but this mysterious phenomenon is still
unexplained. Usually the aurora is inconstant. It flashes out suddenly,
quivers for a moment in the sky, and then grows pale and vanishes. Most
lasting are the bow-shaped northern lights, which sometimes stretch
their milk-white arches high above the horizon. It may be that only one
half of the arch is visible, rising like a pillar of light over the
field of vision. Another time the aurora takes the form of flames and
rays, red below and green above, and darting rapidly over the sky.
Farther north the light is more yellowish. If groups of rays seem to
converge to the same point, they are described as an auroral crown.
Beautiful colours change quickly in these bundles of rays, but
exceedingly seldom is the light as strong as that of the full moon. The
light is grandest when it seems to fall like unrolled curtains
vertically down, and is in undulating motion as though it fluttered in
the wind.

To the sailors in the ice-bound ships, however, the northern lights had
lost their fascination. Enfeebled and depressed, disgusted with bad
provisions, worn out with three years' hardships, they lay on their
berths listening to the ticking of their watches. The only break in
their monotonous existence was when a death occurred. The carpenter had
plenty of work, and Captain Crozier knew the funeral service by heart.
Nine officers and eleven of the crew died during the last two winters,
and certainly a far greater number in the third. This we know from a
small slip of paper well sealed up and deposited in a cairn on the
coast, which was found eleven years afterwards.

At length the months of darkness again came to an end. The red streak
appeared once more in the south, and it gradually grew lighter.
Twilight followed in the footsteps of darkness, and at last the first
sun's rays glistened above the horizon. Then the men awakened once more
to new hope; Brahmins on the bank of the Ganges never welcomed the
rising sun with more delight.

With increasing daylight came greater opportunity and disposition to
work. Several sledges were made ready, heavy and clumsy, but strong.
Three whale-boats, which for three years had hung fast frozen to the
davits, were loosened and hauled on to the ice. The best of the
provisions still remaining in the store-room were taken out, and great
piles of things were raised round the boats. When everything to be taken
was down on the ice, the stores, tents, instrument