NOVEMBER, 1882. 247 



were the streamers of the most brilliant character, 

 but the auroral bow was quite complete, and bounded 

 the lights that streamed upwards from the north. This 

 was the first really satisfactory auroral bow we remember 

 to have seen in this latitude, and although the light was 

 of the pure silvery character peculiar to our " Northern 

 Lights," without any of the colour we see figured in 

 Arctic displays, the general effect was similar. As we 

 rose betimes on Monday morning to find the tail of the 

 comet streaming in a brilliant curve over the southern 

 sky, it distracted our attention from the north and 

 monopolised our eyes for a time. It was now almost 

 exactly twelve hours since we had gazed on the Aurora, 

 and when we again turned from the comet to the 

 opposite point of the compass, what was our delight to 

 find the streamers now reaching almost to the zenith, 

 and where the lights crossed the arc of the Aurora, the 

 fine delicate blues and reds were most distinctly visible. 

 Only the blue and red of the lunar rainbow, however, 

 was anywhere displayed, and we could not satisfy our- 

 selves that there was any regularity or certainty in their 

 distribution. The most notable fact in these displays 

 was that the auroral arc was pure in colour when un- 

 crossed by the lights streaming from the horizon ; but 

 when these streamed through the arc the result of the 

 cross lights was the production of the red and blue bands 

 we have referred to. As may be imagined, it is not 

 often that our sober skies are at one and the same time 

 lighted up at opposite quarters by such a brilliant pair of 

 strugglers for popular admiration, and the lines of Blanco 

 White appeared exceptionally applicable to the night in 

 question : 



