of those far-famed Northern Lights, the Aurora
Borealis, as the learned people call them.

"The flames, you must know, were not of that bright hot colour which
issue from a furnace, but were of a delicate pale red, flickering and
playing about in the most curious way imaginable, sometimes blazing up
to the height of a mile or so, and then sinking down to a few hundred
feet. The heat at the distance I was then from it was rather pleasant
than oppressive; it had not even melted the snow on the ground, but of
course that was so hard frozen, that it would have required a very warm
fire to have made any impression on it. Well, as I advanced I began to
lick my chops at the thoughts of the hot dinner I intended to enjoy--
for, after all, however philosophical a man may be, his appetite, if he
is hungry, must be satisfied before he is fit for anything--when I
beheld a number of moving objects, scarcely distinguishable from the
snow, encircling the fire. I could not make out at first what they
were, but on approaching still nearer, I discovered the truth, though I
could scarcely believe my eyes, for there, sitting up on their hams,
were countless thousands of polar bears, warming their paws before the
aurora borealis. It is a fact as true as anything I have been telling
you, and at once fully accounted to my mind for the disappearance of
bears from the arctic regions during the winter months, and fully
refutes the popular idea, that they sit moping by themselves in caverns,
employing their time in sucking their paws.

"Not liking the idea of losing my hot dinner, not to speak of the
disappointment of not being able to say that I had been chock up to the
North Pole, I determined to venture among them."

"It wouldn't give you much concern to say you had been there, at all
events, even if you hadn't," growled out a voice from one of the
hammocks.

"Sir!" exclaimed the boatswain very sternly, "I would have you to know
that I scorn to exaggerate the truth, or to make an assertion which is
not in strict accordance with the facts. If you doubt my words, stop
your ears or go to sleep, or I'll shut up altogether."

"Oh no, no, do go on, Mr Johnson," exclaimed several voices at the same
moment. "We don't doubt a word you're saying."

"Well, that's right and proper," said the boatswain, much appeased. "If
I do draw on my imagination at any time, it is because it is the only
bank I know of which would not dishonour my drafts, a