Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/231

Rh drapery. The whole effect is weirdly beautiful, and has long been known in the Highlands of Scotland by the very fitting name of the "Merry Dancers."

It may be of interest to give one or two quotations from my diary when I was wintering in Franz Josef Land. On January 1, 1897, my log runs, "Auroras have been fairly frequent; I have not seen one like those I have seen at Ben Nevis in Scotland, where you get the distinctive arch or series of arches with streamers flowing along upward and darkness under the arch. One arch I have seen here, but not a perfect one, about six weeks ago. Within the dark area was the crescent moon to the southward. The arch at each end was flattened, or rather it was a semi-ellipse or such-like. No streamers flowed from the arch, it was rather a band than an arch. Here (except where there are simple bands, not the most general form) the streamers shoot downwards from the zenith and dance about in spiral waving arrangement. Sometimes there is a break between the lower ends of the streamers and the zenith, but still the streamers seem to continue as if in a line from the zenith or towards it." Writing on January 6, 1897, I say of the 3rd of January, "although there was fog and slight snow, there was a brilliant aurora quite lighting up the scene. A very distinct