170 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
any inconvenience from it, except a little smarting 
of the tongue. 
Saturday, 15th. —- Between seven and eight 
o’clock this evening, the Aurora Borealis was seen 
forming a beautiful arch, coincident with the plane 
of the meridian, and extending from the southern 
horizon, across the zenith to the northern horizon. 
After remaining stationary and of this shape for 
about ten minutes, it then formed an ellipsis of 
great extent, whose transverse diameter was also 
parallel with the plane of the meridian, and situated 
on the east side of it, and in such a position that 
the west side of the ellipsis reached the zenith. It 
remained of this form only a few minutes, and 
then assumed a variety of shapes, which were con- 
stantly varying, being chiefly shooting in streams 
from the southern horizon towards the zenith. 
Wednesday, 19th. —One of our dogs had a 
severe fight with a wolf this morning, at the 
distance of between two and three hundred 
yards from the ships; it was so early in the 
morning, however, that they were not seen 
at the time, but in the course of the forenoon, the 
place where the conflict happened, was readily 
found out, from the blood and tufts of hair left 
on the snow. It is impossible to say which of 
them was beat: I think, indeed, that they parted 
by mutual consent, for both must have suf- 
fered considerably : there is certainly no question 
about what the dog has sustained, as we have ex- 
amined the extent of the damage, which is a severe 
laceration of the integuments of the lower jaw and 
fore-part of the throat : there appears, indeed, to be 
