OF THE AURORA BOREALIS. 33 



different from those obtained by nearly all others who have observed this phenome- 

 non at different ages and in different countries, that, if we admit these observations 

 to be accurate, we are compelled to believe that there exists at that place some 

 local peculiarity which brings down the aurora to a lower level than it is ever 

 known to reach in any other part of the world. Dal ton has assigned several 

 reasons for believing that the observations of the reverend gentleman were at fault. 1 



The statement of Captain Parry that when at Port Bowen (lat. 73° 13' N.), he 

 saw a ray from an auroral cloud dart down between him and the neighboring land, 

 has been considered by many as decisive of the low level of the aurora. His words 

 are as follows: "About midnight on the 27th of January, this phenomenon broke 

 out in a single compact mass of brilliant yellow light, situated about a southeast 

 bearing, and appearing only a short distance above the land. This mass of light, 

 notwithstanding its general continuity, sometimes appeared to be evidently composed 

 of numerous pencils of rays, compressed, as it were, laterally into one, its limits both 

 to the right and left being well defined and nearly vertical. The light, though 

 very brilliant at all times, varied almost constantly in intensity; and this had the 

 appearance (not uncommon in the aurora) of being produced by one volume of 

 light overlaying another, just as we see the darkness and density of smoke increased 

 by cloud rolling over cloud. While Lieuts. Sherrer and Ross and myself were 

 admiring the extreme beauty of this phenomenon from the observatory, we all 

 simultaneously uttered an exclamation of surprise at seeing a bright ray of the 

 aurora shoot suddenly downward from the general mass of light and between us and 

 the land, which was then distant only three thousand yards. Had I witnessed this 

 phenomenon by myself, I should have been disposed to receive with caution the 

 evidence even of my own senses, as to this last fact; but the appearance conveying 

 precisely the same idea to three individuals at once, all intently engaged in looking 

 towards the spot, I have no doubt that the ray of light actually passed within that 

 distance of us." 2 



On this statement I remark, first, that the surprise with which the phenomenon 

 was regarded, indicates that it was never seen by the same observers before, and 

 must therefore be an exceedingly uncommon occurrence, while spectators who live 

 on high mountains describe all the appearances of the aurora borealis as similar to 

 those seen at the level of the sea. Secondly, as the auroral cloud appeared only " a 

 short distance above the land," and it appears from other accounts that the land 

 was only about 700 feet high and was distant from the spectators nearly a mile 

 and three-quarters, the land was seen under an angle of only 4°, 3 and must have 

 afforded but a small base on which to project the auroral ray. The fact that it did 

 actually descend below the top of the hill would hardly be conclusive, unless it had 

 come quite down to the surface of the earth and remained in position long enough 

 for the eye to take a deliberate survey of it. Thirdly, the known difficulty of 

 locating a transient light seen in a dark night, the appearance of the spark of a 

 chimney being, as Dalton observes, scarcely distinguishable from a fixed star, 



1 Dalton's Ess., p. 231. 2 Parry's Third Voyage, p. 01. 3 Dalton's Essays, p. 239. 



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