154 A HISTORY OF 



;he suu and a cloud of falling rain, a rainbow is sef.n. wnicl i, r jthing 

 more than the reflection of the different coloured rays ot s ht from 

 the bosom of the cloud. If, for instance, we take a g] A* globe, 

 filled with water, and hang it up before us opposite the s,m, in 

 many situations it will appear transparent ; but if it is raised higher, 

 or sideways, to ah angle of for ty-five degrees, it will at first appear 

 red ; altered a very little higher, yellow ; then green, then b'ue, then 

 violet colour; in short, it will assume successively all the colours ot 

 the rainbow, but, if raised higher still, it will become transparent 

 again. A falling shower may be considered as an infinite number of 

 these little transparent globes, assuming different colours, by being 

 placed at the proper heights. The rest of the shower will appear 

 transparent; and no part of it will seem coloured, but such as are at 

 angles of forty-five degrees from the eye, forty-five degrees upward, 

 forty-five degrees on each side, and forty-five degrees downward, did 

 not the plane of the earth prevent us. We therefore see only an arch 

 of the rainbow, the lower part being cut off from our sight by the 

 earth's interposition. However, upon the tops of very high moun- 

 tains, circular rainbows are seen, because we can see to an angle of 

 forty-five degrees downward, as well as upward, or sideways, and 

 therefore we take in the rainbow's complete circle. 



In those forlorn regions round the poles, the meteors, though of 

 another kind, are not less numerous and alarming. When the winter 

 begins, and the cold prepares to set in, the same misty appearance 

 which is produced in the southern climates by the heat, is there pro- 

 duced by the contrary extreme.* The sea smokes like an oven, and 

 a fog arises, which mariners call the frost smoke. This cutting mist 

 commonly raises blisters on several parts of the body ; and, as soon 

 as it is wafted to some colder part of the atmosphere, it freezes to lit 

 tie icy particles, which are driven by the wind, and create such an in 

 tense cold on land, that the limbs o*f the inhabitants are sometimes 

 frozen, and drop off. 



There, also, hallos, or luminous circles round the moon, are oftener 

 seen than in any other part of the earth, being formed by the frost 

 smoke ; although the air otherwise seems to be clear. A lunar rain- 

 bow also, is often seen there, though somewhat different from that 

 which is common with us ; as it appears of a pale white, striped with 

 gray. In these countries also, the aurora borealis streams with pe- 

 culiar lustre, and variety of colours. In Greenland it generally arises 

 in the east, and darts its sportive fires, with variegated beauty, over 

 the whole horizon. Its appearance is almos* 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 suffi- 

 cient light for all the purposes of existence. However, in the very 

 midst of their tedious night, the inhabitants are not entirely forsaken. 

 The tops of the mountains are often seen painted with the red ravs of 

 the sun ; and the poor Greenlander from thence begins TO <iafe his 

 chronology. It would appear whimsical to read a Greenland calen- 

 dar, in which we might be told, that one of their chiefs, having lived 



Paul Edgar's History of Greenland. 



