seen in Roxburghshire on the 5th of October 1830. 253 



north horizon ; and continued visible from twenty to thirty 

 minutes. 



This evening, (October 5,) I was called to observe an ap- 

 pearance that seemed at first to be nearly similar, though it 

 was more bright and better defined. When first seen it passed 

 exactly overhead, and in a direction perhaps nearly the same 

 as the former ; it was very bright, and white on the N. edge, 

 and better defined than on the S., on which side it in some 

 parts shaded off into the sky. On the west end it sunk bright 

 below the horizon, but on the east, where it approached the 

 moon, it ended like the former in a tail or brush-shaped point, 

 before it reached the horizon, — perhaps about 20° above it. 



Having no instrument to measure the breadth, I compared 

 it with the distances of some stars, and found it equal to the 

 longest diagonal of the square of the Great Bear, — wider in 

 the E. and narrower in the W. After looking at it occasion- 

 ally for about twenty minutes, I began to be aware that the 

 arch was making a progress towards the south, and had already 

 gone over a space equal to its own breadth. I remarked like- 

 wise, that its extremities were comparatively stationary ; or that 

 it revolved on its horizontal diameter, and at thirty minutes after 

 eight, the arch through which it moved was, as near as I could 

 judge by the eye, equal to three times its breadth. I now re- 

 gretted still more the want of an instrument to measure angles ; 

 for, while lying upon my back to observe the curvature, I no- 

 ticed that the bearing of the extremities was not due E. and 

 W. ; but that a line from the Pole star formed an acute anjde 

 with the eastern half, and I began to suspect that the centre 

 of the arch might be the magnetic pole. At this time the 

 brightness began to fade, and a longitudinal fissure appeared 

 in the E. quarter. At nine o^lock, the whole arch had become 

 broader and considerably less bright ; and in a short time af- 

 ter it very suddenly broke up into fragments, which I soon 

 observed had a motion, following one another in the line of the 

 arch from E. to VV. My attention was now strongly directed 

 to this movement, which I never before noticed in any of these 

 arcln- . 



The appearance which this now assumed was very interesting. 

 Whether il was owing to the moon being in -thai part of the bea- 



