Captain Burrows went on deck at
once, and you may be sure I followed at his heels.
"'What's wrong here?' demanded the captain, in his roaring tone,
stepping into the midst of the crew.
"'A judgment against this pryin' into God's secrets, sir,' said an
English sailor, in an awe-struck voice. 'Look at the signs, sir,'
pointing overhead.
"Captain Burrows and I both looked over our heads, and there saw an
impressive sight, indeed. A vast colored map of an unknown world hung in
the clouds over us--a mirage from the aurora. It looked very near, and
was so distinct that we could distinguish polar bears on the ice-crags.
One man insisted that the mainmast almost touched one snowy peak, and
most of them actually believed that it was an inverted part of some
world, slowly coming down to crush us. Captain Burrows looked for
several minutes before he spoke. Then he said: 'My men, this is the
grandest proof of all that Providence is helping us. This thing that you
see is only a picture; it's a mirage, the reflection of a portion of the
earth on the sky. Just look, and you will see that it's in the shape of
a crescent, and we are almost in the center of it; and, I tell you, it's
a picture of the country just in front of us.
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