178 Star anfr Meatber (gossip 



such frequent grotesque distortions when rising or 

 setting as the sun does. 



There is in this Arctic journal a picturesque entry 

 for November 3rd, 1857, from the neighbourhood of 

 Cape York, that Baffin Sea promontory so well known 

 to polar explorers. It reads : "I remained up the 

 greater part of last night taking observations, for the 

 evening mists had passed away, the lovely moon 

 reigned over a calm enchanting night ; through a 

 powerful telescope she resembled a huge frosted-silver 

 melon, the large crater-like depression answering to 

 that part from which the footstalk had been detached. 

 Not a sound to break the stillness around, excepting 

 when some hungry dog would return to the late battle- 

 field to gnaw into the blood-stained ice." 



It may be worth while mentioning that the tele- 

 scope through which the gallant Admiral saw the 

 moon was lent to the Franklin Search Expedition by 

 Lord Wrottesley, at that time President of the Royal 

 Society. 



The Expedition recorded the appearance of a very 

 brilliant meteor on October 24th, 1857, also in the 

 vicinity of Cape York. It passed through Cassiopeia 

 in a nor '-nor '-east direction, " very much like a huge 

 rocket," the flash being so brilliant that a man whose 

 back was turned to it mistook the illumination for 

 lightning. It may be recalled that during the display 

 of August meteors in 1913 there appeared off 

 the east coast of Scotland a very luminous fireball, 

 which to some observers who were turned away from 

 it, illumined the sky like a searchlight. 



On October 22nd, 1858, when the ship was near 

 Bellot Strait, an intensely vivid flash of lightning was 



