wears!" answered the
doctor; "what is the use of dressing warmly if one can't produce heat
within himself? It's like trying to heat ice by wrapping it up in
wool! But Hatteras doesn't need it; he's built that way, and I should
not be surprised if his side was as warm as the neighborhood of a
glowing coal."

Johnson, who was charged with clearing away the water-hole every
morning, noticed that the ice was ten feet thick.

Almost every night the doctor could observe the magnificent auroras;
from four o'clock till eight of the evening, the sky in the north was
slightly lighted up; then this took a regular shape, with a rim of
light yellow, the ends of which seemed to touch the field of ice.
Gradually the brilliancy arose in the heavens, following the magnetic
meridian, and appeared striped with black bands; jets of luminosity
shot with varying brightness here and there; when it reached the
zenith it was often composed of several arcs bathed in waves of red,
yellow, or green light. It was a dazzling sight. Soon the different
curves met in a single point, and formed crowns of celestial richness.
Finally the arcs all crowded together, the splendid aurora grew dim,
the intense colors faded away into pale, vague, uncertain tints, and
this wonderful phenomenon vanished gradually, insensibly, in the dark
clouds of the south.

[Illustration: "Almost every night the doctor could observe the
magnificent auroras."]

It is difficult to realize the wonderful, magical beauty of such a
spectacle in high latitudes, less than eight degrees from the pole;
the auroras which are seen in the temperate zone give no idea of it;
it seems as if Providence wished to reserve the greatest wonders for
these regions.

Numerous mock-moons appeared also while the moon was shining, and a
great many would appear in the sky, adding to the general brilliancy;
often, too, simple lunar halos surrounded the moon with a circle of
splendid lustre.

[Illustration]

November 26th the tide rose very high, and the water came through the
hole with great violence; the thick crust of ice seemed pushed up by
the force of the sea, and the frequent cracking of the ice proclaimed
the conflict that was going on beneath; fortunately the ship remained
firm in her bed, but her chains worked noisily; it was as a precaution
against just such an event, that Hatteras had made the brig fast.

The following days were still colder; a dense fog hid the sky; the
wind tossed