62 RECORD OF AURORAL PHENOMENA. 



mass of clouds, but I still heard occasionally the sounds as before, now much subdued and less 

 frequent. The night continued calm, but became cloud}-. 



11th. Snowing and blowing hard all day. The sky clearing a little at night, a fine Aurora was 

 visible, and the wind increased to a strong gale, in which the squalls were very violent. 



12th. Still blowing hard all day from the same quarter, N. W., as yesterday ; the snow driving 

 fast and furious. The Aurora at night was very fine, the wind having gradually decreased from 

 sunset, and the iright became very calm and fine. We again heard the cracking sounds, and our 

 fisherman had a fine laugh at my sounding Aurora, saying that the noise is only that of the ice 

 cracking on Bear Lake; but this solution of the question was not at all to my taste, and I retired 

 to rest perfectly satisfied that it was caused by the Aurora, and not the ice. 



13th. Fine and cold, with little wind. All my enthusiastic ideas respecting the Aurora's sound 

 are dispelled, and I find that I have, to use a vulgar phrase 'found a mare's nest,' for those 

 noises which I before heard with so much rapture, as belonging to an exquisite and wondrous 

 phenomenon, were this morning repeated in broad daylight, and are, I now see, unmistakably 

 caused by the ice cracking. A moderate breeze in the evening from N. E. ; weather cloudy. 



17th. A moderate breeze from ST. W. ; cloudy and cold. The night set in pretty clear, but with 

 the wind strong and squally from N. W. Late in the night, a fine Aurora was visible to the 

 southward. 



18th. Very fine and clear weather; breeze moderate from W. N. W. Towards evening the sky 

 became cloudy, but in the night was clear, and displayed the 'merry dancers' to advantage; the 

 wind being then fresh from westward. 



19th. Colder by far than yesterday; very fine, and, in the morning, calm. About midday, a 

 moderate breeze sprung up from N. E., but the night was calm, fiue, and clear. 



Aurora was visible in, at first, thin bright streaks, and later in a long arch from E. S. E. to S. W. ; 

 and another, with less length and of greater altitude, from N. N. W. to N. E. The stars bril- 

 liant as gems. 



20th. The day was very fine and calm, but the cold penetrated through all covering; even our 

 fisherman was forced to return before his usual time. 



At night we saw a lovely Aurora. At one time it was like this , the point being to the east- 

 ward, and the flourish reaching half way down to the western horizon, breaking at the extremity 

 into perpendicular lines. The night calm and very fine. 



22d. Light mizzling snow during the day, with a light air from the westward. Last night we 

 observed a fair Aurora; masses of light rolling and tumbling over each other incessantly, and 

 apparently very low. The weather has completely changed since yesterday, being now cloudy 

 and very mild. A slight Aurora to the westward visible this evening. 



21th. Very fine, clear, and cold ; a fresh breeze from W. N. W. The night like that of yesterday ; 

 wind light from west. Our breath was distinctly audible out of doors, and our fisherman got 

 ^ frostbitten on the cheek on returning from the nets. Some time about midnight, a pretty but not 

 brilliant Aurora was visible, of a pale green hue. 



30th. Cloudy and mild; a light breeze from the N. W. Read prayers to the party. The evening 

 fine; a moderate breeze from the west. A bright Aurora visible, extending in an irregular 

 semicircle, of considerable altitude at the vertex, from east towards west. 



31st. Very fine and not very cold. A fresh breeze from W. N. W. in the morning; the remainder 

 of the day and the evening calm. 



A fine Aurora visible this evening, extending from the horizon at N. N. W. to E. by N., its alti- 

 tude in the centre about 15°, with vertical coruscations." — Ibid., pp. 1G2-G5. 



January, 1850. 



" 1st. The Aurora seen last evening changed its position as the moon ncared the horizon, progressing 

 before she appeared regularly and gradually towards south. 

 3d. The breeze continued all day, but with less violence than yesterday. The weather still cloudy 

 and mild. At night, before the moon rose, I observed an Aurora from N. E. by E. to N. by W., 

 over a heavy ' incubus,' at about 15° altitude. 



