42 [Assembly 



end being farthest north, broader along the middle, thick and 

 heavy, very white, and apparently from its distinctness near the 

 earth. At nine, it had moved just S. of the zenith, and patches 

 formed on the N. side parallel to it, which soon lengthened to 

 the belt, appearing like the small feathers on the side of a goose 

 quill ; as it moved south, the same forms appeared on the S. 

 also, and directed also obliquely to belt, so that people spoke of 

 its pen-like form. A little past the zenith it bent southwards 

 as by a breath of wind. It began to disappear at the E. part, 

 as if the aurora was moving westward, and about 10 degs. S. of 

 the zenith, near half-after nine. The cloud of aurora at the N. 

 rose some, shot up rays, and all was gone at ten. The sight had 

 been magnificent. 



1863, 20th December. The Ice Storm. 



At Northboro', Mass., the rain of the last of the 18th and on 

 the 19th, froze as it fell, and covered trees, shrubs and herbs 

 with ice, which in the sun of 20 and 21st, glowed with the 

 prismatic colors in all splendor. As this splendid scene occurred 

 in Niagara Co. and Canada about the falls, and near Rochester a 

 few years earlier, and was so finely described by President 

 Hitchcock of Amherst College, as seen there by him, this case 

 is mentioned from its extent. At the same 19tli day, the " Ice 

 Storm " was formed at Bolton and Marlborough. Bolton joins 

 on the south the township of Northboro' ; both on the E. line of 

 Worcester Co., and Marlborough is partly between and on the 

 east of both on the west line of Middlesex Co., and the nearest 

 of the three is about 40 miles distant from Amherst at the west, 

 where the phenomena occurred on the same day. On that day 

 also, the same splendid vision appeared at Harrisburgh, Pa., 

 some hundred miles S. and W., among the valleys of the Alle- 

 gany Mountains. In all these places there was disastrous crush- 

 ing of the limbs or bodies of trees, or of their being crushed to 

 the earth. The fruit trees, as apple and pear, and the orna- 

 mental shades, by a few blasts of strong wind on this splendor, 

 would be in ruins, which a quarter of a century would not repair. 

 Such splendor may be far too expensive. These facts are con- 

 densed from the public papers. 



