Then the colours gradually faded, the flashes became more
feeble, and the darting rays ever shorter and shorter, until they
finally faded completely away, to be succeeded shortly afterwards by the
keen silvery radiance of the young crescent moon which slowly rolled
upwards from the horizon, and, shedding her subdued light upon the snow-
clad landscape, invested it with an air of bewitching mystery and
unreality which was distinctly heightened by the profound impressive
silence of the long Arctic night.

With nature thus presenting herself to the travellers in so novel and
attractive a guise a month swiftly passed away, during which they tended
their traps or prosecuted their hunting expeditions under the glorious
light of the aurora, the cold steel-like radiance of the silver moon, or
the dim mysterious starlight; alternating these open-air employments
with assiduous devotion to their easels, in sufficiently clever but
altogether unsuccessful efforts to adequately transfer to canvas the
entrancing beauties of the Arctic scenery and phenomena which constantly
charmed their delighted eyes.

Toward the end of October, however, the temperature had fallen so low
that ice had begun to form all along the coast-line of Elphinstone Land,
and the weather had taken a decided change for the worse. Moreover, the
party had accumulated so much extra weight in the shape of valuable
skins, natural history specimens, and other curiosities, as to seriously
affect the buoyancy of the _Flying Fish_ as an aerial ship; and they
therefore at last--more than half-reluctantly--came to the determination
to desert the enchanted region of the Pole and wend their way southward.

Accordingly, on the morning of the first day of November the anchor was
hove up; the vapour was turned into the air and water chambers,
producing an almost perfect vacuum; and, rising into the air to an
altitude of about ten thousand feet, the _Flying Fish_ turned her nose
southward, and, illumined by the dazzling effulgence of the most
glorious aurora the voyagers had ever seen, was sent ahead at the utmost
limit of her speed.

It was determined to return to England forthwith, and without pause or
stoppage of any kind, unless some unforeseen necessity should arise, the
object being to dispose of their various acquisitions previous to a
renewal of their wanderings. The elevation at starting was therefore
maintained, and the ship pursued her headlong flight to the southw