Anroias. 229 



Auroras were of frequent occurrence tliroug-hout the winter, except 



during- the montli of Januar3^ ]\Iore than once, on witnessing them, 



Hall finds the question arising in his mind — 



AMiy is it that the aurora is almost always seen in the southern heavens?* 

 Why do we not see the same north of us ? I have seen the aurora at AYager 

 Bay, at Noo-wook, at Depot Island, and from various places about Jiepulse Bay, 

 and almost uniformly the phenomena is seen southerly of the jtoiiit wherever I 

 happened to be. The same was true in my previous voyage (18()()-()2) — that the 

 aurora was seen south. In this conne(;tion I Avould state tluit from all I have 

 been able to learn in the many close observations I have made; during their dis- 

 plays, the aurora is generally not far distant — ofttimes within a few hundred feet — 

 and continues within a stone's-throw of one's head. If an army of men were 

 close together in line, and extended from here to York Factory, I am sure each 

 man would see the auroral displays all south of him ; and yet the most distant 

 displays would not exceed ten or fifteen miles, while the most would be within a 

 half to three miles of him. 



On November 7 the rays of an aurora shot horizontally to the 

 eastward, in the direction of the magnetic meridian. At 7 p. m. of the 

 lOth, a thin auroral veil covered the sky, lasting twenty minutes. 



On the 6th of February, the passage-way of Hali's ir/Ioo was 



flooded with the light of an aurora. On going out, he saw — 



A long belt, extending far east-southeast and far west-northM'est, the center 



of it a trifle south, but apparently withm a pistol-shot. The rays were all vertical, 



and dancing right merrily. This whole belt was remarkably low down — that is, 



apparently not more than 50 or 75 feet from the earth — and along the base of it, 



from end to end, was one continuous stream of prismatic fires, which, with tlie 



golden rays of light jetting upward and racing backward and forward — some 



dancing merrily one way, while others did the same from the opposite <lirection — 



made one of the most gorgeous, sou I -inspiring displays I ever witnessed. Tlic 



Innuits, nearly the whole of whom witnessed the grand sight, kept up, as they 



always do on such occasions, their charming nuisic — that is, whistling. Tlie dis- 



plaj^ lasted but a few minutes. 



* Between the parallel of 50 degrees uortli and that of 62 degrees north, auroras dui-ing the 

 ■winter are seen ahnost every night. They appear high in the heavens, and as often to the south 

 as to tlie north. In regions /«*•//((■?• north they are seldom seen except in the south. Loomis, p. li^. 



