THE AURORA OF APRIL i6, 1882. ■ * 21 



chiefly in the north. Its congener when seen in the southern hemisphere, is call- 

 ed "Aurora AustraHs;" both may be more pertinently classed "aurora polaris," 

 or polar light. 



At 9 o'clock Sunday night a horizontal light, similar to the morning aurora 

 or break of day, was observed along the northern horizon ; gradually but steadily 

 it extended in length and height, and after a lapse of fifteen minutes several ver- 

 tical, luminous beams of a pale yellowish tint, and extending to from 30 to 40 

 degrees above the horizon, appeared, thus presenting unmistakable evidence of 

 the appearance within our visual range of that beautiful and sublime phenomenon, 

 the "Aurora Polaris." A 9:20 these beams vanished, and were immediately 

 followed by several faint arches appearing simultaneously and parallel; they were 

 arcs of small circles, our meridian bisecting the uppermost one at a point 30 de- 

 grees above the horizon. Beams similar to but more numerous than the primary 

 ones shot up from these arches, v\^iile a dark segment obscured that portion of 

 the heavens nearest the horizon, and continued throughout the successive recur- 

 rences. A more decidedly active phase of the display developed at 10 P. M., 

 when a column of a rosy hue shot up from the horizon, at a point west of north, 

 and quickly deepened to almost a blood red ; as if by preconcertion a series of sim- 

 ilar columns appeared in rapid succession to the right of it. They were of less 

 width, but of greater altitude, some reaching to as high as eighty degrees above 

 the visible horizon, and extending from north to nearly due east. This first began 

 to wane at io.-2o, and fifteen minutes later only a faint trace of the display could 

 be seen. Traces of diminished activity continued until shortly after midnight, 

 when an almost identical recurrence of the last active display took place. De- 

 tails are therefore unnecessary. It was, however, of greater extent, as the space 

 along the horizon from 45 degrees west of north to due east, or in all 135 degrees 

 of the celestial vault was almost simultaneously covered with auroral light, many 

 of the columns going as high as the "Zenith." This spectacle lasted about 

 twenty minutes, and then the usual faint trace of diminished activity ensued un- 

 til 3:10 Monday A. M., when a reaction took place, and the grandest display of 

 the night was presented by the appearance of the " merry dancers." The space 

 over which they frolicked was not so extended as that occupied by the previous 

 display, 60 degrees of the horizon would embrace its eastern and western limits, 

 the "polar star" was observed to be in the exact center of this group of lumin- 

 ous beams which were arranged very closely and though slender, presented un- 

 broken outlines as they reached up to zenith, where they seemed to converge 

 as if forming the ribs of a great dome ; along the base of these columns was a 

 dark slate colored segment which terminated at 150° above the horizon; from 

 behind this segment horizontal flashes of Hght rolled up in rapid and successive 

 waves along the luminous beams ; these were the " merry dancers." The " polar 

 star " was noted again and none of thes.e waves were seen to pass it, most 

 of them vanished when within 10 degrees of it. This, the grandest display of 

 series of the late phenomenon was of about the same duration as the others, 

 again came the usual familiar sky, and shortly afterwards the twilight arc pro- 



