At
about two o'clock, up rose the morning star, a round, red, fiery ball,
very comparable to the moon at its rising, and, getting upward, it shone
marvellously bright, and threw its long reflection into the sea, like the
moon and the two lighthouses. It was Venus, and the brightest star I
ever beheld; it was in the northeast. The moon made but a very small
circuit in the sky, though it shone all night. The aurora borealis shot
upwards to the zenith, and between two and three o'clock the first streak
of dawn appeared, stretching far along the edge of the eastern horizon,--
a faint streak of light; then it gradually broadened and deepened, and
became a rich saffron tint, with violet above, and then an ethereal and
transparent blue. The saffron became intermixed with splendor, kindling
and kindling, Baker's Island lights being in the centre of the
brightness, so that they were extinguished by it, or at least grew
invisible. On the other side of the boat, the Marblehead lighthouse
still threw out its silvery gleam, and the moon shone brightly too; and
its light looked very singularly, mingling with the growing daylight.
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