304 THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
“A French explorer along the shores of 
Spitzbergen thus describes what he saw, and 
one cannot but marvel at the goodness of the 
Creator in so ordering it that these bleak re¬ 
gions, where an unbroken night hangs over 
the scene for one-fourth of the year, should be 
robbed of much of their dark and frigid ter¬ 
rors by these brilliant exhibitions. The writer 
says: 
‘ At times they are simple diffused gleams 
or luminous patches, and at others quivering 
rays of pure white across the sky, starting from 
the horizon as if an invisible pencil were being 
drawn over the celestial vault. At times it 
stops in its course; the incomplete rays do not 
reach the zenith, but the aurora continues at 
some other point; a bouquet of rays darts forth, 
spreads out into a fan, and then becomes pale 
and dies out. At other times long golden dra¬ 
peries float above the head of the spectator, and 
take a thousand folds and undulations, as if agi¬ 
tated by the winds. They appear to be but at 
a slight elevation in the atmosphere, and it 
seems strange that the rustling of the folds, as 
they double back on to each other, is not audi¬ 
ble. Generally a luminous bow is seen in the 
