Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1896 — Auroras in the Arctic Regions. [ARTICLE]

Auroras in the Arctic Regions.

The light was lessening day by day, though the beauty of this ice world did not wane. I think I never felt the strength, the glory*, of silence so vividly as on the 26th of the month, standing on a rocky height above the bay. Across the heaven beautiful auroras streamed at frequent intervals in colors of faint orange, green, and blue, scarcely dimming the myriads of brilliant stars that glittered in the deep blue vault, which lightened to turquoise at the horizon. Majestic cliffs swept away across the bay, with its shadowy, greenish-blue bergs, all bathed in one shimmering veil of transparent gold from the'llght of the moon. In a silence- that made the beating of the heart and the pulsation of the blood in the veins seem, almost audible, I was suddenly attracted bytlk peculiar, occasional crackling sound. Presently the sound came very near, and, turning, I perceived a yellowish-white object, about three feet in length, steadily approaching. The little creature gradually circled about, until it paused about fifteen feet away. As I had remained motionless, its. curiosity led it to sit down upon its haunches and deliberately stare at' me." Twice it seated Itself, and then, running behind a boulder, peeped over the edge, uqtil, satisfied or alarmed, it disappeared. It was an Arctic fox.—Century. ' How times change! A few years ago to speak of a nit implied that the speaker must have them.