A N AURORA. 
421 
the spectacle of a brig, high and dry, spending an 
Arctic winter over an Arctic icc-bed. 
“We shall be engaged now at the hold and with the 
housing on deck. From our lodge-room to the forward 
timbers every thing is clear already. We have moved 
the carpenter’s bench into our little dormitorium: 
everywhere else it is too cold for handling tools. 
“ 9 P. M.— A true and unbroken auroral arch: the first 
we have seen in Smith’s Sound. It was colorless, but 
THE BRIG CRADLED. 
extremely bright. There was no pendant from the 
lower curve of the arc; but from its outer, an active 
wavy movement, dissipating itself into barely-percepti- 
ble cirrhus, was broken here and there by rays nearly 
perpendicular, with a slight inclination to the east. 
The atmosphere was beautifully clear. 
“October 26, Thursday.—The thermometer at 34° 
below zero, but fortunately no wind blowing. We go 
on with the out-door work. The gangway of ice is 
finished, and we have passed wooden steam-tubes 
through the deck-house to carry off the vapors of our 
