt-water ice during different periods of the winter. 



Batty Bay.— Lat. 73° 17' N. Long. 91° W. October 29, 1851. Kennedy. 



" The weather has been very boisterous for some time past, with heavy showers of snow falling 

 every day. The sun was for a very short time visible to-day. 

 The Aurora Borealis bright in the southwest about 9 p. m." — Kennedy, p. 86. 



Batty Bay.— Lat. 73° 17' N. Long. 91° W. December 28, 1851. Bellot. 



"The sky has been generally clear these last days, and this evening we have, the first time, a com- 

 plete Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, as our Shetlanders call them (they also call them 

 Dancing Lights). 



Great luminous rays like the milky way, but with a slight yellowish tint, divide the vault of the 

 sky, issuing from the zenith, from which they spread like the leaves of a palm, widening at the 

 base. 



I do not know that mention has anywhere been made of this singular phenomenon." — 2 Bellot, 73. 



Lancaster Sound.— [Near Lat. 73° 40' 40" N. Long. 75° 03' 24" W.] Jan. 15, 1851. Kane. 

 " 3 a. m., a faint Aurora to the southward." — 1 Kane, p. 524. 



Lancaster Sound. — [Near Lat. 74° N. Long. 80° W.] January, 1851. Kane. 



" 1st. A faint Aurora visible to the southward, 11 p. m. 

 2d. An Aurora passing near the zenith in an E. and W. direction, 1 a. m. Two Auroras visible 

 (7 a. m.), one passing through the zenith in an E. and W. direction, the other in faint beams 

 radiating from the southward. 

 3d. An Aurora to the southward, 4 a. in. 

 4th. 5 a.m., an Aurora visible to the southward and westward." — 1 Kane, p. 524. 



