426 Mr. Dalton on the Height of the Aurora 



was most extensively seen : namely, at Glasgow, Dumfries, 

 and Annan in Scotland; at Dublin and Newry in Ireland; 

 and at Whitehaven, Carlisle, Kendal, Lancaster, Warring- 

 ton, and Liverpool in England. It was accompanied with the 

 usual appearances of the aurora borealis, or streamers distant 

 in the north. The observations are insufficient for calculating 

 the height. I find in my journal the aurora was noticed at 

 Manchester that evening, but no particulars are given. Mr. 

 Longmire mentions a similar arch seen at Kendal and Dublin 

 on the 1 7th of April the same year. An aurora was seen in 

 London at the same time. (Annals of Phil. vol. iii. p. 400.) 



1819, October 17th. — A remarkable aurora borealis was 

 seen this evening in very distant parts of England and Scot- 

 land. Mr. Otley of Keswick first drew my attention to this, 

 by communicating the notes he made at the time upon it, on 

 the occasion when he favoured me with his remarks upon that 

 of the 29th of March, 1826. After which I collected such 

 other accounts as I could meet with from the journals of the 

 time. The series of observations is as follows : — 



Annals of Philosophy, vol. xiv. p. 472. Account from 

 Newton-Stewart, (Scotland,) October 18th. — " A singular and 

 beautiful phenomenon appeared in our atmosphere here last 

 night (17th), about 8 o'clock: it was a bow or arch of silvery 

 light stretching from east to west, and intersecting the hemi- 

 sphere [meridian] at a few degrees to the southward of the 

 zenith. After it had remained very bright for twenty minutes 

 or so, dark blanks were first observed to take place here and 

 there, and then, after expanding a little in breadth and shifting 

 for a short way further to the southward, it disappeared. 

 Some time before its appearance the atmosphere had been very 

 cloudy ; but when it was formed the sky was free from clouds, 

 except towards the horizon to the westward and northward, 

 where they hung very dark and heavy. — It was strikingly dif- 

 ferent from any of the usual forms of the boreal lights, which 

 too were seen very vivid in the course of the evening." 



Keswick.— Mr. Otley's account:— " About 7 P.M. (the 

 17th), a dense cloud appeared in the horizon to the N.N.W. 

 bounded by a bright line, the rest of the heavens being starry. 

 Presently beams of an aurora began to shoot towards the Great 

 Bear. About 8 o'clock a luminous arch extended from west 

 to east, the crown of the arch at first appeared to me a little 

 to the north of the zenith, and after some time to the south of 

 it, and again more northerly before it disappeared, which it did 

 suddenly, a few minutes after 9 o'clock." 



Manchester. — I have an account in my journal of an aurora 

 seen here the same evening, but no particulars are given. 



London. 



