132 THE OCEAN. 



whole sky has been flushed with intense crimson, 

 which, reflected from the snow beneath, had an 

 awful, though beautiful appearance. The follow- 

 ing details of one which I observed in Lower Ca- 

 nada, in February, 1837, will give a notion of the 

 appearance of this meteor in its more usual state. 

 "I first observed it about half-past eight o'clock: 

 a long, low, irregular arch of bright yellow light 

 extended from the north-east to the north-west, 

 the lower edge of which was well defined ; the sky 

 beneath this arch was clear, and appeared black, but 

 it was only by contrast with the light, for on ex- 

 amination, I could not find that it was really darker 

 than the other parts of the clear sky. The upper 

 edge of the arch was not defined, shooting oat rays 

 ' of light towards the zenith : one or two points in 

 the arch were very brilliant, which were varying in 

 their position. Over head, and towards the south, 

 east, and west, flashings of light were darting from 

 side to side : sometimes the sky was dark, then 

 instantly lighted up with these fitful flashes, vanish- 

 ing and changing as rapidly; sometimes a kind 

 of crown would form around a point south of the 

 zenith, consisting of short converging pencils. At 

 nine o'clock, the upper and southern sky was filled 

 with clouds or undefined patches of light, nearly 

 stationary; the eastern part, near the top, being 

 bright crimson, which speedily spread over the upper 

 part of the northern sky. A series of long converg- 

 ing pencils was now arranged around a blank space 

 about 15° south of the zenith, the northern and 

 eastern rays blood-red, the southern and western 



