OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



419 



and for a week or two after it, these clouds were not more a subject of J 82 ?' 



r> - >"•* March. 



admiration to us on account of their novelty, than from the glowing richness ^yv 

 of the tints with which they were adorned. It is indeed scarcely possible 

 for nature, in any climate, to produce a sky exhibiting greater splendour 

 and richness of colouring than we at times experienced in the course of 

 this spring. The edges of the clouds near the sun often presented a fiery 

 or burnished appearance, while the opposite side of the heavens was distin- 

 guished by a deep purple about the horizon, gradually softening upwards 

 into a warm yet delicate rose-colour of inconceivable beauty. These phe- 

 nomena have always impressed us the most forcibly about the time of the 

 sun's permanent setting, and that of his re-appearance, especially the 

 latter, and have invariably furnished a particular subject of conversation 

 to us at those periods ; but I do not know whether this is to be attributed 

 so much to the colouring of the sky exactly at the times alluded to, as to 

 our habit of setting on every enjoyment a value proportioned to its scarcer 

 ness and novelty. Besides the colouring of the clouds just mentioned, I 

 also observed five or six times, in the course of the spring, those more rare 

 and delicate tints to which allusion has already been made in this Narrative, 

 and twice in that of the preceding voyage. This peculiarity, in Which I 

 now observed no difference from those of the same kind before described, 

 would probably have been oftener seen but for the glare of the sun upon 

 the eyes in viewing an object so near it. Perhaps it has also been seen in 

 other climates ; here it is, I believe, most frequent in the spring, and I have 

 never noticed it after the summer temperature has commenced. 



Shortly after the sun's re -appearance, it not unfrequently happened about 

 noon that a part of the low shore to the southward of the ships appeared, 

 by the effect of refraction, to be raised and separated, forming a long nar- 

 row streak of a dark colour, like a cloud, suspended a few minutes above 

 the land, in a position nearly horizontal. 



Parhelia and imperfect halos very often occurred in the spring, their 

 angular distance from the sun being from 22° to 23°, but having nothing 

 remarkable either in form, situation or colours, to need a separate descrip- 

 tion on each occasion. It was sometimes observable however, that though 

 parhelia appear to an observer placed nearly on a level with the sea, to be 

 at a considerable distance from the eye, they are found, ou ascending a 

 little eminence, to be produced on some medium comparatively close, per- 

 haps only from one to two miles distant. In this case the land or other 



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