IDS THE WORLD, 



two following descriptions are from the pen of Professor OlrnsteeL 

 The first display took place on the 17th of November 1835, the 

 last on the 23d of April 1836. 



* On the 17th of November, 1835, our northern hemisphere 

 was adorned with a display of auroral lights remarkably grand 

 and diversified. It was observed at fifteen minutes before seven 

 o'clock, when an illumination of the whole northern sky, resem- 

 bling the break of day, was discernable through the openings in 

 the clouds. About eighteen degrees east of north, was a broad 

 column of shining vapor tinged with crimson, which appeared 

 and disappeared at intervals.. A westerly wind moved off the 

 clouds, rendering the sky nearly clear by eight o'clock, when two 

 broad, white columns, which had for some time been gathering 

 between the stars Aquila and Lyra on the west, and the Pleiades 

 and Aries on the east, united above, so as to complete a lumin- 

 ous arch, spanning the heavens a little south of the prime vertical. 

 The whole northern hemisphere, being more or less illuminated, 

 and separated from the southern by this zone, was thrown into 

 striking contrast with* the latter, which appeared of a dark slate 

 color, as though the stars were shining through a stratum of black 

 clouds. The zone moved slowly to the south until about nine 

 o'clock, "when it had reached the bright star in the Eagle in the 

 west, and extended a little south of the constellation Aries in the 

 east. From this time it began to recede northward, at nearly a 

 uniform rate, until twenty minutes before eleven, when a vast 

 number of columns, white and crimson, began to shoot up, sim- 

 ultaneously, from all parts of the northern hemisphere, directing 

 their course towards a point a few degrees south and east of the 

 zenith, around which they arranged themselves as around a com- 

 mon focus. The position of this point was between the Pleiades 

 and Alpha Arietis, and south of the Bee. 



Soon after eleven o'clock, commenced a striking display of 

 those undulatory flashes denominated merry dancers. They con- 

 sisted of thin waves or sheets of light, coursing each other with; 

 immense speed. Those undulations which play upon the sui> 

 face of a field of rye, when gently agitated by the wind, may give 

 the reader a faint idea of these auroral waves. One of these 



