] 



INSTITUTE NOTKS. 



The Institute is fortunate in this number of the Proceed- 

 ings in being able to publish another article on Fresh Water 

 Jelly Fish, by Mr. Edward Potts. In Volume II, Number 2 

 of the Proceedings a previous article by the same writer 

 appeared, and the two together make a most valuable contri- 

 bution to the literature of the subject. The paper in the pre- 

 sent number is devoted especially to observations of the life 

 history of the organisms made during the year 1907. The 

 results of Mr. Potts' work during this past 3'^ear are of great 

 importance, and despite the technical character of the subject 

 will be read with interest by all. Most of the drawings are 

 original and are now published for the first time. 



On the evenings of March 26th and 27th there were visible 

 in this locality displays of aurora borealis, of which note 

 should be made. These lights appeared for about the same 

 length of time, say fifteen minutes, and at about the same 

 time in the early evening of the days in question. The dis- 

 plays exhibited practically the same phenomena : — vertical 

 or slightly radiating shafts or rays of light, constantly chang- 

 ing, and with more or less rapid motion from east to west ; 

 color of the light white ; brightest centre of illumination to 

 the west of the rays, which latter seemed to originate to the 

 eastward and moved westward until lost in the uniform 

 stronger centre of light. A peculiarity in both instances was 

 the presence of low-lying dark clouds to the north, from behind 

 which the rays of light could be seen to dart upward. The 

 two days in question were typical of auroral conditions, the 

 sky during the day being hazy and more or less streaked with 

 cirrus clouds. A relation between cirrus clouds and the 

 aurora seems to be well recognized, although what its nature 

 may be is not known. That the black clouds referred to 

 above had any relation other than accidental to the displays, 

 however, seems doubtful. 



