CLIMATE. 245 



About the amount of precipitation it is, of course, as yet 

 impossible to make any positive statement ; in summer 

 it is probably very considerable, both at sea and on the 

 coasts ; in the interior of the land, and in winter, it is 

 likely to be slight, and, moreover, to gradually diminish 

 as the Pole is approached. 



In conclusion, and as an appendix to the description 

 of the climate, short mention may be made of a 

 phenomenon, which is not intelligibly connected with 

 climate, but rather proceeds from the magnetism of the 

 globe, namely the Polar Light, which corresponds to 

 the Northern Light, and is in contradistinction called 

 the Southern Light, or the Aurora Australis. In ap- 

 pearance it does not seem to differ from the Aurora 

 Borealis, although the southern display exhibits more 

 rays than bands of light. Like the northern lights so 

 also do those of the south shine forth most frequently 

 and most brilliantly in a zone whose centre does not 

 coincide with the astronomical pole of the globe, but 

 appears to be displaced in the direction of the magnetic 

 pole of the southern hemisphere, which must be looked 

 for in the south-western districts of Victoria Land. This 

 explains the almost total absence of observation of the 

 Aurora Australis from the South Atlantic Ocean ; for 

 example : from the polar stations in South Georgia, and 

 from Cape Horn, not a single instance of a polar 

 light is recorded in the year of observation of 1882-83, 

 whilst they were not uncommonly noticed by ships on 

 the way to New Zealand and south-east Australia, and 

 of course also in both these countries themselves. 



On the whole much less is known of the southern 

 light than of the northern, its proper domain falling into 

 regions scarcely ever visited by man. 



