()12 APPENDIX. 



moving," " Look S.W." &c, and as frequently have I 

 had an answer, " There is nothing but a faint beam 

 S. W., E.," &c. ; which, in point of fact, was probably the 

 very cause of the excitement of the needle. I should 

 not have stated this daily occurrence,, except for the 

 purpose of showing the nice delicacy of the instrument, 

 and the difficulty the outside observer will always have 

 in detecting the first motion of the aurora. 



November 7th. — The needle had been vibrating all 

 day until 7 h p.m., when it became steady at 9 h 45 m : how- 

 ever, the whole sky was more or less covered with aurora, 

 in the form of beams, spiral and fringed bands, rays, and 

 brilliant masses, which latter flitted to the opposite ex- 

 tremes of W. S.W. and E. b. N. alternately, and not un- 

 frequently made tangential movements from near the 

 zenith to N. and S. ; a few streaky but extremely atten- 

 uated narrow clouds were in a position across the zenith, 

 and a black mass was slowly rising from the westward. 

 On visiting the needle, I found it in rapid motion from 

 2° 00' W. to 3° 40' W., to 4° 10' W., to 4° OCT W., 

 a beam shot up from S.W. : 2° 30' W., flitting motion 

 E. and W. : a mass rose from the western horizon to 70° 

 altitude, 1° 50' W. : a bright mass westward, 2° 40' 

 W., which afterwards formed a fringed band from N. to 

 W. : arch from S. to zenith, 1° 50' W. : to 2° 30' W., 

 beams from a luminous mass W. to zenith: 1° 40' W., a 

 bright beam S. : faint motion N. to W. : 2° 40' W., 

 1° 3& W., 2° 40' W., aurora faint, slight motion S.W. : 

 1° 50' W. : mass W., 2° 30' W., 1° 50' W., 2° 10' W., 

 1° 35' W., beam north: 2° 00' W., 1° 32' W., no 

 aurora westerly: 1° 30' W., 2° 10' W., a beam N. : 

 1° 40' W., 2° 00' W., 2° 40' W., a band E. to N. : 

 2° 00' W., to 2° 50' W., 3° 05' W., 2° 40' W., 3° 05' 

 W., an irregular fringed band from 10° to 20° altitude, 



