APPENDIX. 617 



gloomy and misty atmosphere. There was more or 

 less aurora at 7 h p.m., and 10 h , but at midnight it exhi- 

 bited one of the most brilliant appearances I ever re- 

 member to have witnessed, displaying at the same time 

 a remarkably deep /a^T-coloured tinge, that became gra- 

 duated into orange and faint yellow, which seemed to 

 vanish into pale white. 



To give any thing like a correct idea of phenomena 

 perpetually altering their form, and presenting several 

 striking appearances at the same instant of time, must 

 be difficult, though perhaps it may be requisite to state 

 that there were two connecting points at E. and W.b.S., 

 from and to which the great current flowed in various 

 shaped arches, fringed and irregular, or composed 

 of rays, or beams, or streaming in a quick and regular 

 flow, or moving in spirals, or, lastly, thrown into col- 

 lateral parts, which of a sudden would dart at a tangent 

 towards the northern or southern horizon, become dis- 

 persed into separate, and to the eye unconnected parts, 

 and then with the speed of thought concentrate once 

 more at W. and E. 



The needle I found moving with a velocity which must 

 have taken it against the sides of the instrument, had 

 not a counter-influence in the rapid and eccentric tracks 

 of the aurora prevented it. It went from 0° 30 / E. to 

 1° 00' E., to 0° 40' E., 1° 00' W., 0° 00' to 0° 40' W. ; 

 bright at W. 0° 5' W. ; motion at W., 0° 20' E. ; 

 moving N. from W., 0° 00' ; motion across the zenith 

 from W. to E., 0° 30' W., 0° 00' ; bright bands from 

 W. to E., 0° 40' E., 0° 15' W.; motion westerly, 

 0° 20' E., 0° 30' W., 0° 3(y E. 0° 10' W. : motion W. 

 to E., 0° 20' E., 0° 5' E., dead stojj, 0° 55' E., 0° 10' E., 

 0° 30' E., 0° 8' W.: motion N.W.N, to E. 0° 38' E., 

 0° 5' W., 0° 30' E., 0° 0', 0° 35' E., a waving arch 

 over zenith. Spiral beams from E.'to W., and laterally 



