VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 
139 
On the 1st and 2d of February the weather was rather hazy, so that the 1820. 
sun could not have been seen had it been above the horizon, but the 3d 
was a beautifully clear and calm day. At eight A.M., a cross, consisting Thurs. 3, 
of the usual vertical and horizontal rays, was seen about the moon. At 
twenty minutes before apparent noon, the sun was seen from the Hecla’s 
main-top, at the height of fifty-one feet above the sea, being the first time that 
this luminary had been visible to us since the 11th of November, a period of 
eighty-four days, being twelve days less than the time of its remaining 
actually beneath the horizon, independently of the effects of atmospherical 
refraction. On ascending the main-top, I found the sun to be plainly visible 
over the land to the south ; but at noon there was a dusky sort of cloud 
hanging about the horizon, which prevented our seeing any thing like a 
defined limb, so as to measure or estimate its altitude correctly. The sun 
appeared, however, to be about half its diameter above the land, and the 
top of the land was 4' 30" above the horizon of the sea, by which the 
whole amount of refraction would appear to have been 1° 24' 04"; in which 
there is nothing very extraordinary in this latitude and low temperature ; that 
of the atmosphere at this time was — 38°, and the mercury in the barometer 
stood at 29.96 inches, the smoke from the fires on board rising quite perpendi- 
cularly, which was not usually the case under similar circumstances. A vertical 
column of pale red light extended from the upper part of the sun’s disc to 
about 3° of altitude ; its intensity was observed to be constantly varying, 
being at times very bright, at others, scarcely perceptible. In these changes, 
which were exceedingly rapid, it was not unlike the Aurora Borealis, the light 
always appearing to shoot upwards, as is most usual in that phenomenon. The 
breadth of this column, which was visible for about three-quarters of an hour 
before and after noon, was equal to that of the sun’s diameter, and it was 
much the brightest next the sun. A similar column of light had also been 
observed by Captain Sabine, at ten A.M., immediately over the spot where 
the sun was. 
On several occasions, in the course of the winter, there was an appear- 
ance in the southern horizon very much resembling land at a great distance. 
This appearance was to-day unusually well-defined, and seemed to terminate 
in a very abrupt and decided manner, on a S. b. E. bearing from Winter 
Harbour. 
At six P.M. the Aurora Borealis appeared very faintly in a horizontal line 
T 2 
