seen in London^ September 25, 1827. 405 



deserved reputation, shall be quoted and considered sentence 

 by sentence, as follows : 



1. ** Aurora Borealis, Northern Light, or Streamers ; a 

 kind of meteor, appearing iri the Northern part of the heavens, 

 mostly in the winter time, and in frosty weather. 



2. *' It is in the Arctic regions that it appears in perfection, 

 particularly during the solstice. 



3. " In the Shetland Islands, the Merry Dancers, as they 

 are called, are the constant attendants of clear evenings, and 

 prove great reliefs amidst the gloom of the long winter nights. 



4. *' They commonly appear at twilight, near the horizon, 

 of a dun colour, approaching to yellow ; sometimes continuing 

 in that state, for several hours, without any sensible motion, 

 after which they break out into streams of stronger light, 

 spreading into columns, and altering slowly into ten thousand 

 different shapes, varying their colours from all the tints of 

 yellow to the obscurest russet. 



5. " They often cover the whole hemisphere, and then make 

 the most brilliant appearance. 



6. ** Their motions, at these times, are most amazingly quick, 

 and they astonish the spectators with the rapid change of their 

 form. • .11 ji-i.'u'-'i 



7. *' They break otit iii places where none were seen before, 

 skimming briskly along the heavens ; are suddenly extinguished, 

 and leave behind a uniform dusky track. 



8. " This again is brilliantly illuminated in the same manner, 

 and as suddenly left a dull blank. 



9. "In certain nights, they assume the appearance of vast 

 columns ; on one side of the deepest yellow, on the other, de- 

 clining away till it becomes undistinguished from the sky. 



•^ '10. " They have generally a tremulous motion from end to 

 end, which continues till the whole vanishes. 



11. " In a word, we, who only see the extremities of these 

 northern phenomena, have but a faint idea of their splendour 

 and their motions. 



12. *• According to the state of the atmosphere, they differ 

 in colour. 



13. ♦' They often put on the colour of blood, and then make 

 a most dreadful appearance *." 



• Encyclopaedia BHtannica. Art. Aurora Borealis. 



