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Observations upon Auroral and Optical Phenomena. 229 
Halos in January, 1835. 
Many years ago, on one excessively cold morning, there were 
seen, upon the plain of West Point, by persons looking towards the 
sun, upright columns of great splendor, and of prismatic hues, far 
exceeding in brilliancy any rainbow which had ever been witnessed 
by the individual who described this to me. Of this phenomenon I 
cannot give a more particular description ; but it was, I presume, iden- 
tical with the one which I am about to describe. 
The morning of Jan. 5th, 1835, was excessively cold,—the ther- 
mometer having been before sunrise down to 16° below zero at West 
Point, where I then was. At a quarter before nine, A. M. I observ- 
ed the air to be full of bright spicule, settling down upon objects like 
the hoar frost. Being instantly reminded of the foregoing spectacle, 
which had been formerly described to me, I went out of doors in 
search of something similar. The air was very calm and still— 
moving I should think a little from the north or northwest. Look- 
ing towards the sun, I saw at once on each side of him, for perhaps 
30°, the arc of a halo, of which he was the center.. The arcs 
might easily have been taken for upright columns. They were pris- 
matic; the violet being exterior, and the red being interior or tow- 
ards the sun. They were nearly vertical; the brightest parts being 
opposite the sun on each side, horizontally. I measured roughly the 
diameter of the halo, and found (taking the average of the colors) 
that it was just 45°. There was, in addition, a bright column, of the 
breadth of the sun, and not prismatic, which passed perpendicularly 
down from that luminary to the horizon,—or rather to the surface of 
the river, which was two hundred feet below me, and one quarter of 
a mile distant. This column was of the hue of sunlight, or twilight, 
but rather faint, as were also all the phenomena. ‘There was at the 
time a smokiness in the air, like that of ‘Indian summer,” which I 
took at first to be the effect of the floating spicule ; but it continued 
visible just as plainly after they were gone. Indeed it continued 
all the day. At twenty five minutes past nine, I re-measured the 
halo with much care, although by rough means, and found its diame- 
ter as before, just 45°. This result was certainly very near the 
‘truth. Some time after this, its halo disappeared, although the spic- 
ule remained in the air. The column of light which passed up to 
the sun was not visible far, if at all, above it; but the Juminous arches 
extended, I should say from recollection, as much above their bright- 
est point as beneath. 
