3 o6 the beautiful ladder. 
colors were reflected on the stainless snow¬ 
banks of the region, the effect was surpassingly 
beautiful. Another peculiarity observed was a 
unique band or ribbon of silvery light spanning 
the heavens at the zenith, with the occasional 
addition of a secondary one on the side near¬ 
est the North Pole. The outlines were as dis¬ 
tinct as the edge of a ribbon, nor was there any 
fluctuation of light except when it faded away 
as softly as it first waxed into fulness. 
“ We could not close this part of our subject 
without calling your attention to the following 
very graphic description of an aurora from Mr. 
George Kennan’s Tent-Life in Siberia. 
“ Imagination certainly could not conceive of 
any scene more gorgeously sublime than that 
auroral picturing which Jehovah then spread on 
the northern skies; and Mr. Kennan, though 
unusually gifted with descriptive powers, says 
of his attempt to portray this heavenly mag¬ 
nificence, ‘ I have given only faint hints, which 
the imagination of the reader must fill up. But 
be assured that no description, however faithful, 
no flight of the imagination, however exalted, 
can begin to do justice to a spectacle of such 
unearthly grandeur.’ Here is his attempt to 
