Meeson. — On the recent Sun-glows. 359 



Asia (e.g., India, Ceylon, China, Japan) ; Africa (Cape of Good Hope, Gold 

 Coast) ; America (the United States, Barbadoes) ; the" Sandwich Isles and 

 Australia ; so that we may conclude pretty safely that skies similar to 

 those with which we have been familiar have been seen in all parts of the 

 world. At the observatories on Mounts Washington and Pike, in the 

 United States, it is stated that nothing remarkable was observed except a 

 sun-glow on the first-mentioned peak on the 2nd December ; the absence 

 of the appearance there is in itself phenomenal when they have been seen 

 so persistently elsewhere. 



Most of the accounts agree as to the gorgeousness of the display made 

 by masses of yellow-orange clouds, silhouetted in a clear sky of magnificent 

 colour varying in tint from pink to primrose. The sun on many nights set 

 somewhat hazy, but of a brilliant golden or light yellow colour. Even 

 before he disappeared there were signs of the coming glory. But a few 

 minutes after he sank behind the summit of Mount Arthur, we in Nelson 

 here saw the western sky suffused, as it were, with a blush. When, as 

 frequently happened, a few light streaked or parallel clouds attended the 

 orb on his departure, these would first catch the colour. But it quickly 

 passed towards the zenith, and every second became more intensely red. 

 When there were any clouds about the face of the western sky, cumulus, 

 cirrus, or cirro-cumulus, these at once were bathed in glorious hues. For 

 ten minutes or more after sunset one half of the heavenly canopy was a 

 blaze of orange, red, and green colours of every shade and tint. Then this 

 brightness gradually waned. But meanwhile a glow as from infinite fires 

 mounted from the western horizon, and behind the golden masses of clouds 

 far and away transcended them in brilliance. The sky had the appearance 

 of burnished metal under the influence of this second, and more remote, and 

 more lasting glow. Every colour of the rainbow could be seen therein 

 (primrose, orange, violet, rose, and pale green could be distinguished — all 

 blending into one another), from the horizon to the zenith was a perfect 

 blaze, forming where it touched the horizon a vein of brilliant silver white, 

 and the opposite half of the sky, even though cloudless, appeared by con- 

 trast to be in Cimmerian darkness. To compare great things with small 

 ones, the contrast in light and brightness between the two sides of the sky 

 was suggestive of the effect of a splendid theatrical transformation scene. 

 It was difficult at times to believe that the western glow was not produced 

 by terrestrial fires of colossal proportions. Gradually, but imperceptibly, 

 the colour would disappear. In some places it lasted even so long as a 

 couple of hours, and frequently here it lingered, as if loath to leave the scene 

 of its glory, till the observer grew tired of watching, and dreaming, and won* 

 dering what it might mean, and reluctantly passed indoors. 



