THE YKAK AND ITS SEASON- 



spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Spring is 

 from about March 20th to June 21st; summer from 

 June 21st to September 22d; autumn from Septem- 

 IMT .'I'd to December 21st; winter from December 

 21st to March 20th. 



"On March 20th and September 22d the sun is 

 visible 12 hours and invisible 12 hours, from one end 

 of the earth to the other. The 21st of June is for 

 us the time of the longest days and shortest nights ; 

 tin- sun is visible sixteen hours and invisible eight 

 hours. Farther north the length of the day in- 

 e n-ases and that of the night diminishes. There 

 are countries where the sun, an earlier riser than 

 here, rises at two o'clock in the morning and sets at 

 ten o'clock at night; still others where the time of 

 its rising and that of its setting are so close together 

 that the sun has hardly sunk below the apparent 

 of the sky before it appears again. Finally, at 

 the very pole of the earth, that is to say at the point 

 that remains stationary, like the end of the axle of a 

 win-el, while all the rest turns, one could witness the 

 wonderful spectacle of a sun that does not set, that 

 turns around the spectator for six whole months, 

 equally visible at midnight and midday. In those 

 countries there is no longer any night. 



"On the 21st of December we have a state of af- 

 fairs just the reverse of that observed in June. 

 With us the sun rises at 8 o'clock in the morning; at 

 four in the afternoon it has already set. That is 

 e i^lit hours of day for sixteen of night. Farther 

 north there arc now nights of 18, '_'<>, _'J hours, and 

 em-responding days of six, four, and t\\. hours. In 



