Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 233 



burnished gold ; a, b> c, three parhelia all nearly of the apparent 

 size of the sun; d, e, a column of white light meeting the horizon 

 downwards, and indefinitely extended upwards \f)g, /*, portions of 

 a broken solar halo, exhibiting distinctly the prismatic colours; 

 it &, lj three luminous trains of light terminating in points, the train 

 k being highly coloured with yellowish-red vapour, probably owing 

 to its being situated in the centre of the column of light rf, e ; it was 

 also much longer than the other two, i and /, which were very faintly 

 tinged : the train m terminated very abruptly, but was more di- 

 stinct than the train n, which terminated in a point. 



These interesting phenomena were refracted upon dense atte- 

 nuated cirrostratus vapour; but as it was rapidly moving out of the 

 refracting angles of the sun's rays, they did not continue visible for 

 more than twelve minutes. W. H. WHITE, H.M.C.S. 



AURORA BOREALIS OF THE ?TH OF JANUARY. 



Gosport Observatory, Jan. 7th, 1831. 



In the afternoon of this day there was a peculiar brightness in the 

 atmosphere near the horizon, for several degrees on each side of the 

 true north point, which indicated the approach of an aurora : in- 

 deed we have reason to suspect that it was a faint appearance of 

 one, while the sun shone in all his splendour, without the interpo- 

 sition of cloud or vapour. Shortly after sunset an aurora borea- 

 lis gradually rose above the northern horizon, and at a quarter past 

 five o'clock it had assumed the form of an arch of refulgent light 

 ten degrees high, and seventy degrees wide. From this time till 

 half-past five it continued to increase in the intensity of its light, 

 expanding to the western point of the horizon and 55 degrees to the 

 eastward of north, which made the chord of the aurora 155 degrees. 

 Now a bright flame-coloured rainbow-like arch, between three and 

 four degrees broad, and pretty well defined at its upper edge, ema- 

 nated from the curved edge of the aurora to an altitude of 35 degrees; 

 and while it remained apparently stationary, a beautiful rainbow- 

 like arch, still more brilliant, formed about ten degrees south of the 

 zenith, by streamers suddenly springing- up from the N.E. by E. 

 and W. by S. points of the horizon and meeting in the zenith, so 

 that these two bows presented themselves at the same time. 



At thirty-five minutes past five the latter bow, in some parts four 

 and in others six degrees wide, divided a little to the eastward of its 

 vertex ; and the long streamers which formed it passed off gently to 

 the southward in very bright patches, two in the S.E. and one in the 

 S.W. quarters, like luminous clouds, and continued in sight nearly 

 a quarter of an hour. One of these bright patches nearly covered 

 Orion several minutes. 



At forty minutes past five another rainbow-like arch, equally wide 

 and bright, was formed by long streamers from about the same 

 points of the horizon, whose point of convergence was the same, 

 and its course through the feet of Gemini, near the Pleiades, through 

 Aries, the square of Pegasus, the head of Equuleus, and the bow of 

 N.S. Vol. 9. No. 51. March 1831, 2 H Antinous 



