36 Aurora Borealis observed at Norwich. 



about midnight. At an early hour on the morning of the 26th, 

 the wind began to blow from n. or n.e. with terrific violence, 

 and continued till noon. The streets were strewed with frag- 

 ments of chimney-cans, bricks, slates, stones, mortar, &c. ; 

 and the lead was torn from the roofs of the churches and 

 houses, and hung dangling in the gale. The chimney-stalk 

 of the engine-house at the top of the first inclined plane of the 

 railway fell with a dreadful crash, and killed two men on the 

 spot. The destruction of wood was immense. On the estate 

 of Burnside, near Forfar, it is said 1100 trees (some of large 

 size) were torn up by the roots ; the wood of Turin was in 

 ruins ; and the road between Forfar and Glammis was blocked 

 up with huge trees. In Balgay wood, in the vicinity of Dun- 

 dee, after the storm, I counted upwards of 100 large trees, 

 principally alders and larches, laid prostrate on the earth ; 

 and in other places I saw instances of trees with their trunks 

 snapt asunder at a few feet from the ground, where they mea- 

 sured 3 ft. or 4 ft. in circumference. The river Almond, the 

 Water of Leith, the N. and S. Esk, and other streams, were 

 so much swollen that they overflowed their banks, and did 

 much damage to the adjacent country. The Tweed rose 10 ft., 

 and the Tyne 7 ft., above their usual level. At Stonehaven the 

 hurricane tore up trees by the roots and dashed them about, 

 and threw down stacks of corn, and scattered the sheaves over 

 the fields ; and was accompanied with torrents of rain, which 

 made the Carron burst its boundaries and inundate the town. 

 Banff was also flooded ; and the destruction of property there, 

 as well as at other places, was very great. 

 Dundee, Forfarshire. Nov. 13. 1835. 



Art. XIII. A Notice of the Display of Aurora on Nov. 18. 1835, 

 as observed at Norwich. By Samuel Woodward, Esq. 



On Wednesday evening, November 18., at from nine to ten 

 o'clock, this phenomenon was more brilliant than I had ever 

 seen it. The movement of the luminous particles so strongly 

 reminded me of the play of light On the surface of the sea on 

 a warm summer evening, which, although the agent is a mi- 

 nute Medusa, the ruling cause is no other than electricity. 

 To a common observer, the movement of the aurora on this 

 evening would have been attributed to the w r ind ; as the elec- 

 trical current which produced the flashes, affected also the 

 remaining foliage of the trees, in the same way that a current 

 of air would ; the wind at the time was southerly. — Nor- 

 wich, November 28. 1835. 



