THE CORON^E. 199 



what he saw are most interesting. We cannot do 

 better than quote his remarks upon ice-blink, that 

 curious appearance of white light on the horizon, 

 whereby voyagers are led to infer the presence of ice : 



"This appearance of the ice-blink" says he, 

 "occurred on the 13th of June 1820, in latitude 

 76 north. The sky aloft was covered with dense, 

 uniform, hazy cloud, which indeed occupied the whole 

 of the heavens, excepting a portion near the horizon, 

 where it seemed to be repelled. The upper white 

 blink referred to ice about six miles distant, being 

 beyond the horizon ; the narrow yellowish portions 

 referred to floes and compact ice; the lowest yellow 

 blink, which in brightness and colour resembled the 

 moon, was the reflection of a field at the distance 

 of thirty miles, to which, directed by the blink, we 

 made way in the Baffin, through the channels of 

 water represented in the sky by bluish-gray streaks. 

 The field we found to be a sheet of ice 150 miles in 

 circumference !" 



Another very singular appearance observed occa- 

 sionally in foggy weather is a series of bright circles, 

 or coronse, Surrounding the heads or persons of 

 individuals in certain positions. We have, while 

 standing at the mast-head of a vessel in Hudson's 

 Straits, observed our own shadow thrown on the 

 sea with a bright halo round it. The day was 

 bright and hazy at the time. Referring to a par- 

 ticular case of this kind, Scoresby says : 



"During the month of July 1820, the weather 



