370 AUROKA BOKEALIS. [CHAP. XL. 



cornets tails, and then a large space became over 

 spread with a most delicate roseate hue. The occur 

 rence of this phenomenon in the summer season, and 

 in so southern a latitude, seemed to point to its 

 connection with the ice which was drifting over the 

 sea between us and Newfoundland, now to the N. W. 

 of us. We learn from Sir James Ross s narrative 

 of the late antarctic expedition, the highly interest 

 ing fact, that when the Aurora Borealis was playing 

 over the great barrier of coast ice on the shores of 

 the antarctic land, it partook distinctly of the irre 

 gular and broken shape of the icy cliffs over which 

 it hovered.* 



June 12. A pilot came on board from Ireland, 

 with English newspapers, filled with debates on the 

 repeal of the corn- laws. Among the foreign news, 

 a considerable space was occupied with the affairs of 

 France, Germany, Italy, India, China, and there was 

 only a short paragraph or two about America, North 

 and South. I had been travelling long enough in the 

 New World to sympathise fully with the feelings of 

 some of my American fellow-passengers, who were 

 coming abroad for the first time, when they expressed 

 their surprise at the small space which the affairs of 

 the United States occupied even in English journals. 

 It is a lesson which every traveller has to learn when 

 he is far from home, and seeks in a foreign news 

 paper to gain some intelligence of his native land. 

 He is soon accustomed to find that day after day 

 even the name of his country is not mentioned. 



* Vol.11, p. 221. 1842. 



