156 ~ A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
kept walking about within that range for a con- 
siderable period, howling at short intervals during 
the whole time. Their howl is long, and some- 
what lamentable to the ear; the only sound with 
which I could compare it, is the cadence, or ter- 
minating sound of a bugle-horn at a distance. 
What attracted them so much to-day we supposed 
to be the smell of some of the narwhal’s blubber, 
that we killed in the summer, and which we were 
boiling on the ice this forenoon. . Between three 
and four o’clock P. M., a remarkable cloud 
was observed in the south-west: the centre of 
it, indeed, bore S. W. by S. (true). It diverged 
from a centre, at the horizon, in strait lines, or 
columns, which extended to a great distance over 
the surface of the sky: the lower edge of it, on 
each side, was very straight and well defined ; and 
formed an angle of about 45° with the horizon. 
Directly over its centre, instead of straight lines, 
it had more the resemblance of an immense vo- 
lume of smoke than any thing else. The whole 
was compared by our gunner to a powder-maga- 
zine exploding ; which those who had had an op- 
portunity of seeing such a sight, thought a very 
apt comparison ; for the reflected rays of the sun, 
which illumined that part of the sky behind the 
cloud, gave it very much the appearance of an 
immense explosion. It is probable that this re- 
markable cloud had some connection with the 
Aurora Borealis ; for, after it had vanished, which 
it did about six o’clock, that phenomenon was 
seen in the same part of the heavens which the 
cloud had occupied: it was visible, indeed, 
