90 Mr Coldstream on the Rarer Atmospherical Phenomena 



ble influence over the magnetic needle." In reply to this re- 

 mark, I may observe, that the notes in our Journal, of the 

 state of the sky on the night of the 21st and morning of the 

 22d, are not satisfactory ; that the night of the 26th was par- 

 ticularly clear, with bright moonshine ; and that much cloud 

 prevailed on the 29th, so that, had an aurora existed, we could 

 not have seen it. 



Between four and six o'clock p. m., of the 11th September, 

 Ave had a thunder storm. The nimbi came from S. S. E., and 

 were of a deep blueish grey colour. The lightning was pale, 

 but vivid. The discharges were accompanied by very violent 

 gusts of wind and heavy rain. Bar. 29.44, rising, temp. 57.5. 

 The rain ceased about seven o'clock. The night was calm and 

 serene. At 10 e. m., an Aurora Borealis was observed play- 

 ing with considerable brilliancy. The storm extended over the 

 greatest part of Scotland, but was felt most severely in Perth- 

 shire. 



For a week about this period, convergences of the solar rays 

 were seen every evening at sunset, in great beauty. The sky, 

 at the time, was generally filled with polarized cirri, and a few 

 elongated cumuli. 



27 th September. — After a day of the brightest sunshine, the 

 sky was overcast towards evening, by small cirrocumuli, ar- 

 ranged in parallel bars, whose direction was nearly N. and S. 

 These caused a general dulness till the sun got very near the 

 horizon, when suddenly, the rays shooting through a small 

 opening in the clouds, and illuminating their lower surfaces, 

 produced, over the whole western sky, quite up to the zenith, 

 the richest golden and crimson tints it is possible to imagine. 

 These, varying in intensity and depth every second, gradually 

 faded as the sun sunk below the horizon, but had not entirely 

 vanished 15 minutes after he had set. It is worthy of re- 

 mark, that, whenever the sun's disc disappeared, the mountains, 

 and, indeed, the whole surface of the earth, assumed a deep pur- 

 ple colour, which remained for a considerable time. This 

 splendid sunset was observed throughout all Scotland ; indeed 

 it is probable that it was seen in most parts of the island, as 

 we have learned from different accounts that it bore the same 

 characters in Caithness that it did in Cumberland. 



