AN ARCTIC FUNERAL. 



221 



and read the Burial Service by the light of lanterns, the effect could not fail to awaken 

 very serious emotions. 



"The greater part of the Church Service was read on board, under shelter of the 

 housing; the body was then placed upon a sledge, and drawn by the messmates of the 

 deceased to a short distance from the ship, where a hole through the ice had been cut; 

 it was then ' committed to the deep/ and the service completed. What a scene it was! 



A NATURAL AHCH IN THE AUCTIC 11EGIONS. 



I shall never forget it. The lonely Fox, almost buried in snow, completely isolated from 

 the habitable world, her colours half-mast high, and bell mournfully tolling; our little 

 procession slowly marching over the rough surface of the frozen sea, guided by lanterns 

 and direction-posts, amid the dark and dreary depth of Arctic winter; the death-like 

 stillness, the intense cold, and threatening aspect of a murky overcast sky ; and all this 

 heightened by one of those strange lunar phenomena which are but seldom seen even 

 here a complete halo encircling the moon, through which passed a horizontal band of pale 

 light that encompassed the heavens; above the moon appeared the segments of two other 

 halos, and there were also mock moons, to the number of six. The misty atmosphere lent 

 a very ghastly hue to this singular display, which lasted for rather more than an hour. 



