The star ζ in _Perseus_, situated above the “stormy Pleiads,” is double; that is, a binary star. ξ in Ursa Major is also a twin-star; and so is Polaris, the second and smaller star appearing a mere speck in comparison with its companion. * * * * * These are the principal stars and starry groups in the Circumpolar Regions of the heavens, on one side; let us now turn our attention to the other. For this purpose we must again take the Great Bear as our starting-point. Prolonging the tail in its curvature, the Arctic traveller notes, at some distance from it, a star of the first magnitude, Arcturus, or Boötes α. This star, though without any authority, was at one time considered the nearest to the Earth of all the starry host. About 10° to the north-east of it is Mirac, or ε Boötes; one of the most beautiful objects in the heavens, on account of the contrasted hues, yellow and azure, of the two stars composing it. Unfortunately, the twin-orbs cannot be distinctly seen except with a telescope of two hundred magnifying power. A small ring of stars to the left of Boötes is appropriately known as _Corona Borealis_, or the Northern Crown. The constellation of _Boötes_ forms a pentagon; and the stars composing it are all of the third magnitude, with the exception of α, which is of the first. Arcturus, as we have said, was anciently considered the star nearest to the Earth. It is, at all events, _one_ of the nearest, and belongs to the small number of those whose distance our astronomers have succeeded in calculating. It is 61 trillions, 712,000 millions of leagues from our planet; a distance of which we can form no appreciable conception. Moreover, it is a coloured star; on examining it through a telescope we see that it is of the same hue as the “red planet Mars.” By carrying a line from the Polar Star to Arcturus, and raising a perpendicular in the middle of this line, opposite to _Ursa Major_, the observer of the Arctic skies will discover one of the most luminous orbs of night, _Vega_, or α Lyra, near the Milky Way. The star β Lyra, or Sheliak, is a variable star, changing from the third to the fifth magnitude, and accomplishing its variation in 6 days 10 hours and 34 minutes. β and ε Lyra are quadruple systems, each composed of binary or twin-stars. The line drawn from Arcturus to Vega cuts the constellation of Hercules. Between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor may be observed a prolonged series of small stars, coiling, as it were, in a number of convolutions, and extending towards Vega: these belong to the constellation of the _Dragon_. Such are the principal objects which attract the attention of the traveller, when contemplating the star-studded firmament of the Arctic night. CHAPTER III. THE POLAR SEAS: ICEBERGS--ICE-FLOES--THE SEAL--THE WALRUS THE NARWHAL--THE WHALE--SUNDRY FORMS OF MARINE LIFE.