RECORD OF AURORAL PHENOMENA. 23 



vast steady stream of light; but more commonly they kept dancing and running about with 

 amazing velocity, and a tremulous motion, exhibiting, as they advanced, some of the most 

 beautiful curvated appearances. On gaining one point of the hemisphere, they generally col- 

 lected as if to muster their forces, and then began again to branch out into numerous ranks, which 

 struck off to the greatest distances from each other as they passed the zenith, yet so as always 

 to preserve the whole of the phenomenon in an oval shape; when they contracted nearly in the 

 same way as they expanded; and, after uniting in a common point, they either returned in the 

 course of a few minutes, or were lost in a stream of light, which grew fainter and fainter, the 

 nearer it approached the opposite side of the heavens. 



They were mostly of a dunnish yellow, yet often assuming mixtures of red and green. When they 

 are particularly quick and vivid, a crackling noise is heard, resembling that which accompanies 

 the escape of the sparks from an electric machine. 



They almost always took their rise from the summit of Mount Esian, which is about due northeast 

 from Reykiavik, and proceeded in a southwest direction. When visible the whole length of the 

 hemisphere, they were uniformly strongest towards the north and northeast, and were always sure 

 to be seen in that quarter, when they appeared nowhere else. Once or twice I observed them in 

 the south, but they were very faint and stationary." — Henderson, p. 277. 



N. B. — 1. Aurora always took its rise in N. E. 



2. And proceeded in S. W. direction. 



3. Always to be seen in N. or N. E. when they appeared nowhere else. 



4. Once or twice observed it in S., but they were very faint and stationary. 



Iceland. — 1820-21. Teienemann. 



"Dr. L. Thienemann, who spent the winters of 1820 and 1821 in Iceland, made numerous obser- 

 vations on the Polar Lights. He states the following as some of the general results of his 

 observations: — 



1. The Polar Lights are situated iu the lightest and highest clouds of our atmosphere. 



2. They are not confined to the winter season or to the night, but are present, in favorable cir- 

 cumstances, at all times, but are distinctly visible only during the absence of the solar rays. 



3. The Polar Lights have no determinate connection with the earth. 



4. He never heard any noise proceed from them. 



5. Their common form, in Iceland, is the arched, and in a direction from N. E. to W. S. W. 



6. Their motions are various, but always within the limits of the clouds contaiuing them." — Am. 

 Jouru. Sci., X, 187. 



North End of Hunter's Portage.— Lat. 64° 6' 47" N. Long. 113° 23' 9" W. August 14, 

 1820. Franklin. 



"At eight p. m., a, faint Aurora Borealis appeared to the southward. The night w r as cold, the wind 

 strong from N. W." — 1 Franklin, 219. 



N. B. — 1. Faint Aurora to the southward. 



2. The night cold. 



3. Wind from northwest. 



Near Fort Enterprise.— Lat. 64° 15' 17" N. Long. 113° 2' 39" W. Aug. 18, 1820. Franklin. 



"At ten p. m., the Aurora Borealis appeared very brilliant in an arch across the zenith, from north- 

 west to southeast, which afterwards gave place to a beautiful corona borealis.'''' — 1 Franklin, 221. 



N. B. — 1. At ten p. m., Aurora very brilliant in an arch across the zenith, from N. W. to S. E. 

 2. Gave place to a beautiful corona borealis. 



