Owing to the great refraction of northern latitudes, for about three months in summer they enjoy the sight of the sun almost without intermission; but for the same space in winter, (especially in December,) that luminary hardly rises above the horizon, and is commonly obscured by clouds and mists. “The sun from far shows with a sickly face, Too weak the fogs and mighty dews to chase.” In this gloomy season, the absence of day is supplied partly by moon-light, and partly by the radiance of the _aurora borealis_, or merry-dancers, as they are called in these islands. These are the constant attendants of clear evenings, and prove great reliefs, amidst the gloom of the dark winter night. They commonly appear at twilight, near the horizon, of a dun colour, approaching to yellow; sometimes continuing in that state for several hours without any apparent motion, after which they break out into streams of stronger light, spreading into columns, and altering slowly into ten thousand different shapes, varying their colours from all the lines of yellow to the most obscure russet. They often cover the whole hemisphere, and then make the most brilliant appearance. Their motions at these times are amazingly quick; and they astonish the spectator with the rapid change of their form. They break out in places where none were seen before, skimming briskly along the heavens: are suddenly extinguished, and leave behind an uniform dusky tract. This again is brilliantly illuminated in the same manner, and as suddenly left a dull blank. In certain nights they assume the appearance of vast columns, on one side of the deepest yellow, on the other declining away, till it become undistinguished from the sky. They have generally a strong tremulous motion from end to end, which continues till the whole vanish. According to the state of the atmosphere, they differ in colours. They often assume the colour of blood, and make a most dreadful appearance. The rustic sages represent these phenomena as prognosticative of future events, and thereby affright the gaping multitude with dread of war, famine, and pestilential devastations. Vid. Pen. _Arct. Zool._ vol. i. p. 27. The ebb tides here run north, and the flood tides to the southward, unless on the north and south extremities of the country, where they run east and west; but their rapidity is inconsiderable when compared to that of the firths of Orkney. The shores are generally lofty, and rise almost perpendicular from the ocean.