ENGLER AURORAL PHENOMENA, SEPT. 12, iSSl. 39I 



Auro?'al Phcnojuena on the evening of Sept. 12, 1881. 



By E. A. Englek. 



Wiisliingtou I'nivcrsity, St. Louis 



As an addition to data from which a more complete knowledge 

 of certain celestial phenomena now unexplained ma^,- in future 

 be derived, it may not be out of place to record a description of 

 a peculiar and interesting phenomenon seen by the writer and 

 others at sea off the coast of Newfoundland. 



On September 12th, 1S81, -after a nine days' voyage on the 

 Atlantic from London towards Halifax, N. S., Cape Race was 

 sighted about noon. Our course after noon was about south- 

 west ; at eight o'clock in the evening (ship's time) our position 

 — estimated roughly by the course and speed of the ship — was 

 Lat. 46° N., Long. 55° W. The sky was partly clear in the north 

 and west and overhead, but hazy and in places cloudy in the 

 south and east. The aurora was clearly to be seen in the north- 

 ern sky, sometimes shooting up streamers of light nearly to the 

 zenith, and varying continually in form and brightness ; this dis- 

 play, however, was no more brilliant or interesting than many 

 similar ones seen on other nights, and deserves mention only to 

 be distinguished from the following. But in the southeast sky, 

 about 30 or 35 degs. above the horizon, there appeared two hori. 

 zontal streaks of light — about 5 degs. apart and 15 or 20 degs. in 

 length — which at the time I took to be two clouds highly charged 

 with electricity. The accompanying sketch (Fig. i) will be of 

 service in describing the appearance, but must not be taken as 

 accurate in any detail, being made after some months and from 

 memory ; moreover, the entire phenomenon was continually 

 changing. Both streaks were luminous, with a pale hazy light 

 very similar to moonlight. From the upper of the two were sus- 

 pended by small cords of light a number of balls, brighter than 

 either of the streaks, which were continually jumping up and 

 down in vertical lines, much after the manner of pith-balls when 

 charged with electricity. Above the upper streak there was a 

 bright space, whose sides were convergent at about the angle 

 shown in the sketch, which seemed to be composed of streamers 

 of light, gauzy in appearance and decreasing in brightness from 



