LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
159 
The following lines were written on the appearance of this beau¬ 
tiful phenomenon : 
High quiv’ring in the air, as shadows fly, 
The Northern Lights adorn the azure sky 
Dimm d by superior blaze, the stars retire, 
And heaven’s vast concave gleams with sportive fire 
Soft blazing in the east, the orange hue. 
The crimson, purple and ethereal blue, 
Form a rich arch by floating clouds upheld, 
High poised in air with awful mystery swell’d; 
From whose dark centres with unceasing roll, 
Rich coruscations gild the glowing pole, 
Their vari'ed hues, slow waving o’er the bay, 
Eclipse the splendour of the dawning day; 
Streamers in quick succession o’er the sky, 
From the arc’s centre far diverging fly ; 
Pencils of rays, pure as the heaven’s own light, 
Dart rapid upward to the zenith’s height. 
Transfix’d with wonder on the frozen flood, 
The blaze of grandeur fired my youthful blood ; 
Deep in th’ o’erwhelming maze of nature’s laws, 
Midst her mysterious gloom I sought the cause ; 
But vain the search, inscrutable to man 
Thy works have been, O God, since time began, 
And still shall be.—Then let the thought expire : 
As like the splendour of Aurora’s fire 
To dark oblivion sunk in wasting flame; 
Like the dim shadows of departed fame. 
On the 14th the snow fell so heavily that the ship could not be 
seen from the shore, and it tended in a great degree to retard 
the operations of the crew, as it rendered the passage over the 
ice more difficult: and in some respects also more dangerous, on 
account of its concealing those cavities in the ice, in which the 
