THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 



AFTER an intensely dry, cold day 

 I have watched for a display of the 

 Northern Lights and have been 

 rewarded by seeing one of the most beau- 

 tiful displaj^s nature can afford. 



At its first appearance the Aurora is 

 hardly noticeable, but in a few minutes 

 the bright, luminous cloudlet enlarges 

 and rapidly rushes from east to west and 

 from west to east, across the northern sk^^ 



Sometimes the phenomenon will dip 

 down almost to the earth and envelop 

 in its bright folds tree tops but a short 

 distance away. Then it puts one in 

 mind of a rainbow reaching the earth 

 and allowing one to look through its 

 iridescent bars to the hazy landscape 

 beyond. 



It shines steadily for a while, then 

 suddenly, as though a gentle breeze were 

 toying with its beauty, the lambent flame 

 begins to quiver, then becomes strongly 

 agitated, and at last rushes along from 

 side to side, like the opening and shut- 

 ting of a silvery fan or the wings of a 



swan when he is pluming himself on the 

 bank of a stream. 



I have never noticed the rainbow-like 

 colors depicted in some paintings. The 

 light was more like steam rising at night, 

 brilliantly illuminated by a beam of elec- 

 tric light. 



Then at times it would gradually fade 

 till it resembled phosphorescent waves 

 barring the progress of a ship. 



At such times visitors coming into 

 our cabin from the dry, crisp air would 

 pull off their skin mitts amid a cack- 

 ling of electric sparks ; our blankets 

 and fur coats, if rubbed, would give out 

 a succession of sparks, and our hair 

 would try to stand away from the head 

 like quills on a porcupine, and if brnshed 

 would snap and sparkle very distinctly, 

 all the time clinging to the brush or to 

 anything placed above the head. I have 

 walked to the stove and with m}^ knuckle 

 drawn a spark from the metal top half 

 an inch long. 



ALICK ROLLINS CRANE. 



JAPAN AND CHINA-SOME COMPARISONS 



By Commander Harrie Webster, U. S. N. 



IN many respects the people of China 

 and Japan are not comparable, be- 

 cause their ethical, racial, and eth- 

 nological differences are so marked as to 

 make comparison misleading. 



But the wider and more continued the 

 field of observation, the smaller become 

 the differences remarked. The observ- 

 ant traveler will assert that the China- 

 man's eyes are as horizontal in their 

 major axis as are ours. The assertion 

 is quite correct ! The slanting effect is 

 caused by the configuration of the eye- 



brow, and to some extent by the tend- 

 ency of the Chinaman to keep the eyes 

 partly closed, due to the absence of a 

 projecting visor or peak in their head 

 coverings. As a matter of fact, the eye 

 sockets in the Chinese skull are shaped 

 and arranged practically as are those in 

 the Caticasian. Examples in support of 

 the position here assumed might be 

 multiplied, but this, the most striking, 

 seems sufficient to substantiate the con- 

 tention. 



The Japanese hold the position of 



