ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 415 



Boston. "My current is very strong at times, and we can work better 

 without batteries, as the aurora seems to neutralize and augment our bat- 

 teries alternately, making the current too strong at times for our relay mag- 

 nets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this 

 trouble ? " 



Portland. " Very well. Shall I go ahead with business? " 



Boston. " Yes. Go ahead." 



It would further appear, from the observations of the telegraph operators, 

 that while the lights are streaming up the heavens there are strong electric 

 or electro-magnetic currents passing over the surface of the earth, which, 

 according to a writer in the Atlantic Magazine, December, 1859, arc fre- 

 quently equal in strength to a current produced by a battery of two hundred 

 Grove's cups. These follow the telegraph wires Avherever they encoun- 

 ter them; and the observations made upon their influence during the recent 

 auroral displays, show that the earth currents pass in waves, alternately 

 negative and positive. First comes a strong wave of positive electricity, 

 which gradually subsides, and is succeeded by a negative wave. The 

 average duration of each wave is about fifteen seconds. While the poles 

 of the telegraph battery correspond with those of the earth currents the 

 telegraph current is strengthened by them ; and when they are opposed, the 

 telegraphic current is neutralized. 



This auroral display appears to have been witnessed from Cuba and 

 Jamaica on the south, to an unknown distance beyond the Canadas on the 

 north; and from Great Britain, France, Germany, and Central Europe on 

 the cast, to California on the west. Capt. Howe, master of the ship Southern 

 Cross, from Boston to San Francisco, also reports, that the display off Cape 

 Horn, on the night of the 2d of September, was grand beyond description, 

 the whole heavens being of a deep blood, which color was reflected in the 

 ocean, upon which a fearful sea was running. 



Mr. B. V. Marsh, in a communication to the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute, states, that from a comparison of a great number of observations 

 on the aurora of August 28th, made in different localities, the conclusion 

 seems warranted, that the luminous horizontal curtain observed "was in the 

 form of a ring, the centre of which was probably situated in or near the 

 northern part of Davis' Straits its direction having been shown to be 

 nearly north-west from England, a few degrees east of north from Philadel- 

 phia, and north-east from California; that this ring was about forty-three 

 miles from the earth, and that its width, previous to half-past nine o'clock, 

 was about three hundred and fifteen miles; and furthermore, that from 

 various points on its surface, arose splendidly illuminated vertical columns 

 several miles in diameter, and near six hundred miles high, and that these 

 columns were at all times at very considerable distance from each other, one 

 streamer for every five hundred square miles being more than sufficient to 

 satisfy all observations." 



REMARKABLE METEORS. 



On the morning of the llth of August, 18-39, at 7 o'clock and 20 minutes, 

 or thereabouts, thermometer 73, air still and the sun shining brightly, a 

 meteoric body of great size and brilliancy was observed throughout a large 

 portion of Western Xew England and Eastern New York, and which, explod- 

 ing violently, threw down to the earth at least one fragment of its mass, in 

 the vicinity of Albany, N. Y. 



