60 VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



Thunder and lightning are unknown at Spitz- 

 bergen, or at least are extremely rare. Forster 

 supposes that the electric exhalations in a coun- 

 try so much covered with snow must be very few, 

 and these so much consumed by the frequency of 

 the Aurora Borealis, that theare is never collected 

 at one time a quantity of fluid sufficient to produce 

 thunder and lightning. That luminous appear- 

 ance, so often observed during a storm in this coun- 

 try, he alleges to be the effect of volcanic eruptions ; 

 though this, I confess, seems to me extremely 

 problematical. Vid. Forster's Hist Voyages, p. 

 486. 



There is a great diversity among the accounts 

 given by different travellers, of the forms assumed 

 by the new fallen snow in this country. During 

 hard frost, I always observed that the flakes closely 

 resembled an asterisk with six points. As the 

 temperature varied, their appearance was changed, 

 which may, perhaps, serve to explain the differences 

 alluded to. 



The one summer day of Spitzbergen continues 

 from about the middle of May to the middle of Oc- 

 tober, when the sun bids a long adieu to this north- 

 ern region. The horrors of winter are discovered, 

 not alleviated, by the splendour of the Aurora Bo~ 

 realis, and the pale lustre of the moon. 



