392 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC KEGIOICS. 



peculiar to the polar seas ; they may, however, be 

 briefly noticed. 



Parhelia and coronce are, perhaps, not so frequent 

 in Greenland as in 'some parts of America. I do 

 not recollect to have observed these phenomena more 

 than thrice. The first occurred on one of my earli- 

 est voyages to the fishery, and passed off merely as 

 a wonderful appearance, witliout inducing me to mi- 

 nute the particulars. I perfectly recollect, however, 

 that there were two or three parhelia, and four or 

 five coloured circles. The primary one encompassed 

 the sun, the remainder had their centres in its cir- 

 cumference ; and some of the intersections exhibited 

 the splendour of the parhelion. Some of the circles 

 almost equalled in their colours the brilliancy of the 

 rainbow ; a grand arch resembling which, was at 

 the same time displayed, in the opposite quarter. 

 The other tw^o instances occurred on the passage. 

 The one, when outward bound, April 14. 1807, la- 

 titude 64° or Q5°, consisted of several parhelia, which, 

 accompanied by coloured circles and arcs of circles, 

 and succeeded by a lunar halo, together with the 

 aurora borealis, proved the harbingers of a tremen- 

 dous tempest. The last phenomenon of this kind 

 which I saw, appeared on the passage homeward, in 

 July 1811. It consisted of a large circle of lumi- 

 nous whiteness, passing through the centre of the sun, 

 in a direction nearly parallel to the horizon, inter- 

 sected in various places with coloured circles of smal- 



