REV. JAMES FARQUHARSON ON THE AURORA BOREALIS. 115 



neighbouring hills ; but while the lower ends of the vertical streamers were at 

 this height, their upper might be two or three thousand feet more. I have 

 seen the aurora, however, when the clouds certainly occupied a much more 

 elevated region. 



I may now be permitted to make some observations on Mr. Dalton's de- 

 ductions regarding this question : and here I feel that I ought to be very brief, 

 as that gentleman may be disposed now to review them himself, for which he 

 is infinitely better qualified. He will perhaps now allow, that the more com- 

 mon streamers of the aurora, and the zenith arch, are not distinct, although 

 contemporaneous phsenomena, as he seems to suppose ; but that they are 

 exactly the same thing ; — that which is the zenith arch to one set of spectators, 

 becoming resolved into common streamers to other spectators who are placed 

 at some distance, either to the southward or northward of the former. And he 

 may now admit the contemporaneous existence of several parallel arches, even 

 within the same field of view. 



Would not the numerous observations made on the 29th of March, 1826, 

 from Edinburgh to Warrington, be more easily explained and rendered con- 

 sistent with each other, on the supposition, that there were several nearly ver- 

 tical fringes of the aurora, almost contemporaneously hanging over many lines 

 fi'om Edinburgh to Warrington, at a few thousand feet above the surface of the 

 earth ? Are there not even some circumstances, of the numerous observations, 

 that do not admit of being reconciled, on the supposition that only one arch 

 was seen ? Thus, for instance, the arch over Edinburgh was seen a few degrees 

 north of the zenith, at 8^ IS"" P.M. ; that at Jedburgh, 30° south of the zenith, 

 exactly at the same hour. These two observations appear quite at variance 

 with each other, if the same arch was seen by Mr. Otley at Keswick, at 8 P.M., 

 a little south of the zenith, and by Mr. Holden, at Whitehaven, at 8'> 45"", 

 16° south of the zenith: — and the observations at all the four places again be- 

 come irreconcileable among themselves, if the same arch passed through the 

 zenith, at Kirkby Stephen at 9 P.M. and through the same point at Lancas- 

 ter at 8 P.M. There are discrepancies also regarding the appearance of the 

 arch itself, in respect of luminousness at its different extremities. 

 *' On the other suppqsition, there would be scarcely any discrepancy. One 

 fringe of streamers might hang over Edinburgh ; another nearly over Jedburgh 



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