i 9 02] AURORA AUSTRALIS 269 



'■July 26. — . . . On the whole, the displays of the aurora 

 australis have been disappointing ; we had expected them to 

 be more brilliant. When the sky is clear there is generally 

 some auroral light, but it is rarely vivid, and never bright 

 enough to be photographed. In hopes of obtaining the spec- 

 trum of this light, a rapid plate has been exposed to it for 

 hours, and even days together, but as yet there has not been 

 the least impression on it. In general the light is so faint 

 that stars of even a small magnitude can be seen distinctly 

 through it ; but of late there has been an improvement, and 

 the contrast on the dark nights has given us a very beautiful, if 

 not a very brilliant, effect to the southward. Lately it has 

 commenced about three by a bright but low curtain to the 

 E.N.E., where unfortunately the hills partly hide the view ; but 

 later it seems to spread up and towards the south, so that 

 usually in the evening there are shafts and patches of light 

 scattered about in full view of the ship with sometimes a well- 

 formed corona to the south. 



1 Often when the weather has been calm and clear I have 

 been up and over the hills in the afternoon to see the easterly 

 display. There is something very weird and awe-inspiring in 

 a phenomenon so fleeting, so intangible and so difficult to 

 describe. The light grows and wanes, but one cannot mark 

 the moment of its coming or its going. It distinctly moves, 

 but one cannot say how ; sometimes it appears to roll forward 

 or to the side, sometimes it seems to spread itself as though 

 anxious for greater space. For no two instants is it the same, 

 and yet the change is so subtle that one cannot grasp it until 

 some new development has robbed one of the picture. 



' As I arrived on the hill summit to-day the sky was clear 

 and dark, but as I walked forward a narrow arched band of 

 light appeared across the east ; it seemed to rise, to halt. 

 Little fibrous shafts spread out above and below ; a moment 

 more, and the fibres became luminous cloud masses rolling 

 towards the south ; in the next they had ceased to move ; the 

 light was spreading and waning, was gone. Then shafts of 

 light flashed up like mighty search-light beams cast to the 



