METEORS. 
313 
idly- varying succession; and refraction, with its pre- 
ternatural augmentation of the visual hemisphere, re- 
visited us under new and startling forms. 
The scintillation of the stars, that phenomenon so 
connected with alternating changes in the refractive 
media, was wonderfully apparent. The fixed stars, 
whose distance made the least displacement sensible 
to the eye, were especially influenced ; yet even the 
planets shared in the change, and twinkled like the 
stars at home. I have alluded to the gorgeous changes 
of Sirius and Aldebaran; but these descriptions give 
a feeble index of their Protean varieties of shape and 
color, which, with every grade of intensity, greeted us 
nightly. 
The red coloring of the clouds reminded me of the 
rose-tints of the Alps. Cirro-cumuli of every imagin- 
able form began again to deck the horizon. The twi- 
light too, that long Arctic crepusculurn, seemed, con- 
trary to theory, to be disproportionally increased in its 
duration. Eighteen degrees is certainly a very arbi- 
trary limit to its extent. How noble a field for re- 
search would, with intellectual capacity, adequate in- 
struments, and sympathizing co-operation, have been 
the ice-plain of Baffin’s Bay ! 
The auroras to the north and northeast of the Amer- 
ican magnetic pole are not the brilliant displays de- 
scribed by Biot and Lottin in Northern Europe, or the 
English explorers in Canadian America. Those of 
Lancaster, Wellington, Prince Regent’s, and the North 
Baffin waters, partake of the same general character; 
and though somewhat modified perhaps, did not, as I 
observed them, differ materially from those described 
by Fisher and Parry. This last great navigator con- 
stantly expresses his disappointment at the feebleness 
