Page 254 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE ARCTIC REGIONS 41

darkness as will make the Polar regions uncomfortable. On the
contrary, it will be the peculiar privilege of the Polar man to
witness the splendid spectacle of a long continuous dawn with
its charming lights, revolving, like the stars at the place, every day
in horizontal planes, round and round him, as long as the dawn
may last.
The dawn in the tropical or the temperate zone is but brief
and evanescent, and it recurs after every 24 hours. But still it has
formed the subject of poetical descriptions in different countries.
If so, how much more the spectacle of a splendid long dawn,
after a darkness of two months, would delight the heart of a
Polar observer, and how he will yearn for the first appearance
of the light on the horizon, can be better imagined than described.
I quote the following description of this long Polar dawn from
Dr. Warren's Paradise Found, and invite special attention to it,
inasmuch as it forms one of the principal characteristics of the
North Pole. Premising that the splendours of the Polar dawn are
indescribable, Dr. Warren proceeds :-
" First of all appears low in the horizon of the night-sky a
scarcely visible flush of light. At first it only makes a few stars'
light seem a trifle fainter, but after a little it is seen to be increasing,
and to be moving laterally along the yet dark horizon. Twenty-
four hours later it has made a complete circuit around the observer,
and is causing a larger number of stars to pale. Soon the widening
light glows with the luster of ' Orient pearl '. Onward it moves
in its stately rounds, until the pearly whiteness burns into
ruddy rose-light, fringed with purple and gold. Day after
day, as we measure days, this splendid panorama circle on,
and, according as atmospheric conditions and clouds present
more or less favourable conditions of reflection, kindles and
fades, kindles and fades,- fades only to kindle next time yet
more brightly as the still hidden sun comes nearer and nearer his
point of emergence. At length, when for two long 'months such
prophetic displays have been filling the whole heavens with these
increscent and revolving splendours, the sun begins to emerge
from his long retirement, and to display himself once more to
human vision. After one or two circuits, during which his dazzling
upper limb grows to a full-orbed disk, he clears all hill~tops of
the distant horizon, and for six full months circles around and
around the world's great axis in full view, suffering no night to