THE WINTER NIGHT 299 



borealis in the daytime too. I saw a very remarkable 

 display of it about 3 this afternoon. On the south- 

 western horizon lay the glow of the sun ; in front of it 

 light clouds were swept together — like a cloud of dust 

 rising above a distant troop of riders. Then dark 

 streamers of gauze seemed to stretch from the dust- 

 cloud up over the sky, as if it came from the sun, or 

 perhaps rather as if the sun were sucking it in to itself 

 from the whole sky. It was only in the southwest that 

 these streamers were dark ; a little higher up, farther 

 from the sun -glow, they grew white and shining, like 

 fine, glistening silver gauze. They spread over the 

 vault of heaven above us, and right away towards the 

 north. They certainly resembled aurora borealis ; but 

 perhaps they might be only light vapors hovering high 

 up in the sky and catching the sunlight } I stood long 

 looking at them. They were singularly still, but they 

 were northern lights, changing gradually in the south- 

 west into dark cloud-streamers, and ending in the dust- 

 cloud over the sun. Hansen saw them too, later, when 

 it was dark. There was no doubt of their nature. His 

 impression was that the aurora borealis spread from the 

 sun over the whole vault of heaven like the stripes on 

 the inner skin of an oransre. 



O 



" Sunday, November 5th. A great race on the ice 



was advertised for to-day. The course was measured, 



marked off, and decorated with flags. The cook had 



• prepared the prizes — cakes, numbered, and properly 



