IN FEBRUARY. 227 



Their winter, however, is very different from ours. 

 The single night of the country about Spitz bergen 

 begins about the 30th of October. The sun then 

 sets, and never appears till about the 10th of Febru- 

 ary. A glimmering, indeed, continues some weeks 

 after the setting of the sun : then succeed clouds and 

 thick darkness, broken by the light of the moon, 

 which is as luminous as in England, and, during this 

 long night, shines with unfailing lustre. The cold 

 strengthens with the new year* and the sun is ush- 

 ered in with an unusual seventy* of frost. By the 

 middle of March the cheerful light grows strong ; 

 the arctic foxes leave their holes, and the sea-fowls 

 resort, in great multitudes, to their breeding place?. 

 The sun acts no more after the 14th of May. The 

 distinction of day and night is then lost. 



But, to make up for the want of sunshine in such 

 a long and tedious winter, the wisdom and goodness 

 of God has amply provided, by furnishing, in ad- 

 dition to the light of the moon, the northern inhabi- 

 tants of our globe with such a copious display of the 

 aurora borealis, or what the common people here call 

 streamers 



In Shetland, these northern lights, which the na- 

 tives call merry dancers, are the constant attendants 

 of the clear evenings, and prove great reliefs amid 

 the gloom of the long winter nights. They com- 

 monly appear at twilight, near the horizon, of a dun 

 colour, approaching to yellow, sometimes continuing 

 in that state for several hours, without any apparent 

 motion ; after which they break out into streams of 



