वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. . 57
often of several days' duration. As stated above, at first only
a pale flush of light will appear, and it will continue visible on
the horizon, revolving round and round, if the observer is
sufficiently near the Pole, for some days, when at last the orb of
the sun will emerge, and start the alternation of day and night
described above, to be eventually terminated into a long day.
The splendours of the Aurora Borealis would also be less marked
and conspicuous in the southern latitudes than at the North Pole.
But if the characteristics of the Arctic regions are different
from those of the North Pole, they are no less different from the
features of the year with which we are familiar in the temperate
or the tropical zone. With us the sun is above the horizon, at
least for some time every day, during all the twelve months of
the year ; but to persons within the Arctic circle, he is below
the horizon, and, therefore, continuously invisible for a number
of days. If this period of continuous night be excluded from our
reckoning, we might say that within the Arctic regions the
year, or the period marked by sunshine, only lasts from six to
eleven months. Again the dawn in the temperate and the
tropical zone is necessarily short-lived, for a day and a night
together do not exceed twenty-four hours, and the dawn which
comes between them can last only for a few hours; but the
annual dawn at the Pole, and the dawn at the end of the long
night in the Arctic regions will each be a dawn of several days'
duration. As for the seasons, we have our winters and summers ;
but the winter in the Arctic regions will be marked by
the long continuous night, while the summer will make the
night longer than the day, but within the limit of twenty-
four hours, until the day is developed into a long, conti-
nuous sunshine of several days. The climate of the Polar
regions is now extremely cold and severe, but, as previously