Aims: The interstellar polarization in the northern high-latitude
sky is low and rather smooth in the local spiral (LS) longitude range
60° < l < 240°, except for an extension of aligned higher
polarization within 120° < l < 180° up to b ≈ 50°.
We compare this view with results from other indicators of interstellar
matter.
Methods: Some indicators of dust are sensitive to diffuse
matter on large scales, others provide information on clumpy structures.
We describe results that are mainly from surveys of dark and molecular
clouds in the LS longitude range at high latitudes.
Results: The
structured feature in the polarization map for the LS region corresponds
to known dark cloud complexes. These extensions to higher latitudes (and
some other dust indicators) may signal the presence of more dust in some
form (like compact cold clouds) than is suggested by regular low
interstellar polarization.