616 



APPENDIX. TNo. III. 



December 22nd, 1 820 



Hour. Temp. Wind. 



A. M. 9 — 45 W. Light. Clear. A few cirro-strati near the southern hor. 



Noon -43 do. do. do. 



2h.30m. -41 do. Mod. do. 



P. M. 9 —43 do. do. do. A bur round the moon and candle. 



Midnt. -43 do. Light. 



2 J Calm. Hazy. Halo round the moon distant 20' 



At 4h. 30m. p.m., dark and rather cloudy. A faint mass of the Aurora in 

 the E.S.E. about 20° high. 



At 9h. p.m., the sky being of a pretty deep blue colour, except in the S.E., 

 where there was a mass of white clouds near the horizon, the Aurora appeared 

 in form of an arch of yellowish gray light, about 70° broad in the centre, 

 where it reached from the zenith to within 29° of the southern horizon. Its 



■ 



limbs were spirally twisted and tapered, touching the horizon in the S.E.b.S. 

 and N. W. b. W. The light of this arch was arranged in longitudinal bands, 

 having different densities, and varying in length from 20° to 80°. These long 

 portions of light occasionally receded laterally from each other, and then formed 

 a series of arches or parts of arches ; the upper ones including those beneath 



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them. Whilst the arches were thus separated, some of them exhibited a waving 

 lateral motion, the others remaining stationary, and some times one end of 

 an arch moving more than the other, it was carried obliquely across the 

 general line of direction of the parts of the large arch. The arches approached 

 each other by an irregular, slow, lateral motion, occurring simultaneously in 



the different arcs, and again formed a continuous body of light, varying in 

 density in different parts. 



At 1 lh., a beam of light rose from the southern horizon to the height of 45 

 where it terminated, that end then bearing N.W.b.N. It was about 10' 

 broad, and gradually attenuated from its centre outward s . 



At 1 1 h. 30m. , there was a long luminous bank in the south nearly of equal 

 dimensions throughout. Its centre was slightly elevated, and about 40° high. 

 Its extremities faded imperceptibly away in the S.S.E. and western parts of 

 the sky. It was about 6° broad, and emitted a greenish-yellow light. The 

 sky near its extremities was dark, and completely hid the stars. Five or six 

 degrees below this nearly horizontal mass, a smaller but similar one appeared 



