ve made a very
respectable sun indeed! Even four of these "sun-dogs"--as they are some
times called--have been seen surrounding the sun; one on each side of
it, one directly above, and one immediately below, with a ring of light
connecting them together, a streak of light passing horizontally and
another passing perpendicularly between them, thus forming a luminous
cross, in the centre of which was the sun itself. This magnificent
spectacle is sometimes enhanced by a second circle of light enclosing
the whole, and the edges of several outer circles springing in faint
light therefrom until gradually lost, leaving the imagination to call up
the idea of an endless series of glories extending over the whole sky.

Refraction frequently causes grotesque as well as wonderful and
beautiful appearances. Ships are sometimes seen with their hulls
flattened and their masts and sails drawn out to monstrous dimensions;
or the hulls are heightened so as to appear like heavy castle walls,
while the masts and sails are rendered ludicrously squat and
disproportioned; and not only so, but ships are often seen with their
images inverted over their own masts, so that to the observer it appears
as if one ship were balancing another upside down--mast-head to
mast-head. Land and icebergs assume the same curious appearances--peaks
touching peaks, one set pointing upwards, the other set pointing down,
while the broad bases are elevated in the air. At other times the whole
mass of land and ice on the horizon is more or less broken up and
scattered about as if in confusion, yet with a certain amount of
regularity in the midst of it all, arising from the fact of every object
being presented in duplicate, sometimes triplicate, and occasionally,
though seldom, four-fold.

When sharp sudden frosts occur in those regions, the splendour of the
scenery is still further enhanced by the formation of innumerable minute
crystals which sparkle literally with as much lustrous beauty as the
diamond. On one occasion Scoresby's ship was decorated with uncommon
magnificence, and in a peculiarly interesting manner.

"In the course of the night," he writes, "the rigging of the ship was
most splendidly decorated with a fringe of delicate crystals. The
general form of these was that of a feather having half of the vane
removed. Near the surface of the ropes was first a small direct line of
very white particles, constituting the stem or shaft of the feather;