Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/235

 it has run its ten days' course of brightness. And it shines with a brilliancy which one will hardly observe elsewhere. The uniform whiteness of the landscape and the general clearness of the atmosphere add to the illumination of its rays, and one may see to read by its light with ease, and the natives often use it as they do the sun, to guide their nomadic life and to lead them to their hunting-grounds.

The days and weeks of midwinter passed slowly away. Our experience up to this period was in many respects remarkable. Although sheltered by high lands, we were nevertheless exposed to severe and almost constant northeast winds; and although shut up in polar darkness, and hemmed in by polar ice, an open sea had thus far been within sight of us all the time, and the angry waves were often a threatening terror. Many times we had thought ourselves in danger of being cast adrift with the ice, and carried out to sea in a helpless condition.

The temperature had been strangely mild, a circumstance at least in part accounted for by the open water, and to this same cause was no doubt due the great disturbance of the air, and the frequency of the gales. I have mentioned in the last chapter a very remarkable rise in the thermometer which occurred early in November; but a still greater elevation of temperature followed a few weeks later, reaching as high as 32°, and sinking back to 15° below zero almost as suddenly as it had risen. In consequence of this extraordinary and unaccountable event, the thaw was renewed, and our former discomfort arising from the dampness on the deck and in our quarters was experienced in an aggravated degree. During two days (November 28th and 29th) we could use no other fire