1^6 ACCOUNT OF THE AilCTlC llEGIONS. 



not averaging more tliap 34,^ degrees, it is then sub- 

 ject to a cold occasionally of three, four, or more 

 degrees below the freezing point. It has the ad- 

 vantage, however, of being visited by the sun for 

 an uninterrupted period of four months in each 

 year, thus having a Summer's Day, if so long an in- 

 terval betv/een the rising and setting of the sun may 

 be so denominated, consisting of one-third part of 

 the year. But its winter is proportionally desolate ; 

 the sun, in the northern parts of the .country, re- 

 maining perpetually below the horizon from about 

 the 22d of October to about the 22d of February. 

 This great Winter Night, though sufficiently dreary, 

 is by no means so dark as might be expected, as the 

 sun, even during its greatest south declination, ap- 

 proaches vvithin 13-|^° of the horizon, and aitords 

 a faint twilight for about one-fourth part of every 

 twenty-four hours. Added to this twilight, the au- 

 rora borealis, which sometimes exhibits a brilliancy 

 approaching to a blaze of fire, — the stars, which shine 

 with an uncommon degree of brightness, — and the 

 moon, which, in north declination, appears for twelve 

 or fourteen days together without setting, — altoge- 

 ther have an effect v^^hich, when heightened by the re- 

 flection of a constant surface of snow, generally give 

 sufficient light for going abroad; — but, with the light 

 afforded by the heavens, when the moon is below 

 the horizon, it is seldom possible to read. 



All that is known respecting the climate of Spitz- 

 bergcn, or nearly so, is derived from the three or 



