Notice of an Aurora Borealis. 85 
Arr. I.—Notice of the Aurora Borealis,* of April 22. 
We had the good fortune to witness, on the night of the 22d, 
and morning of the 23d of April, a most magnificent display of 
northern lights. ‘This phenomenon is but rarely seen in our lati- 
tude, and more rarely still, appears to us in its highest splendor. 
As accurate a description, therefore, as may be given of its late 
remarkable appearance, with a statement of such facts, as may 
tend in any degree to elucidate the questions which it presents, 
cannot be unacceptable, and may prove useful. 1 begin by noting 
the state of the weather at the time ; although I am not aware that 
the Aurora either influences it, or is affected by it. The day was 
fair during the whole of the 22d. A high wind blew from the north- 
west until mid-day, when it became calm. At night fall, the wind 
again arose, and increased gradually so as to be moderately high by 
two o’clock the next morning. At dusk it had shifted to the west. 
The temperature was 39° at sun-rise of the 22d, and 53° at three 
o’clock, P. M. From ten o’clock that night until two the following 
morning, the thermometer stood at 38°; the barometer remained 
stationary at 30.00 throughout the evening and night. 
bout seven o’clock on the evening of the 22d, it was solid 
that a large part of the northern heavens was covered with a thin 
vapor-like appearance—white at the base—of a pale red at the upper 
edges, and of adeeper hue, red and yellow intermixed, about the 
middle. It spread through an are of sixty degrees near the hori- 
zon, and extended half way up to the zenith. Before nine o’clock 
it had disappeared, leaving nothing but a bank of white Auroral 
vapor, stretching along the north and north-east horizon. At fifteen 
minutes after ten, on looking towards the north, I perceived a few 
well-defined columns, shooting up a short distance, each of them 
appearing and vanishing momentarily ; yet so that toa careless ob- 
server, they might seem to remain permanently before the view. 
* To Proressor Si_umman, Yale College, New Haven. _ 
r Sir,—The following account of the Aurora Borealis of April 22d, as it 
insertion in your Journal. If you ‘hak it ssisiepalr interesting, you will poe 
me by givin gz it a place in YOR next n 
fally, your genase servant, — J. McCarrrey. 
Mt. ‘St. Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, May 18th, 1836. 
