222 
PARHELIA. 
proach, despair, even resignation I thought, I saw on 
this seal's face. 
"About half an hour afterwa,rd, I killed another. 
Scurvy and sea-life craving for fresh meat led me to 
it ; but I shot him dead. 
" On returning to the ship, I found one toe frost-bit- 
ten — a tallow-looking dead man's toe — which was 
restored to its original ugly vitality by snow-rubbing. 
Served me right ! 
" Spent the afternoon in unsuccessful seal stalking, 
and in rigging and contriving a spring-gun for the Arc- 
tic foxes : a blood-thirsty day. But we ate of fox to- 
day for dinner ; and behold, and it was good. 
" October 5, Saturday. The wind evidently freshens 
up. The day has been bitterly cold. Although our 
lowest temperature was zero and — 1°, we felt it far 
more than the low temperature of yesterday. Our 
maximum was as high as 4° ; yet, with this, it required 
active motion on deck to keep one's self warm. 
" At 12h. 55m., we had an interval of clear sunshine^ 
The utmost, however, to which it would raise one of 
the long register Smithsonian thermometers was 7°. 
The air was filled with bright particles of frozen moist- 
ure, which glittered in the sunshine — a shimmering 
of transparent dust.^ 
'^At the same time, we had a second exhibition of 
parhelia, not so vivid in prismatic tints as that of the 
30th of September, but more complete. The sun was 
expanded in a bright glare of intensely- white light, 
and was surrounded by two distinct concentric circles, 
delicately tinted on their inner margins with the red 
of the spectrum. The radius of the inner, as measured 
*■ Under the microscope these again showed obscure modifications of the hex 
agon 
