120 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



receptive and reflective powers glittered so radiantly, tliat 

 one could read the finest writing without trouble, and 

 see far out into the distance. Amongst other things, on 

 such nights, we always saw the Aurora borealis. As an 

 instance, on the 5th of December, it shone so intensely 

 that the starlight waned, and objects on our field cast 

 shadows. The coast, according as it was near or far 

 away, was recognizable now as a dark streak of fog, and 

 now as a rocky form in all its details. 



Our settlement at the beginning of November, when 

 we were not yet snowed up, might be seen from the most 

 distant point of our field. Near the chief building lay 

 two snow-houses, which served for washing and drying 

 ourselves. Boats, heaps of wood, barrels containing 

 coals and bacon, surrounded this heart of our colony. 



To prevent the entrance of the snow and wind into our 

 coal-house, we built an entrance-hall with a winding path, 

 and a roof constructed in the same way as that of the house. 



At the beginning of November we observed two strange 

 natural phenomejia. We were about eight nautical miles 

 from the Liverpool coast, when, as we were walking 

 along, a number of small willow-like leaves whirled around 

 us, which had evidently been carried from the land by the 

 wind ; at another place the snow was, for a considerable 

 distance, covered witli a red-stone dust. Dr. Laube 

 thought il must be of volcanic origin, and that it had 

 been carried through the air from Iceland, which was 

 about 180 nautical miles distant. 



In November, upon a neighbouring floe, separated from 

 us by a small piece of frozen water, we saw the shapeless 

 body of a large walrus lying motionless as a rock. The 

 steersmen, Hildebrandt and Bade, with some others, 



