- 2 - 



The reason thpre is one design at one time, and another at some other 

 time, Mr. Haines exr'lains, is probably largely due to the vair most of the crys- 

 tals of ice in the r^ir are turned towarc^ the light* If the light strikes 

 the greater niinber of these exce°d.ln^ly small six-sided -orisms of ice at one 

 angle, the li-ht is "oroken uo to form nwij''be one circle, and when these frost 

 particles oresent a slightly different face to the light the result may be a 

 double circle or other more intricate design. Just how they are formed, 

 however, is quite a complicated problem in mcterological ■ohysics on which 

 our weather iien have been working for years. 



Often these sk^' drawings fade away in a few moments like a rainbow 

 after a spring; shower. At other tines, they riay linger for hours. 



But in addition to these figures , there are the most gorgeous sl^y 

 colors in the Antarctic than in any other place in the world. Red, and 

 orange, and yellow, and violet, and green are most often seen. And at the 

 times of the year when the sun is skirting the horizon all da^^ long just be- 

 fore it disappears for the long Polar night, you practically get gorgeous sun- 

 sets for twenty- four hours at a stretch and of such brilliance as to ma.ke the 

 glory of our western sunsets seem pale by comparison. 



Another o' tical phenomena Mr. Haines saw while at the Pyre expedition 

 weather station in Little America, was that kind of phenomenon known as loom- 

 ing, which is often also noted at sea. 



Due to difference in density of the air, he sa^/'s, li^it rays are so 

 bent that it is -Dossible to see objects which are actually below the hori- 

 zon and ordinarily completely out of sight. 



Once whilo with a part-''- at several miles from the ba.se st-^tion, and 

 at a point where the radio towers were normall^/ hidden from view, Mr. Haines 

 declares he sa^: the towers in plain view in the sky. At another time, other 

 objects in lev places and hidden behind intervening hills of ice were brought 

 fully into view t' rough this well-known and curious -henomena. 



■^ut those things were seen in the sumiTi'jr day of the Antarctic. ITow, 

 at the time '.ve arc just entering our spring time, the long Polar ni^^ht is 

 just descending on the vast stretches of Antarctica. 



From the latter part of March to t'.e last of ITovember, our South Polar 

 region is goin-^ through its winter. The sun has disappeared. ~<ut, Mr. 

 Haines says, don't imagind that the Antarctic is without its "flowers" even 

 during the Polar ITight, for the famous electro-magnetic phenomena, Aurora 

 AuLstralis may be seen shim.nering in the sk"/ most any ti.ae the weatViOr is clear. 



The Aurora Austral is is the Southern counterpart of the ■:vell-knovm 

 ITorthern Lights. I'.r, Haines says, he does not know -.vhich arc the more bril- 

 liajit of the two. 



These lights are seen sometimes as streamers, and sometimes as uavy 

 c\irtains of v-ri-colorcd li^'t, sometimes as arch-^s or bands of liglit, and 

 at others --.s strc-^.r.iers running from the horizon up to the zenith. 



The color is usually white or greenish rrhite hut occasionrlly bril- 

 liant hues of green and pink and red -nd violet made their appearpjice. 



