376 Miscellanies. 



MISCELLANIES. 



DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



1. Aurora Borealis of Septernber 3, 1839. — The following extracts 

 from observations made at Middlebury, Vt., by Prof. A. C. Twining, 

 (and published in the People's Press, Sept. 10, 1839,) were intended 

 for insertion among other accounts at p. 261, but they were unavoida- 

 bly omitted. 



At th. 23m. P. M. — daylight being yet strong enough for ordinary 

 purposes of vision — an irregular belt of thin whitish clouds was seen 

 overhead, lying east and west; its constituent strata manifesting a 

 tendency to arrange themselves in lines directed towards the magnetic 

 pole, through which the southern boundary of the belt passed, leav- 

 ing the hemisphere south of the pole unclouded. By attentive obser- 

 vation, some of the clouds were seen to vanish so suddenly as to 

 make it evident that the belt was auroral in its nature. Rosy tints 

 were also just discernible in the N. E. and N. W. ; and soon after in the 

 N., faint streamers of light. The belt might probably have been seen 

 earlier if my attention had been directed to it. As daylight departed, 

 the phenomena became more decided. At 7h. 33m. a corona was 

 discernible at the magnetic pole. The belt moved south — rapidly at 

 first — then, to appearance, more slowly, and at last almost impercep- 

 tibly ; the streaks vi'hich composed it blending their light, as they 

 became more distant, till at 7h. 43m. they formed a twilight in the 

 south, having a southern or lower boundary in the form of an arch, 

 whose crown was elevated 10°, and beneath which arch the sky was 

 clear, and dark by contrast, as often seen in the north. 



Various evolutions of the aurora presented themselves from this 

 until 9h. 5m. when the arrangement was beautifully symmetrical. 

 A broad, fan-like sheet, having its vertex at the corona, and opening 

 towards the horizon, seemed to be let down over the southern quarter 

 from E. to W., presenting an assemblage of white, yellow, and red 

 streamers, indescribably grand. The corona also was perfect, and 

 exhibited all around a fine striated and mottled appearance, like the 

 most delicately figured fancy-work. From 9h. 21m. to 9h. 23m. the 

 aspects were of such glory and beauty as to excite transports of ad- 

 miration. I have witnessed all the remarkable auroras of the last 

 five years, in the latitude of New Haven, Conn., but this, for the time 

 just specified, as least doubled in splendor the finest of them all. * * * 

 At 9h. 31m, the aurora was comparatively faint, but embraced the 

 entire concave ; — streamers ascending from every side towards and 

 up to the corona, like the rafters of a dome. Just at this moment 



