s'e^ in L&ndbrit September 25', 18JK. 3SS 



that, the field of the uhoccdpied zeniih always bbre a large 

 proportion to the space or spaces covered, however mo- 

 Vnentarily, with light, or with the luminous substance. For the 

 rest, the particular mentioned in the passage which has now 

 been quoted, namely, that of the residue of a dusky track, 

 aft^r the departure of the white light, did not, if it was 

 there, attract the attention of the present writer, upon the late 

 occasion ; but he certainly, in many instances, remarked the 

 1-eturn of the light to the places in which it had been visible 

 bfef(Hre J and this feature, either with or without that of the 

 continuance of a dusky track, is possibly capable of adding 

 some support to the general opinion which he conceived at the 

 tnoment, which all subsequent information has still allowed 

 him to retain, and of which he proposes to make further use ; 

 namely, that the appearances in the zenith are only ex- 

 tended exhibitions of the luminous phenomena in the hori-*- 

 tton, or their southern extremities, or the tops of columns pro-» 

 jected from the northward. He thought that, in the zenith; 

 h)e Saw the same material, parcelled out, attenuated or diluted, 

 Spread thin, and, as it Were, shown with greater transparency, 

 with that which, in thicker volume, with more acccumulated 

 strength, intenser light, with more solid body, and withal 

 behind a denser mass of asmospherical vapour, rose^ and 

 glowed, and sometimes gloomed^ in the horizon. But, be this 

 as it may, it is, perhaps, this upper part of the exhibition, in 

 which the lights Or streamers seem to interweave, or cross and 

 recross each other, to dance in and out of the area, and to 

 indulge m motions still more Capricious or anomalous than 

 is probably the real fact ; it is, perhaps, this upper part which 

 has alternated, as before recalled to view, the names and simi- 

 litudes of spears, gleaming, glittering, interposing and clashing 

 as in battle, and o( merry dancers, the latter the gayer com-? 

 parison of the dancing north. 



IV. The Aurora continued to fix the attention of the writer 

 till between twelve and one o'clock of the morning of the 

 26th ; and he presumes that it continued visible till the supe-^ 

 rior light of the rising day eclipsed its glory. The 2Gth was 

 ,warra, but Qppre$sed with fogi through which the sun broke 



