AURORA BOREALIS. 133 



the aurora was very bright, and the flashes rapidly waving 

 through the sky, he had frequently thought that he heard 

 the merry dancers emit a faint rustling noise, like the 

 " moving of dead leaves," but this was only when the night 

 was quite calm, and there was no sound to disturb the 

 perfect stillness. The idea came from him quite uncalled-for 

 by any remark of mine, and was entirely the result of his 

 own actual observation. I was pleased to hear him say this, 

 as I had more than once imagined that the aurora, when 

 peculiarly bright, and rapid in its movements, DID actually 

 make exactly the sound that he described ; but never having 

 heard it asserted by any one else, I had always been rather 

 shy of advancing such a theory. 



The aurora is seldom seen, or at least seldom attentively 

 watched in this country, in situations where there is not 

 some sound or other, such as voices, running water, or the 

 rustling and moaning of trees, to break the perfect silence : 

 but it has occasionally happened to me to be gazing at this 

 beautiful illumination in places where no other sound could 

 be heard, and then, and then only, have I fancied that the 

 brightest flashes were accompanied by a light crackling or 

 rustling noise, or as my keeper expressed it very correctly, 

 " the moving of dead leaves." Whether this is so or not I 

 leave to others, more learned in the phenomena of the 

 heavens, to decide, and only mention the circumstance as the 

 passing remark of an unscientific observer. 



In the northern mountains of Sutherland, where the aurora 

 is frequently very bright and beautiful, there is a fascinating, 

 nay, an awful attraction in the sight, which has kept me for 

 hours from my bed, watching the waving and ever changing 

 flashes dancing to and fro. I have watched this strange 

 sight where the dead silence of the mountains was only 

 broken by the fancied rustling of the " dresses" of the " merry 

 dancers," or by the sudden scream or howl of some wild in- 

 habitant of the rocks; and I have done so until an undefin- 

 able feeling of superstitious awe has crept over my mind, 

 which was not without difficulty shaken off. 



The aurora, bright as it sometimes is in this country, must 

 be far more wildly and vividly splendid in the more northern 

 and Polar regions. Here it is almost invariably the fore- 

 runner of change of weather, or of rough winds and storm. 



One night this spring the appearance of the aurora was 

 very peculiar. All the flashes seemed to dart from a common 



