402 Description of the Aurora Borealis^. 



3. The writer at Edmonton seems to lift his " broad curved 

 streak" much above the horizon ; for he first places a small 

 dense cloud 30° above the horizon, and, then, his broad streak 

 above the cloud ; thus describing a curve of which the situation 

 was near the zenith, while the writer at Deptford is describing 

 ** two red beams," standing perpendicularly to the horizon. 



4. The writer at Edmonton places his *' broad streak, curved," 

 " in a N. N. E. direction ;"" while the writer at Deptford records 

 " two red beams of light, seen in the easterly and westerly 

 direction." Lastly, 



5. The writer at Edmonton seems to make coruscations, 

 •* incessant and remarkably bright," dart from his *' broad 

 streak, curved ;" while the writer at Deptford seems only 

 anxious to place his " two red beams," as perpendicular pillars, 

 standing on either side of the magnetic meridian, 



VII. And, from the whole of this, from the total silence of 

 four accounts, and from the extreme discordance of the other 

 three, the present writer presumes to draw the following in- 

 ferences, including that of the accuracy of his own original 

 statement : 



1. That the two perpendicular red beams of light, of the 

 writer at Deptford, should be joined with broad curved streaks 

 of a deep copper, or red hue, of the writer at Edmonton, to 

 complete the arch which has been spoken of in the foregoing 

 pages. 



2. That this arch, or curved streak, with its feet east and 

 west, sent forth no coruscations itself; but that the corusca- 

 tions rose beneath it, and passed above it. 



3. That it was described upon the clouds only ; was no part 

 of the Aurora ; and, from its connexion with the clouds only, 

 had an evanescence which, on the one hand, was the cause 

 of the various descriptions, and, on the other, of no de- 

 scriptions at all. The present writer observed this part of the 

 phenomenon from its beginning to its ending. He saw it rise 

 in the west, extend itself from the north, and descend in the east; 

 and he thinks it reasonable to ascribe the variations concerning 

 it, in the coincident narratives, to the different points of time 

 to which alone they really refer. The writers at Edmonton 



