IN FEBRUARY. 229 



but the attendant phenomena strike the beholders 

 with horror ; for they crackle, sparkle, hiss, make a 

 whistling sound, and a noise even equal to artificial 

 fireworks. 



In Hudson's bay, moreover, the firmament, in 

 winter, is not without its beauties. The night is en- 

 livened by the aurora borealis, which spreads a thou- 

 sand different lights and colours over the whole 

 concave of the sky, not to be defaced even by the 

 splendour of the full moon; and the stars are of a 

 fiery redness. 



Wonders of the North. 



As we advance into these dreary regions, we meet 

 with those picturesque objects which attract and cap- 

 tivate the most incurious eye. In the icy seas, and 

 particularly at Spitzbergen, (which is the largest of 

 that group of frozen islands which go under that 

 name, or that of New Greenland) the forms assumed 

 by the ice are extremely pleasing. The surface of 

 that which is congealed from the sea water is flat, 

 even and hard, resembling white sugar, and is ca- 

 pable of being slid upon. The greater pieces, or 

 fields, are many leagues in length : the smaller are 

 the meadows of the seals, on which those animals, 

 at times, frolic by hundreds. The motion of the 

 smaller pieces is as rapid as the currents ; the greater, 

 which are sometimes two hundred leagues long, and 

 sixty or eighty broad, move slowly and majestically. 

 They often fix for a time, immoveable by the power 



