21 6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 17 16. 



up to the zenith, or beyond it. This was carried with an equable and not very 

 slow motion, from the N. E where it arose, into the N. W. where it disap- 

 peared, still keeping a perpendicular situation, or very near it; and passing suc- 

 cessively over all the stars of the Little Bear, did not efface the smaller ones in 

 the tail, which are but of the 5th magnitude; such was the extreme rarity and 

 perspicuity of the matter it consisted of. 



* This single beam was so far remarkable above all those that for a great while 

 before had preceded it, or that followed it, that if its situation among the cir- 

 cumpolar stars had at the same instant been accurately noted, for example, at 

 London and Oxford, whose difference of longitude is well known, we might 

 be enabled with some certainty to pronounce, by its diversitas aspecttls, con- 

 cerning its distance and height; which were doubtless very great, though as yet 

 we can nowise determine them. But as this phenomenon found all those that 

 are skilled in the observation of the heavens unprepared, and unacquainted with 

 what was to be expected; so it left them all surprised and astonished at its 

 novelty. When therefore for the future any such thing shall happen, all those 

 that are curious in astronomical matters, are hereby admonished and entreated 

 to set their clocks to the apparent time at London, for example, by allowing so 

 many minutes as is the difference of meridians, and then to note at the end of 

 every half hour precisely, the exact situation of what at that time appears 

 remarkable in the sky, and particularly the azimuths of those very tall pyramids 

 so eminent above the rest, and therefore likely to be seen farthest; that by 

 comparing those observations taken at the same moment in distant places, the 

 difference of their azimuths may serve to determine how far those pyramids are 

 from us. 



It being now past 1 1 o'clock, and nothing new offering itself to our view, 

 but repeated phases of the same spectacle, we thought it no longer worth while 

 to bear the chill of the night air sub dio. Therefore returning to my house, I 

 made haste to my upper windows, which conveniently enough looks to the 

 N. E. parts of heaven, and soon found that the two laminae or streaks parallel 

 to the horizon, of which we have been speaking, had now wholly disappeared : 

 and the whole spectacle reduced itself to the resemblance of a very bright cre- 

 pusculum, settling on the northern horizon, so as to be brightest and highest 

 under the pole itself; from whence it spread both ways, into the N. E. and 

 N. W. Under this, in the middle of it, there appeared a very black space, as 

 it were the segment of a lesser circle of the sphere cut off by the horizon. It 

 seemed to the eye like a dark cloud, but was not so; for by the telescope the 

 small stars appeared through it more clearly than usual, considering how low 

 they were; and on this as a basis our lumen auroriforme rested, which was a 



