168 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
and luminous are of the most beautiful roseate or carmine, 
extending almost to the altitude of the Polar star, and 
ultimately much above it. Through this reddened portion 
of the sky, evanescent rays of white light were continually 
shooting upwards. At nine o’clock the brilliancy of the 
phenomenon had passed away, and at ten, when I last saw 
it, the northern part of the heavens was more faintly 
illuminated. 
The night was calm and fair, with a light air from the 
south-east, and a young moon, which set between eight and 
nine. 
This is the second time that I have observed the Aurora 
Borealis in the Bermudas, during a residence of nearly 
eleven years. On the former occasion it appeared on the 
17th of November, 1848. Familiar as I have been with 
this phenomenon in the latitude of 46° of the North 
American colonies, I never before observed the heavens 
radiant with the beautiful deep rose colour which prevailed 
on both these occasions. 
November 2nd, 1851. Ina London newspaper of the 
Ath of October, 1851*, which arrived by this day’s mail, it 
is stated, that at twelve p.m., on the evening of the 29th of 
September last, the Aurora Borealis was very vivid in Lon- 
don, and that its brilliancy at one time was supposed to 
arise from some tremendous conflagration in that metro- 
polis. 
Allowing for difference of longitude, the appearance of the 
Aurora in the Bermudas and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, was 
simultaneous with that recorded in London, and the fact of 
its being visible at the same moment from parts of the 


* Vide Bell’s Weekly Messenger. 
