358 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



" The American Journal of Science," " The Scientific American," Dr. 

 Taylor's Notes in the Australasian, and one or two other less important 

 periodicals. la a word, I have summed up in a somewhat judicial — 

 perhaps presumptuous — way, the whole evidence that is hefore us, and have 

 not hesitated to give expression to my own opinion from time to time, nor 

 to add arguments or objections of my own, nor to make original comments 

 and criticisms in a way that, if not equally judicial, may be thought at least 

 equally presumptuous. 



Perhaps the present time may be considered specially suitable for a dis- 

 cussion on the subject, inasmuch as the phenomena have, if not totally 

 disappeared, become comparatively insignificant ; and the most distinguished 

 men in the scientific world have, with the salient facts before them, given 

 expression to their opinions as to the circumstances which have acted as 

 operative causes. 



The Phenomena. 



It will not be necessary to describe much in detail the most widespread 

 of the phenomena to which I am about to address myself, i.e., the sun- 

 glows, for they must be well within the remembrance of every one of us. 

 Indeed it would require the pen of a poet or the brush of a Turner or a 

 Canaletto to do anything like justice to the display. Our almost uniformly 

 clear skies have enabled us in this Nelson province to witness the splendour, 

 perhaps, at its best ; but even in the murky climate of England it has 

 excited admiration. London Bridge, nightly during the months of Decem- 

 ber and January, witnessed a concourse of people larger than usual ; for the 

 clear and open view of the western sky, which the broad bosom of the 

 Thames permitted, revealed a picture in which imagination Revelled and 

 admiration delighted. When crowds of people are drawn nightly from "the 

 little village " to the open country on every side to see the glows of the 

 setting sun, we may be sure the display was not much inferior to our own, 

 especially in Italy where the climatic conditions would assimilate the 

 spectacle to that which we saw here. The character of the picture is shown 

 by the fact that many persons at first said the colouring was due to an 

 aurora. These people soon reflected, of course, that that explanation would 

 not do, as auroras do not appear in the west, and are not necessarily con- 

 nected with the setting sun, moreover the glow did not scintiUate, and there 

 were no contemporaneous magnetic disturbances. In one case, indeed, hi 

 the colony of Victoria (month of December), the display did merge into a 

 veritable aurora — silver streamers appearing before all the red ones were 

 gone — but that was an exceptional circumstance, and no one has asserted 

 that there was any connection whatever between the two (Ellery, " Na- 

 ture "). We have descriptions of similar appearances in various parts of 



