264 Aurora Borealis of September 3, 1839. 
dip at Louisville Ky., to be 70° 8’, and on the 8th of Sept., he 
ascertained the dip at St. Louis to be 69° 32’.* 
5. Throughout England the Aurora of September 34, is des- 
cribed as most gorgeous. A confused and rhetorical account con- 
tained in a London paper of Sept. 4, (copied in N. Y. Journal of 
of Commerce, Oct. 12,) states that the Aurora “had a most alarm- 
ing appearance, and was exactly like that cc¢asioned by a terrific 
fire. The consternation in the metropolis was very great, thou- 
sands of persons were running in the direction of the supposed 
awful catastrophe. * * * At two o’clock in the morning 
(Ath) the phenomenon presented a most gorgeous scene, and one 
very difficult to describe. ‘The whole of London was illuminated 
as light as noonday, (!) and the atmosphere was remarkably clear. 
The southern hemisphere though unclouded was very dark, but 
the stars which were innumerable shone beautifully. The oppo- 
site side of the heavens presented a singular, but magnificent con- 
trast ; it was clear in the extreme, and the light was very vivid. 
There was a continual succession of meteors which varied in 
splendor. ‘They apparently formed in the centre of the heavens, 
and spread till they seemed to burst; the effect was electrical, 
myriads of small stars shot out over the horizon, and darted with 
that swiftness towards the earth that the eye could scarcely follow 
the track; they seemed to burst also, and throw a dark crimson va- 
por over the entire hemisphere. * * * Stars weve darting about ie 
all directions, and continued until 4 o’clock, when all died away.” 
From this description some have imagined that there was @C~ 
tually during this Aurora, a shower of shooting stars, similar to 
that seen on the 13th November, 1833. Although it is doubtless 
possible that such a meteoric shower may occur on the of Sep- 
tember, yet the statement above given, unsupported by other tes- 
timony, is altogether inadequate to establish the fact. This is 
evidently a loose and overcharged description, and it is enti- 
tled toa literal interpretation about as much as is an article pro- 
fessedly on the “ November Asteroids,” which was published jn a 
London paper in November, 1838, in which it is asserted t that 
“several stars of an ordinary ’size” were seen “shooting from 
hat eniginal spots, and falling apparently to the earth. x 
~ * The statement of the altitude of the corona as observed in in Brown Co., Il 
(p- 147 of this Journal,) is doubtless incorrect. The estimate was probabl dias 
by the eye; and in such circumstances an error of even 17° is not surprising. 
