■eedings of the Ashmolean Society. 387 



The following is the substance of his description : — 

 Soon after eight o'clock, being then about a mile and a half from 

 Oxford, directly north of the city, his attention was arrested by a 

 faint pale ray of light which suddenly shot up from behind a bank 

 of clouds, towards the zenith. This bank of clouds was then resting 

 on the horizon, extending eastward and westward as far as he could 

 see, and rising to about 30 or 35 degrees upwards, occupying the 

 whole of the northern portion of the heavens to this height. A pale 

 silvery light brightened the upper edges, as if the moon were on the 

 point of rising from behind it. The ray of light which had attracted 

 his attention faded away after a few seconds, but was almost imme- 

 diately succeeded by another, which was much more brilliant, and 

 continued gradually, but steadily to increase, until it reached nearly 

 to the zenith ; and at the same time shorter rays shot up, both to 

 the east and west of it, along, and as it were from behind, the edge of 

 the cloud : very shortly, however, they became less and less distinct, 

 and soon were no longer visible. By this time the edge of the cloud 

 was becoming highly luminous, and a light silvery vapour appeared 

 to be gathering along the line which it formed from east to west. 

 A rapid succession of rays of light followed after an interval of a 

 few minutes. He observed that they began to shoot up, first, in the 

 east, and that, after vanishing there, appeared in nearly the same 

 form in the west. None of these rays were as yet of any great 

 length. Soon afterwards luminous patches appeared on the cloud, 

 which shifted with great rapidity along the edge, and melting into 

 one another, lighted up the whole mass, particularly at the edge. 

 From some of these luminous patches, rays broke forth, and gave 

 them very much the appearance of a shell when bursting. These 

 lasted but a few seconds, and then a pause occurred. He was then 

 attracted by a very rapid shooting upwards of more brilliant rays 

 than he had as yet observed, and also by the number of smaller rays 

 which appeared parallel with the longer rays. And one peculiarity 

 especially excited his attention. The longer rays were succeeded by 

 a number which at first were much shorter, and as the whole series 

 passed rapidly from east to west, preserving their parallelism, the 

 lower rays lengthened, and the higher sank down, alternately, shift- 

 ing in this manner with a rapidity which almost baffled the eye. After 

 this singularly beautiful appearance had ceased, there was nothing 

 remarkable in the quarter of the heavens which had been the scene of 

 these various phenomena, except a faint silvery light, which was 

 diffused generally over the whole of the bank of clouds, which still 

 remained in the situation it occupied at first. Soon, however, much 

 longer rays than any which had been hitherto observed, darted 

 silently and rapidly upwards, shooting far into the clear arch of the 

 heavens, and continuing much longer in full brilliancy, and without 

 shifting, than those which had preceded them. These gradually 

 shortened, and faded away in the place where they had first made 

 their appearance. After waiting some time, without seeing any 

 indications of further phenomena, he turned towards Oxford, 

 believing that the Aurora had ceased. Not more than five or six 

 minutes, however, had elapsed, when it appeared as if a strong lijjht 



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