METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 



347 



standing, at 9 a. m., 29.200, the thermometer reaching 52„. Towards even- 

 ing the wind drew round to W. N. W. and N. ■W.,the clouds cleared off, and 

 at lip. m. the barometer had risen to 29.300. At 8 o'clock in the evening, 

 the atmosphere was quite free from cloud, and from this period until half- 

 past 10, there was the most brilliant display of Aurora I have ever witnessed, 

 far surpassing that of the preceding evening. A beautiful and very lumin- 

 ous arch stretched from N. N. E. to West, at about 35 degrees from the ho- 

 rizon, sometimes quite complete, at others broken into detached luminous 

 masses. This arch, at 9 p. m., passed through Lyro, its upper edge just 

 touching the two principal stars in Ursa Minor, and thence extending 

 through the Pointers in Ursa Major ; long luminous streamers were shooting 

 out from it at all points, — sometimes more brilliant in the West, at others in 

 the North, and then in the N. E., varying every moment. At one period ap- 



f)earing, at various points between the concavity of the arch and the horizon, 

 ike the tail of an immense comet, at others darting out, in great numbers, 

 from the convexity towards the zenith. Added to all these interesting 

 appearances, were continual and extremely rapid Hashes or undulations of 

 light, — as if of broad, broken, horizontal bands of lambient flame — which 

 swept, with the rapidity of lightning, from all the northern half of the hori- 

 zon, to a point almost exactly over-head. These coruscations, or flashes, 

 very frequently left permanent streaks of light exactly resembling strongly 

 illuminated bands of delicate cirri. These luminous undulations, or flashes — 

 always converging to a particular spot — formed, at times, a most beautiful 

 wreathed crown, which would remain permanent over Gamma Andromeda. 

 These luminous flashes stretched, at one period, far into the southern region 

 of the heavens. 



SEPTEMBER. 



