now, during the winter the arctic regions come much farther south than they are marked on the map. very few people know this, though you would think they could tell it by the ice in the jugs of a morning. and just when george and jane were starting for the north pole, the arctic regions had come down very nearly as far as forest hill, so that, as the children walked on, it grew colder and colder, and presently they saw that the fields were covered with snow, and there were great icicles hanging from all the hedges and gates. and the northern lights still seemed some way off.