1814.] On a Luminous Arch seen in the Sky. 365 



shire. It had occasionally a slow and small undulating motion 

 perpendicularly. Such irregularities as these in the motion of the 

 arch are not at variance v ith those which are known to take place 

 in that of every current jf air whose breadth is considerably less 

 than the length of the arch in question. 



At 8 h 20' the arch disappeared at the eastern end, and there its 

 matter was diffused through the atmosphere ; at 8 h 25' it disap- 

 peared at the western end of the view, under similar circumstances; 

 and its disappearance continued gradually in both directions toward 

 its middle ; but from the eastern part of the arch it proceeded so 

 much faster than from the western part, that the arch became ex- 

 tinct at a point which was situated from the latter place a distance 

 only equal to one third of the whole distance of the visible part. 

 After the arch's disappearance there remained throughout the whole 

 of its original length a comparatively subtile light, or luminous 

 matter, of a greyish-white colour, that had the glow of the faintly- 

 coloured electrical fluid. Through this luminous body nearly all 

 the stars could be seen that were visible before it was interposed 

 between them and the observer. This light was not diffused 

 through the atmosphere in every direction, but was arranged in the 

 shape of a stratum, whose under surface was nearly parallel to the 

 curvature of the earth. The luminous body in this state, and when 

 it composed the arch, did not possess the corruscant appearance of 

 the Aurora Borealis. 



After the arch disappeared, several large clouds of faintly 

 luminous bodies, each nearly similar to that just described in its 

 attenuated state, occasionally passed over us to the south. Some 

 of these clouds were so low, that at Lancaster they appeared only a 

 small distance above the houses' tops. The Aurora Borealis also 

 was active from eight o'clock in the evening till three in the 

 morning, in the northern part of the hemisphere. 



A luminous arch, which was nearly similar to that just described, 

 was observed at Kendal and Dublin on the 17th of last April. 

 Many persons in this county have seen arches several years since, 

 which strongly resembled the arch so lately seen. 



As the arch disappeared because its matter assumed much larger 

 and more irregular dimensions, and not that it had got beyond the 

 distance of vision, I had considered its existence, as an arch, at an 

 end ; and therefore I was much surprised on hearing that a similar 

 arch was s.en at Liverpool between eight and nine ; at Beardsall, 

 in Derbyshire, about nine; and at Warrington, at ten minutes 

 before ten o'clock ; on the same Sunday night. Now as from all 

 accounts this roust have been the same arch, or at least an arch 

 composed of the same matter as that which I saw ; either the 

 luminous matter which was diffused through the atmosphere on the 

 arch's disappearance was only a small part of the arch, which had 

 been detached from it by some cause, and which Kept the arch then 

 immediately behind it from my view ; or all the arch's matter had 

 been dispersed by IOOK temporal y-af r, and when thii 



