Chap. VIII.]
AURORA.
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ing as far as the eye could discern, and so closely 1842. connected, that, except the small opening by which we had escaped, they appeared to form an unbroken continuous line; it seems, therefore, not at all improbable that the collision with the Terror was the means of our preservation, by forcing us backwards to the only practicable channel, instead of permitting us, as we were endeavouring, to run to the eastward, and become entangled in a labyrinth of heavy bergs, from which escape might have been impracticable, or perhaps impossible.
Whilst our ship lay rolling amidst the foam and spray to windward of the berg, a beautiful phenomenon presented itself, worthy of notice, as tending to afford some information on the causes of the exhibition of auroral light. The infrequency of the appearance of this meteor, during the present season, had much surprised us; and therefore, to observe its bright light, forming a range of vertical beams along the top of the icy cliff, marking and partaking of all the irregularities of its figure, was the more remarkable, and would seem to suggest that some connection existed, in the exhibition of this light, with the vaporous mist thrown upwards by the dashing of the waves against the berg, and that it was in some degree produced by electrical action taking place between it and the colder atmosphere surrounding the berg. We may here also trace some analogy between this phenomenon and those appearances of the Aurora Borealis, witnessed in Scotland by the Rev. James Farquharson,