CHAPTER XIII.
MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA OF THE POLAR SEAS AND REGIONS—THE AURORA BOREALIS—ICE-BLINK—OPTICAL ILLUSIONS—ANECDOTE OF SCORESBY—HALOS—CORONÆ—MOCK SUNS—REFRACTION—FROSTS.
wing to the intensity of the cold in the arctic regions, there are, as we may readily believe, many singular appearances connected with the ocean and the atmosphere, which are worthy of special notice.
Chief, perhaps, among the phenomena of those regions is the Aurora Borealis.
Ever mindful of the welfare of the creatures whom he has formed, the Almighty has appointed a light to mitigate the darkness of the polar regions when the sun, in its appointed course, withdraws for a season.
What the aurora borealis is no one knows, although many have hazarded opinions regarding it. What it is like is known even to ourselves, though the faint indications of it which sometimes beam in our own heavens are not to be compared to the
