REMARKABLE AURORAS. 429 



On the 19th at 6h. 20m. P. M., conjunction of Venus and the Moon. Venus 

 north 4° 33'. 



On the 20th at ih. 13m. A. M., conjunction of Mercury and the Moon. 

 Mercury north 5° 12'. 



On the 24th, Mercury's greatest elongation, west 20° 00'. 



REMARKABLE AURORAS. 



BY PROF. S. A. MAXWELL, MORRISON, ILL. 



A writer in the Albany, N. Y., Argus, gives an interesting account of the 

 wonderful, luminous phenomenon, seen throughout a large portion of the north 

 Atlantic States, on the evening of September 12th. The phenomenon here re- 

 ferred to, was a band of white light, about 12° in width, spanning the heavens 

 from east to west. 



It is evident that the writer is anxious to learn the real nature of this singu- 

 lar appearance ; for notwithstanding the fact that a dozen or more theories were 

 at once advanced to explain it, he still asks, " what was it ? " An assistant at the 

 Dudley Observatory, when interviewed, said that he did not dare to maise any 

 assertion in the matter, and concluded by saying, " It may have been an aurora, 

 but so far as my knowledge goes, it was something unique. " 



It is probable that a similar phenomenon has not been heretofore witnessed 

 by the people of Albany ; at any rate, not at a time within the memory of the pres 

 ent generation. Nevertheless there are people, even in that city, who claim to- 

 have observed such sights previous to the war. 



Although the telephone wires were unaffected at the time of its occurrence, 

 I believe that the phenomenon was one of the many forms of the aurora. My 

 chief reason for this belief is, that on the night of Friday, October 14th, 1870, a 

 similar phenomenon took place, while at the same time a genuine aurora lighted 

 up the northern heavens, both with luminous arch and bands. This aurora 

 somewhat suggested a vast wheel, the lower arch near the horizon forming the 

 hub, the polar bnnds or streamers, representing the spokes, and the zenith arch, 

 (like that seen at Albany,) the outer rim of the wheel. 



At another time, the evening of Friday, April 2nd, 1869, I saw a similar 

 luminous band, which extended across the heavens, almost from east to west, in- 

 clining toward the northwest and southeast. Neither this one, nor the one above 

 noted, was over two or three degrees in width, but the light in both cases was of 

 a pure white and tolerably well defined at the edges. In the phenomenon of 

 April 2nd neither extremity extended quite down to the horizon ; and about ten 

 degrees from the western end, there was a bend that extremity lying more nearly 

 horizontal than the other. 



While one of these auroras, the one of October 14th, illumined the heavens, 

 the lower arch was partially obscured by clouds, over whose corrugated surfaces, 



