102 AURORA. 



was no chance for mere surface drainage, and there must either 

 have been some secret spring or sort of artesian well pressure, 

 forcing the water thus to appear on the very top of a rocky crest. 

 The rock around seemed to be a coarse granite, with occasionally 

 a place where several feet had been apparently scraped off and 

 ground to a fine powder of sand and small pieces of rock, of 

 feldspar principally, scattered all along over the surface of the 

 underlying rock. Occasionally, veins of feldspar or quartz appear ; 

 the latter mineral is rarely found in a pure state on this coast. All 

 the exposed rock appeared thus more or less scraped about here, 

 while occasionally the patch extended down the slope of the hill 

 one-third or even one-half the way to the bottom. There are 

 also many small rounded cones or knolls, whose top is one mass of 

 rough sand, with the rock only a few inches beneath. Another cu- 

 rious fact is that the beaches of most of the ponds have a portion at 

 least of their extent of this same material, the rocks in place lying 

 a little way from the edge only ; the rest of the beach is often of 

 a fine pulverized quartz and feldspar sand, totally different from 

 material of the neighboring rocks. Fine beds of clear, nearly straw 

 colored sand are not uncommon. 



Wednesday, the 3d. We were fortunate in observing a most 

 beautiful aurora this evening. The barometer indicated 29.00, and 

 the thermometer 30° Fahrenheit. The sky was perfectly free from 

 clouds, and the air crisp. It first appeareti' in the east, then in the 

 north. The primary appearance was, as is frequent in such cases, 

 a semicircular band of Hght. In this case small pencils of light 

 floated about in the air. Very soon a thick, heavy band of several 

 longitudinal scroll-like narrower bands appeared ; the whole, resem- 

 bling very much a long ribbon, extended itself across the horizon 

 from these points, and apparently very low down in the atmosphere. 

 The whole band was in rapid undulating motion from the north 

 towards the east, and resembled the progressive onward motion of 

 a huge serpent. The appearance was quite striking and very 

 pretty. The band was extraordinarily dense, and very bright. At 

 first its edges were very clean cut and well-defined ; gradually 



