108 THE WORLD. 



to all places on the parallel C D, it will be observed that it is now 

 summer in the southern hemisphere, and that there, the days are 

 now longer than the nights, the illuminated portion C G-, being 

 greater than the shaded portion G D. At the equator, however, 

 the days and nights are still equal, but in the northern hemis- 

 phere it is mid-winter, and the days are shorter than the nights, 

 as the arc E H, is shorter than the arc H F, the former represent- 

 ing half the day, the latter half the night. Here, then, is the 

 explanation of the short days in winter, and the long nights, and 

 it will also be seen that, to an observer any where in the northern 

 hemisphere, the sun will come to the meridian very low down . 

 It will also be noticed, that the shadow of the unilluminated por- 

 tion of the earth, falls entirely beyond, or without the antarctic 

 circle I K, and includes the arctic circle L M. To an observer, 

 therefore, within the southern polar circle, the sun now never 

 sets. Three months before, when the earth and sun were in the 

 positions shown in the figure, page 106, the sun rose a short way 

 above the horizon, within each circle, but each succeeding day 

 he sank lower and lower, to those within the arctic or northern 

 polar circle, and rose higher and higher to those within the an- 

 tarctic circle, so that now, begins the long day of the latter, and 

 the long night of the former. It would be a curious sight to an 

 inhabitant of the more temperate zones, to see the sun thus 

 gradually mounting above the horizon, moving completely around 

 without setting, and visible during the whole day, for nearly six 

 months. Although darkness reigns at the other pole, so far as 

 the direct rays of the sun are concerned, yet the long night is en- 

 livened by the bright moon light, which reflected from a thousand 

 hills of snow, sheds a bright light around, and the planets and 

 stars in that cold region, where no mists ever obscure the sky, 

 twinkle in the clear firmament like diamonds. The bright cor- 

 ruscations of the Aurora, with changing and fanciful lights, are 

 there seen in their greatest perfection, and cheer, with their 

 varying forms, the hunters who penetrate within the icy circle ; 

 and here nature is seen in some of her grandest forms. Huge 

 mountains of ice, formed by the winters of centuries, rear their 

 Alpine summits to the sky, and life in singular forms, sport on its 



