AURORA BOREALIS. 309 



let it not be imagined, nevertheless, that these 

 splendid spectacles were disregarded ; my journal 

 voluminously records their appearance, but I shall 

 here only introduce one extract as a type of the 

 rest : — 



" On the 9th of December, at about seven, with 

 a cloudless sky, Aurora appeared, — first forming in 

 an arch from N.N.E. to N.N.W., — but later, about 

 nine, dispersed into broken vertical rays, coruscating 

 towards the zenith. Eleven p.m. I have just come in 

 from viewing the Aurora, which noAv presents a 

 gorgeous spectacle ; it has shifted from its first 

 positions, and now covers the southern half of the 

 heavens. 



"Orion bears about S.S.W., and on each side of that 

 constellation to about forty-five degrees, rays are con- 

 verging nearly to the zenith; they are perfectly regular 

 in form and distance, and remind me of the lines of 

 longitude upon a globe, like which also they are cut 

 just below the zenith. Around and about them are 

 wreaths and scrolls, lines and curves, masses and 

 skirmishers of the luminous fluid, never still for an 

 instant, but waving, rolling, advancing and retiring, 

 folding and unfolding, fast and changeful as thought 

 can fly ; never twice the same, but like the fickle 

 kaleidoscope, ever presenting some new appearance, 



