484 Chapter VIII. 



from 30 to 40 above the horizon, sinking down again 

 to the west and rolling itself up into a ball, from which 

 several branches spread out over the sky. The arches 

 were in active motion, while pencils of streamers shot 

 out swiftly from the west towards the east, and the 

 whole serpent kept incessantly undulating into fresh 

 curves. Gradually it mounted up over the sky nearly 

 to the zenith, while at the same time the uppermost 

 bend or arch separated into several fainter undulations, 

 the ball in the north-east glowed intensely, and brilliant 

 streamers shot upwards to the zenith from several places 

 in the arches, especially from the ball and from the bend 

 farthest away in the north-east. The illumination was 

 now at its highest, the colour being principally a strong 

 yellow, though at some spots it verged towards a 

 yellowish-red, while at other places it was a greenish- 

 white. When the upper wave reached the zenith, the 

 phenomenon lost something of its brilliancy, dispersing 

 little by little, leaving merely a faint indication of an 

 aurora in the southern sky. On coming up again on 

 deck later in the evening, I found nearly the whole of 

 the aurora collected in the southern half of the sky. A 

 low arch, 5 in height, could be seen far down in the 

 south over the dark segment of the horizon. Between 

 this and the zenith were four other vague, wavy arches, 

 the topmost of which passed right across it ; here and 

 there vivid streamers shot flaming upwards, especially 

 from the undermost arch in the south. No arch was to 



