70 RECORD OF AURORAL PHENOMENA. 



From the time that the daylight began to leave the heavens in the afternoon, the Aurora again 

 appeared, commencing in the S. E. by E. with very long coruscations or streamers, which after- 

 wards shot past the zenith over to the N. W. 



At nine o'clock, the light had become concentrated into a low arch, 4° high in the centre, well 

 defined at the lower edge, but not so at the upper. The legs were at first situated in the E. S. E. 

 and S. W. by W. quarters, but the former gradually shifted about two points more to the south. 



At one time in the evening, and before the phenomenon had assumed the more regular arch-like 

 form above mentioned, we observed for the space of a few minutes together the same radiated 

 appearance about the zenith as that described on the 14th. This changed pretty suddenly into 

 an irregularly circular band of light, like a ribbon, and then again returned to the radiated 

 form, but neither of these appearances continued very long. There was a great deal of lilac 

 tint observable this evening, and the effect of the sheets of light in obscuring the stars was again 

 too evident to admit a doubt. 



The frequency and ill success with which we had tried the electrometer made us almost despair of 

 ever detecting any electricity in the atmosphere, but on the evening of the 13th, the chain being 

 observed to tremble very much, we thought the motion might have been occasioned by this 

 cause. On applying the electrometer, however, the gold leaf was not in the slightest degree 

 affected. We afterwards found it to have arisen from the wind acting upon the plank at the 

 masthead in a certain angle, the same effect being once or twice afterwards produced with a 

 breeze in the same direction." — Ibid., pp. 145-146. 



January 14, 1822. 



"There was to-day a very thick deposit of snow almost constantly occurring, though the weather 

 might very well be called clear. The winter atmosphere of these regions is, indeed, seldom or 

 never free from it, as may readily be seen by placing an instrument in the open air for an hour 

 or two. That of to-day only differed from the usual deposit in the degree in which it took place. 

 At one p. m., a thermometer on the north side of the post, on the ice, stood at — 32°, and the 

 other, exposed to the sun's rays on the south side, only iudicated a temperature one degree 

 higher."— Ibid., p. 153. 



January 13, 1822. 



"The appearances of the Aurora Borealis during January were generally more distinguished for 



their frequency than their brilliancy or for any extraordinary forms which this phenomenon 



presented. 

 Towards midnight on the 13th, the weather being clear, it appeared in a very bright arch from 



S. to A". E., being 10° to 15° higher in the centre. It afterwards assumed a wavy or serpentine 



form, which constantly varied ; and smaller streams of light seemed to be continually meeting 



the larger from near the zenith. 

 From midnight till 2h. a. m. (on the 14th), it continued very bright, and generally extended from 



east, where it was most brilliant, to W. N. W." — Ibid., p. 155. 



January 15, 1822. 



"The following evening [the 15th], an arch of the Aurora assumed the most perfect bridge-like 

 form I ever saw. It extended from S. E. to N. W., on the southern side of the heavens; both its 

 edges being well defined, which is very rarely the case. 

 At 7h. a. m. on the following morning, it appeared again in a form still more novel, three complete 

 arches being now visible ; the middle one, which was the brightest, passing through the zenith, 

 and the others, which were in the centre, about 20° distant from it on each side, gradually closing 

 till they joined it at the east and west points of the horizon. 

 It was impossible not to be struck with the general resemblance in the form of this phenomenon 

 to that I have frequently mentioned as assumed by the clouds in the polar regions at particular 

 seasons. 1 This coincidence may possibly serve to throw some ligltt on the nature and peculiarities 

 of the Aurora. 



1 Account of the Voynge of 1819-20, pp. 141, 144, 164. 



