THE AURORA BOREALIS. 359 



electrical phenomenon most frequently seen in high 

 latitudes " in the form of luminous clouds, arches and 

 rays, of which the latter sometimes meet at a point 

 near the zenith, and form what is called a Boreal 

 Crown." * 



The reader will doubtless remember the observations 

 we have already made upon the highly charged elec- 

 trical state of the atmosphere, alike in great heat and 

 great cold, and these wonderful "Northern Lights," as 

 they are often called, are but another exhibition of 

 its effects by no means however exclusive to these 

 high latitudes, for it is often finely seen in Canada, 

 and elsewhere, and even in our own country. On the 

 night of the 24th of September 1870 for instance, a 

 beautiful Boreal Crown was visible in the North of 

 Ireland, tjhe whole northern horizon being constantly 

 lit up by brilliant flashes of flickering light, something 

 similar in appearance to what we see nowadays on 

 the display of a powerful electric light by naval 

 vessels at sea. Almost every book of arctic voyages 

 contains descriptions of the magnificence of some of 

 these displays, and not a few of them contain plates, 

 giving illustrations of the peculiar effects which were 

 produced. The long and rigorous night of an arctic 

 winter therefore is not wholly destitute of some softening 

 and mitigating circumstances. Dreary and desolate as 

 it always must be in its main features, there are still 

 these glorious and singularly beautiful displays with 

 which the Divine Wisdom has tempered the darkness 

 of this great night, during which the shadow of the 

 earth rests upon the Polar Regions for a continuous 

 period of several months' duration. 



* Encyd. Brit., gth Edition, Vol. iii, p. 90. 



