It could hardly be said to resemble the sun, except in its
circular shape, and when not obscured by clouds or the ocean
mists, it had a hazy-red, bronzed appearance, which would
change to a white light like a luminous cloud, as if reflecting
some greater light beyond.

"We finally agreed in our discussion of this smoky
furnace-colored sun, that, whatever the cause of the phenomenon,
it was not a reflection of our sun, but a planet of some sort --
a reality.[13]

[13 Nansen, on page 394, says: "To-day another
noteworthy thing happened, which was that about mid-day we saw
the sun, or to be more correct, an image of the sun, for it
was only a mirage. A peculiar impression was produced by the
sight of that glowing fire lit just above the outermost edge of
the ice. According to the enthusiastic descriptions given by many
Arctic travelers of the first appearance of this god of life
after the long winter night, the impression ought to be one of
jubilant excitement; but it was not so in my case. We had not
expected to see it for some days yet, so that my feeling was
rather one of pain, of disappointment that we must have drifted
farther south than we thought. So it was with pleasure I soon
discovered that it could not be the sun itself. The mirage was at
first a flattened-out, glowing red, streak of fire on the
horizon; later there were two streaks, the one above the other,
with a dark space between; and from the maintop I could see four,
or even five, such horizontal lines directly over one another,
all of equal length, as if one could only imagine a square,
dull-red sun, with horizontal dark streaks across it."]