Auroras and Sunset. 149 



within a circle around of a few degrees in diameter ; and again it 

 would be a mere blank, all the pencils melting away before uniting. 



Four meteors were seen to fall during the observations ; one to 

 the southwest, and the other three toward the south. 



Observations. — Notes of the changes were at first taken once 

 in from one to four minutes, and even these were not frequent 

 enough to record all the changes ; and oftentimes as many occur- 

 red during the time employed in writing a single remark as were 

 witnessed in the intervals of employment with the pencil. 



At 20 minutes past 8 o'clock the whole vault of the heavens 

 was overspread with a series of alternating pencils of bluish white 

 light, with the blue sky beyond, which converged to a point less 

 than five degrees directly south from the zenith, a brilliant lake 

 bar extending from the eastern to near the western horizon, about 

 in the pathway of the sun. 



23m. past 8. Red light in masses east and west of the zenith, 

 the bar not continuous. 



25m. past 8. Lake bar replaced and more brilliant than at 

 first. Bright white ragged cloud in the centre. 



27m. past 8. The lake or red in bright portions near the east- 

 ern and western extremes of the bar. Pencils in the south change 

 from white to lilac and from lilac to white with great rapidity. 



31m. past 8. Grown dim and again brightened up. Pencils 

 most bright in S. E. and S. W. 



34m. past 8, Intensely white pencils shoot up from the N. W. 

 andN. E., most bright at the base. 



Focus vanished and the crimson hues mildly shed all around. 



35m. past 8. Focus re-established, with a bluish white group 

 of rays radiating all about. The red pale, but most distinct in 

 the west. 



38m. past 8. Red in the west, but brightest in the northM'-est. 

 Focus alternately vanishing and returning. Lilac and white 

 about the zenith. 



41m. past 8. Crescent in the focus and two parallel curved 

 belts or crescents more nearly, of white in the southern heavens. 



43m. past 8. Dim and thin vapory clouds rising in the south, 

 tipped with the Aurora. 



One bar of white light across the southern sky. 



47m. past 8. Crescent inverted. Light growing more bril- 

 liant in the north and waning in the south. 



