Aurora Borealis. 179 



The Magnetic JVeedle was watched attentively by Mr. E. C. Her^ 

 rick, and was observed to undergo extraordinary fluctuations, — at 

 one time (7h. 41m.) deviating a whole degree westward of its mean 

 position, and at another time, traversing 45 minutes of a degree in two 

 minutes of time. The Barometer had previously been subject to 

 uncommon variations. On the night of the 21st, between 11 and 

 12 o'clock, it stood at 28.70 inches—a depression nearly or quite 

 unexampled at this place. From that time it had risen gradually, 

 and during the aurora, it stood at about 30,1 inches. Its entire range 

 since Dec. 19th, when it was 30.91 has been very remarkable, since 

 its maximum at this place in ordinary years, is rarely above 30.70, 

 and its minimum seldom below 29 inches. Early in the evening of 

 the aurora, the Thermometer was at 20° (Fah.) but sunk rapidly, 

 and at 10 o'clock was only 4 degrees above zero, and before morn- 

 ing fell quite to zero. 



The Zodiacal light was at that time very conspicuous in the south- 

 west, and has continued to the present time, March 7th, considerably 

 brighter than in ordinary years. 



From various accounts published in the newspapers, and from 

 numerous private communications obligingly made to the Editor of 

 this Journal, and to ihe writer, it appears, that this auroral exhibition 

 was seen over a vast extent of country, and preserved, at points very 

 remote from each other, a remarkable uniformity of appearance. Its 

 limits are unknown ; but we have already heard of it, in a form of 

 the most imposing grandeur, as far north as Quebec, and other parts 

 of British America to the eastward of that place, and as presenting 

 a spectacle equally rare and beautiful as far south as the Island of 

 Bermuda. Throughout nearly the whole of this wide region, the 

 phenomenon is identified by its crimson light, by its streamers and 

 its arches, by its corona formed in the region of the pole of the dip- 

 ping needle of each place, and by its return a little after 10 o'clock, 

 after having once nearly faded away. 



At Windsor, Vermont, the description given by the editors of the 

 Vermont Chronicle, corresponded very nearly to the appearances as 

 exhibited here ; but they add, that on the following morning " the 

 mercury stood at thirty six degrees below zero, — a more in- 

 tense cold, by two degrees, than the morning of January 4, 1835, as 

 measured by the same thermometer, with the same exposure." At 

 Troy, the same morning, the thermometer was, at 7 o^chck, fifteen 

 degrees below zero. 



