214 THE AURORA BOREALIS. 



my cabin ; and, as she listens to the scratching of my 

 pen, she looks very much as if she would like to know 

 what it is all about. I am trying hard to civilize her, 

 and have had some success. She was very shy when 

 brought in, but, being left to herself for a while, she 

 has become somewhat reconciled to her new abode. 

 She is about three fourths grown, weighs four and a 

 quarter pounds, has a coat of long fine fur, resembling 

 in color that of a Maltese cat, and is being instructed 

 to answer to the name of Birdie. 



January 6th. 



I have often been struck with the singular circum- 

 stance that up to this time we have scarcely seen the 

 Aurora Borealis ; and until to-day there has been no 

 display of any great brilliancy. We have been twice 

 favored during the past twelve hours. The first was 

 at eleven o'clock in the morning, and the second at 

 nine o'clock in the evening. The arch was perfect in 

 the last case ; in the former it was less continuous, 

 but more intense. In both instances, the direction of 

 the centre from the observatory was west by south 

 (true), and was 30° above the horizon. Twenty de- 

 grees above the arch in the evening there was another 

 imperfect one, a phenomenon which 1 have not before 

 witnessed. In the direction west-northwest a single 

 ray shot down to the horizon, and there continued for 

 almost an hour. 



The infrequency of the Auroral light has been more 

 marked here than at Yan Rensselaer Harbor. We 

 seem to have passed almost beyond it. The region 

 of its greatest brilliancy appears to be from ten to 

 twenty degrees further south. As at Van Rensselaer 

 Harbor, its exhibition is almost invariably on the 

 western sky ; and Jensen tells me that this occurs 



