Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/297

276 Innuit settlement on Frobisher Bay, intending to explore around the waters mapped out by the geographers as Frobisher Strait. My wish is to chart the lands around that place within the next month, and even to do much more. Koojesse has promised to go over with me if the weather will permit. "I have omitted to mention the 'spot' on the sun that I first saw on the 19th when taking observations. At the moment I thought it was a defect in my sextant glass, but afterward found it to be on the face of old Sol. "Twenty minutes before midnight.—I have just returned from deck entranced by the fires that are burning in the heavens! A new play to-night by the aurora—at least so to me. Going up, I saw that the moon was struggling to penetrate, with her borrowed light, the white clouds that enshrouded her. Looking around, I found the heavens covered with petite dancers clothed in white. My powers of description of this peculiar appearance and workings of the aurora at this time are inadequate. There is no colour in the aurora to-night; it is simply white, like the world beneath it. "Midnight.—I have been on deck again. I am now satisfied that I have occasionally seen the aurora during this month in the daytime, when the sun was well up in its course and shining brightly. "I now retire to my couch for some refreshing sleep, preparatory to making an effort in the morning for commencing the exploration of Frobisher Bay."