84 METEOROLOGICAL APPEARANCES. 



almost incessant discharge of sky-rockets in the upper regions of 

 the atmosphere, and the trailing light they left upon the sky was 

 particularly curious and beautiful. This appearance continued for 

 a considerable time 3 the velocity with which these meteors 

 appeared to move was very great. Some of them were nearly in 

 the zenith, but none approached the horizon. The general direc- 

 tion of their course was from north-west to south-east. 



On the evening of Saturday October 12th, there was a very 

 splendid exhibition of the Aurora Borealis, which was preceded by 

 a luminous arch that appeared about half-past six o'clock, p. m. 

 nearly in the direction of the magnetic equator. I was not fortu- 

 nate enough to see this arch, but from the description of a scientific 

 friend, it must have very nearly resembled the luminous arch 

 of September 29, 1828, and occupied almost a similar situation in 

 the heavens. It is thus described by the gentleman alluded to. — 



" On the evening of the 12th I was about to make an observa- 

 tion on an eclipse of one of Jupiter's satellites, when the planet 

 became so obscured that I was compelled to desist. Turning to the 

 north, I perceived the beams of the Aurora, and at this moment my 

 servant came in to inform me that a luminous arch was visible in 

 the heavens. I instantly went out, and perceived a magnificent 

 white band stretching across the sky from west to east, about three 

 degrees in breadth, and passing through Alpha Lyrae down to Jupi- 

 ter, at that time about thirty degrees above the eastern horizon. 

 For some minutes the arch gradually grew brighter, and at last 

 reached the eastern horizon, but the western limb was by far the 

 brightest. At a quarter past 7 p. ^^- it had reached the acme of its 

 brilliant 5 it then somewhat declined to the south, and continued 

 to grow fainter till a quarter past 7> by which time it had almost 

 totally disappeared." 



Thus far my informant, and it is evident that the beautiful 

 luminous arch of September 29, 1828, which I attentively observed, 

 and which has been described by Mr. Da vies Gilbert, late President 

 of the Royal Society, Dr. Forster and others, occupied nearly 

 a similar situation to this of October 12, 1833, and both of them 

 finally deflexed to the south. In each case, too, the western 

 limb was brightest, and while these arches maintained a vivid 

 splendor for about half an hour, the common evanescent beams of 

 the Aurora shot forth their transient rays in rapid succession from 

 the north. Thus these luminous arches spanning the heavens 

 from west to east were coincident with the appearance of the 

 Aurora in the north. But while the latter phenomenon was sta- 

 tionary during the greater part of the night, the arches appeared to 

 pass over and disappear, and no second display of the same kind 

 •was manifested. The connection sustained by these luminous 

 arches with the Aurora Borealis is not at present very satisfactorily 

 accounted for, and their comparative rare appearance serves to 

 augment the mystery upon the subject. Successive and repeated 

 careful observation is yet required before we have sufficient data to 

 generalize upon the subject. What is very remarkable is, that 



