EXPEDITION TO POINT BAltHOW, ALASKA. 405 



brilliant display, beginning as four or five bands of streamers across the western sky, from Orion 

 in tlie EHE. to Hercules in the NNW., the highest through Cassiopeia and the lowest close to the 

 horizon (brightness 3 to 4). The streamers were in rapid motion, vibrating in alternate bands 

 from X. to S. and vice versa, with the rapidity of lightning, while the changes in color and bright; 

 ness wen- almost instantaneous. The colors were green, yellow, and rose (one of the party says 

 he saw blue), the latter especially bright and approaching a peach-bloom color. The motion was 

 mostly confined to the middle of the bands and most violent near the zenith, where smaller bands 

 and coronal streamers were shooting and twisting. It soon spread east of the zenith, developing 

 from the NW. in one specially brilliant band of streamers in rapid vibration through Ursa Major 

 and Gemini. Other bands developed across the NE. sky, while the western aurora faded, and 

 globes of red light shot up from the NW. at 12.50-55. At 1 the bands in the east were twisted 

 and curled into spirals and fading at 2 in brightness and the two bands through Ursa Major and 

 Cassiopeia still remained motionless, and brightness 1 to 2. At 1 all Lad faded to brightness 1 

 and become ha/y and the colors were very faint. Polar bands of cirro-stratus clouds were dis- 

 tinctly seen across part of the aurora when the display was at its height. There was a magnetic 

 disturbance with high easterly declination and rather low horizontal force. At 2 a. m. there was 

 nothing left but three or four bands starting in the clouds in the ESE., two of them reaching Her- 

 cules iii the NW., one through Canis Minor, Gemini, Lynx, and the upper part of Ursa Major, 

 and the other through Orion, Taurus, Perseus, Andromeda, Lacerta, Cygnus, and Lyra, and a 

 slightly brighter baud in the W. from Aquila to Pegasus (brightness 1). All were slightly brighter 

 (1 to 2) and somewhat broken at the NW. end. The needles were very near their normal position. 

 At 3 a. in. the sky was nearly covered with polar bands and between them were traces of the 

 auroral bands as before, brightest (nearly 2) in the NW. and NE. The declination was reading 

 very low. At 4 a. m. the bands overhead were very pale, with a bright patch in the NE. and a 

 similar one in the NNW. At 4.1.5 the needles were nearly back to their normal position and re- 

 mained undisturbed the rest of the night. There were traces seen at 5 a. in. and again at 10.10 a. 

 m., but at 2.12 p. in. four narrow streamers (brightness to 1) ran np from the NNW. horizon and 

 met in Auriga vibrating very rapidly between Gemini and Taurus. This was the last seen. 



December 19 and 20, 1882, 11.15 p. m. to3j>. m. At 11. 15 p. m. there was a faint arch (brightness 

 to 1) in the NE. through Orion, Gemini, Leo Minor, Canes Vena-tici, and Coma Berenices; this 

 latter growing gradually paler till nearly 12 midnight, but had faded at that observation. At 1.15 

 there was a yellowish, quiet, and regular arch (brightness 1), quite narrow, from Canis Minor in the 

 ESE. through Cancer, Leo Minor, Lynx, and Canes Venatici, ending in Bootes in the NNW. At 

 2 a. m.' there were rounded, hazy patches in Canes Venatici, and a "zone" of three or four bands 

 from a point in the upper part of Serpens, in the NW., through Cygnus, Lyra, Cepheus, and Cassi- 

 opeia, and then dwindling to a single band through Perseus and Taurus, fading in Orion. The 

 whole had faded to traces at 2.15. At 3 a. in. there was a bright sinuous yellow band in th* NW. 

 (brightness 2 to 3) from Serpens close to /i Cygni and through Pegasus, fading under the moon. At 

 3.15 these had risen and developed into a very extensive zone (brightness 2), with its starting points 

 in Orion in the SE. and Serpeus in the NW., stretching in breadth from Pegasus to Leo. The 

 streaks were yellow and very sinuous, some spiral in Cygnus, with a rather slow writhing motion 

 at the zenith. There was a sudden and violent magnetic disturbance, the horizontal force falling 

 too low to read and the eastern declination increasing over 1. Eroin 4 to 4.15 there was a sinuous, 

 broken arched band, rather narrow and yellowish (brightness 1 to 2), from Leo in the E., through 

 Coma Berenices and Iloiitcs, to Hercules in the NNW.. and at 4.15 also a pale streamer up into 

 Lyra. The magnets had become quiet. At 5 a. in. there was a faint, motionless band (brightness 

 to 1) above the southern horizon, and at G merely traces in the S\Y. At 8 a. m. there were traces 

 of a very faint corona, resembling luminous clouds, and the needles were very much disturbed, the 

 10. declination increasing 5. At 9.10 there were only faint traces of aurora, but the disturbance 

 continued. There were also traces at 10.10 a. m., after which no more was seen till 1 p. m., wheu 

 there were two quiet, bands ^brightness to 1), one from Cassiopeia through Cygnns and Lyra to Her- 

 cules, and the other from Gemini through Leo Minor and Canes Venatici to Corona Horealis. and 

 a corona in T T rsa Minor (brightness to 1), moving sluggishly. At 2.15 p. m. there still remained 

 traces of the corona in rapid motion, and aJ.so traces of the northern band, and at 3 p. m. there 



