st phenomena of nature."--Rambrosson's
Astronomy.)

The events that occurred during the following hundred or more days
beggar description. We were on an open and iceless sea. The month we
reckoned to be November or December, and we knew the so-called South
Pole was turned toward the sun. Therefore, when passing out and away
from the internal electrical light of "The Smoky God" and its genial
warmth, we would be met by the light and warmth of the sun, shining in
through the south opening of the earth. We were not mistaken.(22)

(22 "The fact that gives the phenomenon of the polar aurora its greatest
importance is that the earth becomes self-luminous; that, besides the
light which as a planet is received from the central body, it shows
a capability of sustaining a luminous process proper to
itself."--Humboldt.)

There were times when our little craft, driven by wind that was
continuous and persistent, shot through the waters like an arrow.
Indeed, had we encountered a hidden rock or obstacle, our little vessel
would have been crushed into kindling-wood.

At last we were conscious that the atmosphere was growing decidedly
colder, and, a few days later, icebergs were sighted far to the left. My
father argued, and correctly, that the winds which filled our sails came
from the warm climate "within." The time of the year was certainly most
auspicious for us to make our dash for the "outside" world and attempt
to scud our fishing sloop through open channels of the frozen zone which
surrounds the polar regions.

We were soon amid the ice-packs, and how our little craft got through.
the narrow channels and escaped being crushed I know not. The compass
behaved in the same drunken and unreliable fashion in passing over
the southern curve or edge of the earth's shell as it had done on our
inbound trip at the northern entrance. It gyrated, dipped and seemed
like a thing possessed.(23)

(23 Captain Sabine, on page 105 in "Voyages in the Arctic Regions,"
says: "The geographical determination of the direction and intensity of
the magnetic forces at different points of the earth's surface has
been regarded as an object worthy of especial research. To examine in
different parts of the globe, the declination, inclination and intensity
of the magnetic force, and their periodical and secular variations, and
mutual relations and dependencies could be duly investigated only in
fixed magnetical observatories.")

One day as I was lazily