THE EARTH. 329 



the east, and darts its sportive fires, with variegat- 

 ed beauty, over the whole horizon. Its appear- 

 ance is almost constant in winter ; and at those 

 seasons when the sun departs, to return no more 

 for half a year, this meteor kindly rises to supply 

 its beams, and affords sufficient light for all the 

 purposes of existence. However, in the very 

 midst of their tedious nights, the inhabitants are 

 not entirely forsaken. The tops of the mountains 

 are often seen painted with the red rays of the 

 sun ; and the poor Greenlander from thence be- 

 gins to date his chronology. It would appear 

 whimsical to read a Greenland calendar, in which 

 we might be told, that one of their chiefs having 

 lived forty days, died at last of a good old age ; 

 and that his widow continued for half a day to 

 deplore his loss, with great fidelity, before she 

 admitted a second husband. 



The meteors of the day, in these countries, are 

 not less extraordinary than those of the night : 

 mock suns are often reflected upon an opposite 

 cloud; and the ignorant spectator fancies that 

 there are often three or four real suns in the firma- 

 ment at the same time. In this splendid appear- 

 ance the real sun is always readily known by its 

 superior brightness, every reflection being seen 

 with diminished splendour. The solar rainbow 

 there is often seen different from ours. Instead 

 of a pleasing variety of colours, it appears of a 

 pale white, edged with a stripe of dusky yellow ; 

 the whole being reflected from the bosom of a 

 frozen cloud. 



