Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/178

Rh Thy works!' Then I tried to picture the scene before me. Piles of golden light and rainbow light, scattered along the azure vault, extended from behind the western horizon to the zenith; thence down to the eastern, within a belt of space 20° in width, were the fountains of beams, like fire-threads, that shot with the rapidity of lightning hither and thither, upward and athwart the great pathway indicated. No sun, no moon, yet the heavens were a glorious sight, flooded with light. Even ordinary print could have been easily read on deck.

"Flooded with rivers of light. Yes, flooded with light; and such light! Light all but inconceivable. The golden hues predominated; but, in rapid succession, prismatic colours leaped forth.

"We looked, we, and ; for, even as we gazed, the whole belt of aurora began to be alive with flashes. Then each pile or bank of light became myriads; some now dropping down the great pathway or belt, others springing up, others leaping with lightning flash from one side, while more as quickly passed into the vacated space; some, twisting themselves into folds, entwining with others like enormous serpents, and all these movements as quick as the eye could follow. It seemed as if there was a struggle with these heavenly lights to reach and occupy the dome above our heads. Then the whole arch above became crowded. Down, down it came; nearer and nearer it approached us. Sheets of golden flame, coruscating while leaping from the auroral belt, seemed as if met in their course by some mighty agency that turned them into the colours of the rainbow, each of the seven primary, 3° in width, sheeted out to 21°; the prismatic bows at right angles with the belt.

"While the auroral fires seemed to be descending upon us, one of our number could not help exclaiming,. [sic]

"'Hark! hark! such a display! almost as if a warfare was going on among the beauteous lights above—so palpable—so near—seems impossible without noise.'

"But no noise accompanied this wondrous display. All was silence.