THE AURORAL ARCH. 319 
at Charles Kingsley’s witty application of the Darwinian theory in his Fairy tale 
of the Water babies. His moral is an excellent one, but neither men passing 
into apes, nor apes passing into men, accord with our ideas of the position 
given us by our Creator. We cherish the belief in an essential and permanent 
structural distinction, and Owen’s account of its nature, if not true, is very 
plausible, and is certainly not yet shewn to be false. 
W. H. 
AURORAL ARCH OF APRIL 9ru. 
A very remarkable auroral phenomenon was recorded at the Magnetic obser- 
yatory, Toronto, on the night of April 9th. 
About 8 P.M. a bright luminous band of extraordinary brilliancy was observed 
extending from E.S.E. to W.S.W. through or a little to the South of the zenith. 
The band was at first stationary with an uniform width of about 3° or 4° and 
with well defined edges. 
At 8 30 luminous lines without any apparent movement were observed to 
fringe the northern edge through about 15° of its length on each side of the 
zenith, The fringe thus formed tapered off to points at both aU) the 
width of the centre being about 7°. 
At the same time the southern edge, from its eastern extremity to about 20° 
west of the zenith, formed the boundary of a fringe of small streamers ascen- 
ding upwards from the south, and which on reaching the arch were deflected so 
as to form in appearance the material for the supply of a mass of luminous 
clouds which rolled tumultuously along the track of the band with enormous 
rapidity. The motion as far as the eye could judge consisted in a transfer of 
luminous matter and not as on ordinary occasions in undulations or pulsations, 
a circumstance constituting the chief peculiarity of this display. 
From 9 to 9 30 when the arch was contracted in its length about 30° at each 
extremity, the rays on the northern edge had disappeared, and the streamers 
were limited to the eastern extremity, but there was no abatement in the mass 
or velocity of the luminous torrent. The arch then became irregular in its 
form ; by 9 40 it had disappeared, but returned again in a less developed state 
and continued from about midnight till 2 a.m., when it ceased. 
A magnetic disturbance was going on during the earlier part of the display, 
which ceased with the departure of the arch and recommenced with its reap- 
pearance. The extent of the disturbance, in harmony with what commonly 
occurs during the presence of bands at right angles to the magnetic meridian,, 
was much less than in the case of auroral movements emanating from the north. 
The Rey. Vincent Clementi of Peterborough writes that the arch as seen by 
him appeared first in the north, simultaneously with and apparently forming 
part of the aurora; that it disconnected itself with the aurora and passed 
onward with great rapidity until it crossed the zenith, where it remained 
stationary in the south stretching eastward and westward, streamers or rays 
breaking from it through the whole extent of its southern edge. The form of 
the band according to a sketch which he has kindly forwarded was not precisely 
the same as that seen at Toronto being much wider at the centre and converging 
