Rev. W. Dunbar on the Aurora Borealis. ^t$ 



ART. V. — Notice of the Aurora Borealis of Last Winter. By 

 the Rev. W. Dunbar, of Applegarth, Dumfries-shire. 



This beautiful phenomenon, seen but seldom in our compa- 

 ratively low latitudes, has, during the past winter, been very 

 frequently visible, and marked with uncommon splendour. Its 

 first appearance was, I believe, in November, when it spanned 

 the heavens in the form of a luminous arch, stretching across 

 from east to west. Towards the zenith, its breadth was nearly 

 that of the rainbow, gradually tapering from the centre to the 

 extremities, each of which terminated in a slender point, and 

 seemed to rest upon the horizon. The graceful curve which it 

 exhibited in the early part of the evening became somewhat 

 deranged as the night advanced ; the centre slowly, and with an 

 tmdulating motion, falling away towards the south, as if impelled 

 by a breeze of wind, while the extreme points on which it rested 

 appeared to keep their place. The appearance of this pheno- 

 menon during last winter has completely belied a remark often 

 tnade on the subject, that they are most frequently visible after 

 a dry summer. 



On the evening of the 25th of December, the aurora appeared 

 In a form much more striking ; for, in addition to a fleecy arch 

 resembling the one formerly seen, though not so brilliant, 

 flickering rays of a pale silvery colour continually ascended to 

 the zenith, converging to a point, like flames confined within a 

 ndllow hemisphere ; and, what is now rarely seen south of the 

 ^olar regions, a broad girdle of crimson extended across the sky, 

 parallel to the arch, and from east to west, imparting something 

 6f a terrific hue to the scene, and exciting in the observer a 

 jfeeling of awe. It was a vision which, in unscientific periods of 

 the world, would have carried terror to the nations, and been 

 regarded as the disastrous omen of bloodshed and war. 



On the 11th of January, the phenomenon shewed itself under 

 a very different aspect, and altogether divested of that gloomy 

 hue which the untutored mind would have associated with scenes 

 of slaughter. The northern region of the sky was flooded with 

 light, as if there were the reservoir from which the beautiful 

 scintillations that sparkled throughout the firmament drew their 

 existence, and their nourishment. The rays, converging in the 

 zenith round the whole concave, excepting towards the south, 

 did not, as in general, resemble pale flames, but were of a 

 brilliant golden green, brought prominently forward by a dark 

 back ground, shooting with lively rapidity round and round the 

 Horizon, now melting away into obscurity, and then starting again 

 in an instant into gorgeous light, with such activity, as forcibly 

 to remind us of the poet's allusion to 



the Borealis race, 



That flit ere you can point their place. 

 VOL. III. 2 F 



