604 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO ] 742. 



most every day, some of the men that stir abroad, if any wind blows from the 

 northward, are dreadfully frozen ; some have their arms, hands and face blis- 

 tered and frozen in a terrible manner, the skin coming off soon after they enter 

 a warm house, and some have lost their toes And their confinement for the 

 cure of these frozen parts, brings on the scurvy in a lamentable manner. Many 

 have died of it, and few are free from that distemper. And notwithstanding 

 all endeavours, nothing will prevent that distemper from being mortal, but ex- 

 ercise and stirring abroad. 



Coronas and parhelia, commonly called halos and mock-suns, appear fre- 

 quently about the sun and moon here. They are seen once or twice a week 

 about the sun, and once or twice a month about the moon, for 4 or 5 months 

 in the winter, several coronse of diflferent diameters appearing at the same time. 

 Five or six parallel coronae, concentric with the sun, are seen several times in 

 the winter, being for the most part very bright, and always attended with par- 

 helia or mock-suns. The parhelia are always accompanied with coronas, if the 

 weather be clear ; and continue for several days together, from the sun's rising 

 to his setting. These rings are of various colours, and about 40 or 30 degrees 

 in diameter. 



The frequent appearance of these phenomena in this frozen clime seems to 

 confirm Descartes's hypothesis, who supposes them to proceed from ice sus- 

 pended in the air. 



The aurora borealis is much oftner seen here than in England ; seldom a 

 night passes in the winter free from their appearance. They shine with a sur- 

 prising brightness, darkening all the stars and planets, and covering the whole 

 hemisphere : their tremulous motion from all parts, and their beauty and 

 lustre, are much the same as in the northern parts of Scotland and Den- 

 mark, &c. 



The dreadful long winters here may almost be compared to the polar parts, 

 where the absence of the sun continues for 6 months ; the air being perpetually 

 chilled and frozen by the northerly winds in winter, and the cold fogs and mists 

 obstructing the sun's beams in the short summer they have ; for notwithstand- 

 ing the snow and ice is then dissolved in the low-lands and plains, yet the 

 mountains are perpetually covered with snow, and incredible large bodies of 

 ice continue in the adjacent seas. When the wind blows from the southern 

 parts, the air is tolerably warm ; but very cold when it comes from the north- 

 ward ; and it seldom blows otherwise than between the north-east and north- 

 west, except in the two summer months, when they have light gales between 

 the east and the north, and calms. 



The northerly winds being so extremely cold, is owing to the neighbourhood 



