% RECORD OP AURORAL PHENOMENA. 



Lancaster Sound.— [Lat. 14° 30' N. Long. 90° W.] December 1, 1850. Rank. 



"We bad an Aurora about 7h. p. m. The thermometer at — 33°, and falling. Wind stead}', 

 W. N. W. The meteor resembled an illuminated cloud; illuminated, because seen against the 

 deep blue night sky ; otherwise it resembled the mackerel fleeces and mares' tails of our summer 

 skies at home. 



It began toward the northwestern horizon as an irregular flaring cloud, sometimes sweeping out 

 into wreaths of stratus ; sometimes a condensed opaline nebulosity, rising in a zone of clearly- 

 defined whiteness, from 3° to 5° in breadth up to the zenith, and then arching to the opposite 

 horizon. This zone resembled more a long line of white cirro-stratus than the Auroral light of 

 the systematic descriptions. There was no approach to coruscations, or even rectangular devia- 

 tions from the axis of the zone. "When it varied from a right line, its curvatures were waving 

 and irregular, such as might be produced by the wind, but having no relation to the observed 

 air-currents at the earth's surface. It passed from the due northwest, between the Pleiades 

 and the Corona Borealis; the star of greatest magnitude in the latter of these constellations 

 remaining in the centre, although its waving curves sometimes reached the Tleiades. At the 

 zenith, its mean distance" from the polar star was 7° south, and it passed down, increasing iu 

 intensity near Vega, in Lyra, to the southeast. 



There was throughout the arc no marked seat of greatest intensity. Around the corona of the 

 north, its light was more diffused. The zone appeared narrowed at the zenith, and bright and 

 clear, without marked intermission, to the southeast. The frost-smoke was in smoky banks to 

 the northwest; but the Aurora did not seem to be affected by it, and the compass remained con- 

 stant,"—! Kane, p. 245-46. 



Griffith Island.— Lat. 74° 30' N. Long. 95° 20' W. Winter of 1850-51. Osborne. 



"With one portion of the phenomena of the North Sea we were particularly disappointed — and 

 this was the Aurora. 



The colors, in all cases, were vastly inferior to those seen by us in far southern latitudes; a pale- 

 golden or straw color being the prevailing hue. The most striking part of it was its apparent 

 proximity to the earth. 



Once or twice the Auroral coruscations accompanied a moon in its last quarter, and generally 

 previous to bad weather. 



On one occasion, in Christmas week, the light played about the edge of a low vapor which hung 

 at a very small altitude over us ; it never, on this occasion, lit up the whole under surface of the 

 said clouds, but formed a series of concentric semicircles of light, with dark spaces between, 

 which waved, glistened, and vanished, like moonlight upon a heaving but unbroken sea. 



At other times, a stream of the same colored vapor would span the heavens through the zenith, 

 and from it would shoot sprays of pale-orange color for many hours; and then the mysterious 

 light would again as suddenly vanish." — Osborne, pp. 164-65. 



Griffith Island.— Lat. 74° 30' N. Long. 95° 20' W. December, 1850. Markham. 



"The Aurora Borealis began also to dart its ever-changing rays across the heavens. On the 1st of 

 December [1850], a very complete arch, passing through the zenith, divided the celestial con- 

 cave into two equal parts, of a whitish color tinged with red. The stars were seen through it 

 with great brilliancy, assuming, for the time, the same color as the Aurora. 

 On the 5th, also, some very bright coruscations were seen to dart their rays towards the zenith. 

 Whenever this phenomenon appeared unusually intense in any particular quarter, a strong breeze 

 generally succeeded from the same direction." — Markham, p. 70. 



At Sea.— Lat. 74° 31' N. Long. 111° 38' W. September 20, 1819. Parry. 



"The wind blew hard from the northward during the night, with a good deal of snow; and the 

 thermometer was at 10g° at midnight. 



The Aurora Borealis was seen faintly in the S. S. W. quarter of the heavens."—! Parry, 93. 



