OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 325 



It is well known that Dr. Holyoke, of Salem, kept a Meteorological 

 Journal from 1754 to 1828. That part which relates to the weather 

 has already been published in the Memoirs of the Academy. I have 

 consulted the manuscript records of Dr. Holyoke, which he presented 

 to the Academy, and have selected from them all the instances he has 

 recorded of auroras observed by him. Unfortunately, the copy which 

 the Academy possesses is not the original, until the year 1786; and, 

 being prepared for a special purpose, does not contain any record of 

 auroral appearances until that year. But the Academy possesses the 

 original manuscript Journal of Meteorology kept at Cambridge by 

 Professor John Winthrop, from 1742 to 1779 ; and also that of Pro- 

 fessor Edward Wigglesworth, also kept at Cambridge, from 1782 to 

 1793 ; and that of Dr. Enoch Hale, kept in Boston, from 1818 to 

 1848. In all these Journals, except the last, the auroras are noted 

 with great care ; and they altogether cover more than a century, in 

 which only two years are wanting, namely, 1780 and 1781. From this 

 storehouse I have been able to collect 501 recorded examples of 

 auroras, of which only 92 are duplicates ; these being subtracted, there 

 remain 409 independent auroras, of which 400 have never before ap- 

 peared in print. Professor Winthrop has recorded 116 exhibitions of 

 the aurora. Professor "Wigglesworth 123, and Dr. Holyoke 262. As 

 these observations have been made at two places only a dozen miles 

 apart, they are strictly comparable with each other, and furnish an 

 almost uninterrupted record of the aurora for one hundred years in 

 this immediate vicinity. The result of my discussion of these obser- 

 vations is, that during the thirty-three years from 1793 to 1827 there 

 are only 17 recorded examples of the aurora. For the thirty-three 

 years preceding 1793 there are 336 ; and in several instances, a single 

 year of the latter epoch fui-nishes more cases than the whole of the 

 former epoch; and in one year (1789) there are more than twice as 

 many exhibitions of the aurora as in the whole thirty-three years next 

 preceding 1827." 



Dr. B. A. Gould laid before the Academy a circular from 

 the Berlin Academy of Sciences, proposing the establishment 

 of a foundation in memory of Humboldt, for the promotion 

 of scientific travels, &c. 



Professor Peirce made a communication upon the Zodiacal 

 Light. 



