260 



zon, but from points having an altitude of about 40*^ ; and 

 they very frequently extended upwards to their point of 

 intersection, producing there a light of considerable inten- 

 sity. The illuminated sector of the sky, supposing it pro- 

 longed to the horizon, subtended an angle of about 30^. 

 The most remarkable circumstance connected with this 

 aurora was the following. About nine o'clock, it began 

 to move slowly round, taking an easterly direction ; and 

 when, in the course of fifteen or twenty minutes, it attained 

 a north-westerly bearing, the sky was lighted up on every 

 side with singular brilliancy. The appearance' which now 

 presented itself, is best conveyed by stating, that it was pre- 

 cisely such as would be produced by the extension, at the 

 same instant, of the aurora already described, through every 

 point of azimuth. This magnificent illumination lasted only 

 about a minute, but left behind it, very nearly due west, a 

 fasciculus of beams quite similar to those which first attracted 

 attention. 



The night was remarkably fine and still, having been 

 preceded by a day of unusual warmth and sunshine. The 

 sky was not destitute of clouds, but they had a considera- 

 ble elevation, were small and scattered, and were penetrated 

 by the light of the stars, which were visible in considerable 

 numbers. 



Mr. George Downes read extracts of a second letter 

 from Professor Rafn, Secretary to the Royal Society of 

 Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen. In this letter Pro- 

 fessor Rafn suggested that, as his researches relative to Ame- 

 rica appeared to be, as yet, but little known in Ireland, it 

 might perhaps be advisable, that his " Memoir on the Dis- 

 covery of America in the tenth Century," already published 

 at Copenhagen in the Antiquitates Americance, should be 

 reprinted in the Transactions of the Academy, with an in- 

 troduction, which he proposed to furnish, and with some ad- 



