142 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



Decemb a ^ so a PP eare ^ * n white spots, resembling the nebulas in the heavens, 

 as viewed by a telescope, or the milky-way on a very clear night. I may 

 here remark by the way, that this last beautiful feature of the heavens very 

 seldom appeared here, for, notwithstanding the notion generally entertained 

 of the extreme clearness of the atmosphere under a polar sky, we have always 

 found the very reverse to be the fact. It is true, indeed, that with a nor- 

 therly or westerly Avind, the sky was generally what would be called clear ; 

 but there is scarcely one night in twenty when the heavenly bodies, if viewed 

 through a telescope, do not appear surrounded with more or less haze. In- 

 deed, it very seldom happens that a considerable deposition of minute snow 

 may not be observed to take place, even in the clearest nights in these regions. 



While making lunar observations on the evening of the 4th, Mr. Ross 

 and myself remarked a meteor falling from the S.E. to N.W., being about 

 40° high Avhen it disappeared. It fell so slowly as to be visible for four 

 or five seconds, but was in every other respect like the falling stars, as 

 they are called, seen in other parts of the world. At eleven P.M. the 

 Aurora was seen forming an arch, about 5° high in the centre, and ex- 

 tending from S.S.W. to S.E. The magnetic needle of Alexander's compass 

 was not perceptibly affected during its continuance. At half-past two P.M., 

 on the 5th, the wind being light from the E.S.E., and the atmosphere not 

 very clear, though free from clouds, the electrometer was tried, but without 

 effect, the gold leaf not being in the least degree excited. 



On the afternoon of the 14th, the Aurora began to shew itself as soon 

 as it was dark, consisting principally of rays shooting up from the horizon 

 in the E.b.N. towards the zenith, and sometimes passing through but very 

 little beyond it, towards the opposite side of the heavens. Just before ten 

 o'clock, however, a much finer display of this phenomenon presented itself 

 than we had yet seen this season. There still remained a place near the 

 horizon at E.b.N., whence a bright light seemed constantly to issue, and if 

 any part of the phenomenon could be said to continue uniformly the same, 

 it was the leg of a broadish arch in that point, which scarcely ever changed 

 its place, or the intensity of its light. The arch was at times completed, or 

 thrown over to the W.S.W., being 15° high in the centre, and generally 

 about 2° broad, though in this respect it was irregular and somewhat vari- 

 able. The lower part of the arch was always well defined, the space under 

 it appearing dark, as if a black cloud had been there, which, however, was 

 not the case, as we saw the stars in it unobscured except by the light of the 



