lar animals as much like sheep
as oxen, which live on lichens and mosses and do not wander farther
south than the sixtieth parallel. In the western half of North America
the southern limit of the musk ox coincides with the northern limit of
trees. A herd of twenty or thirty musk oxen would have saved Franklin's
distressed mariners. If they could only have found Polar bears, or, even
better, seals or whales, with their thick layer of blubber beneath the
hide; and Arctic hares would not have been despised if in sufficient
numbers! But the season was too far advanced, and the wild animals had
retreated before the cold and the abundant snow which covered their
scanty food. No doubt the officers deliberated on the plan they should
adopt. They had maps and books on board and knew fairly accurately how
far they had to travel to the nearest trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay
Company, and on the way they had every prospect of finding game and
meeting Eskimos. It was decided to pass the third winter on board.

The cold increased day by day, and the length of the days became
shorter. The sun still rose, described a flat arch to the south, and
sank after an hour and a half. Soon the days lasted only half an hour,
until one day they had only a glimpse of the sun's upper curve
glittering for a moment like a flashing ruby above the horizon. Next day
there was twilight at noon, but at any rate there was a reflection of
the sunset red. During the following weeks the gloominess became more
and more intense. At noon, however, there was still a perceptible light,
and the blood-red streak appeared to the south, throwing a dull purple
tinge over the ice-pack. Then this dim illumination faded away also,
and the Polar night, which at this latitude lasts sixty days and at the
North Pole itself six months, was come, and the stars sparkled like
torches on the bluish-black background even when the bell struck midday
in the officers' mess.

Those who for the first time winter in high northern latitudes find a
wonderful charm even in the Polar night. They are astonished at the deep
silence in the cold darkness, at the rushing, moaning howl of the
snowstorms, and even at the overwhelming solitude and the total absence
of life. Nothing, however, excites their astonishment and admiration so
much as the "northern lights." We know that the magnetic and electric
forces of the earth time after time envelop practically the whole globe
in a mantle of light,