220 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I7I6. 



annals to have been seen in England, nor in any other place that I can find ; 

 such was the neglect of curious matters in those days. 



The next in order that we hear of, was that of the year 1621, on Sept. 

 the 2d. O. S. seen all over France, and is well described by Gassendus in his 

 physics, who gives it the name of aurora borealis. This, though little inferior 

 to what we lately saw, and appearing to the northwards both of Rouen and 

 Paris, is no where said to have been observed in England, over which the light 

 seemed to lie. And since then, for above 80 years, we have no account of 

 any such sight, either at home or abroad ; though for above half that time, 

 these Philos. Trans, have been a constant register of all such extraordinary 

 occurrences. The first we find on our books, was one of small continuance, 

 seen in Ireland by Mr. Neve, Nov. 10, 1707; of which see Philos. Trans. 

 N° 320. And in the Miscellanea Berolinensia, published in 1710, we learn 

 that in the same year 1707, both on Jan. 24, and Feb. 18, O. S. something of 

 this kind was seen by M. Olaus Romer at Copenhagen : and again Feb. 23, 

 the same excellent astronomer observed there such another appearance, but 

 much more considerable; of which yet he only saw the beginning, clouds in- 

 terposing. But the same was seen that night by Mr. Gotfried Kirch at Berlin, 

 above 200 miles from Copenhagen, and lasted there till past 10 at night. To 

 these add another small one of short duration, seen near London, a little before 

 midnight between the Qth and lOth of August 17O8, by the Right Rev. Philip, 

 Lord Bishop of Hereford, and by his lordship communicated to the Royal 

 Society: so that, it seems, in little more than 18 months this sort of light has 

 been seen in the sky, no less than 5 times, in the years 1707 and 1708. 



Hence we may reasonably conclude that the air, or earth, or both, are 

 sometimes, though but seldom and at great intervals, disposed to produce this 

 phenomenon : for though it be probable that many times, when it happens, it 

 may not be observed, as falling out in the day time, or in cloudy weather, or 

 bright moon-shine: yet that it should be so very often seen at some times, and 

 so seldom at others, is what cannot well be accounted for that way. There- 

 fore considering what might be most probably the material cause of these ap- 

 pearances ; what first occurred was the vapour of water rarefied exceedingly by 

 subterraneous fire, and tinged with sulphureous steams; which vapour is now 

 generally supposed by naturalists to be the cause of earthquakes. And as 

 earthquakes happen with great uncertainty, and have been sometimes frequent 

 in places, where for many years before and after they have not been felt; so 

 these, which we might be allowed to suppose produced by the eruption of the 

 pent vapour through the pores of the earth, when it is not in sufficient quan- 



