Borealis above the Surface of the Earth, 419 



only one of the kind just described. I had not an opportunity 

 of seeing the one which is the subject of this paper, but it was 

 seen here (at Manchester) by a friend of mine about 9 o'clock 

 on his returning home from a visit to me. He did not indeed 

 observe the luminous arch, either from its having vanished, 

 or from the obscurity of our atmosphere ; but he remarked 

 .some beams or corruscations in the north-western hemisphere, 

 of a low altitude ; and not having seen an aurora for a long 

 time, he induced the family at home to go out and catch a 

 glimpse of the phenomenon, now much more rarely seen than 

 formerly. 



A few days afterwards I accidentally noticed a paragraph 

 in the Lancaster Gazette describing the luminous arch of the 

 aurora, as well as the accompanying appearances; and as 

 such a striking and unusual phenomenon could not fail to 

 attract general attention, I examined the provincial news- 

 papers and other periodicals of the time, and took occasion 

 soon after to make inquiries personally, or by writing, of such 

 individuals of judgement as had seen the phenomenon in va- 

 rious places near the line of the magnetic meridian. The re- 

 sult was, a collection of a more complete and extensive series 

 of observations than was ever before made, in all probability, 

 towards determining the height of the luminous arch of the 

 aurora. — I shall now proceed to detail some of the particular 

 observations. 



The accounts represent the arch to have been seen in places 

 170 miles distant in a north and south direction, and forty- 

 five miles distant in an east and west direction, comprising an 

 area of seven or eight thousand square miles ; but it must have 

 been much more extensively visible, as in most cases the 

 writers of the different accounts describe their situation as 

 central with regard to the phenomenon. It was seen at Edin- 

 burgh and Leith, Kelso, Jedbergh, and Hawick in Scotland ; 

 at Carlisle, Penrith, Keswick, Cockermouth, and Whitehaven 

 in Cumberland ; at Kendal and at Kirkby-Stephen in West- 

 morland ; at Lancaster, Preston, Warrington, and Manches- 

 ter in Lancashire ; and at Doncaster in Yorkshire. Descrip- 

 tions of the phenomena as seen at most of these places were 

 immediately given in the newspapers of Lancaster, Kendal, 

 Carlisle, Whitehaven, Kelso, &c, and some of these accounts 

 were copied into the London papers soon after. 



All the accounts that I have seen from places between Lan- 

 caster and Edinburgh, as well as at these two places, agree 

 that a luminous arch was first seen about 8 o'clock in the 

 evening; that it continued without much motion for an hour 

 nearly, and then gradually vanished, leaving the northern sky 



3 H 2 illuminated 



