Continuous Daylight. 



By Rkv. J. J. M. L. AiKKN, B.D., Ayton. 



On the evening of Wednesday, 1st July 1908, between ten 

 and eleven o'clock, the light in the Northern sky proved 

 sufficiently luminous to cause hay-coles to cast a shadow, and to 

 enable one to read with ease the ordinary print of a newspaper. 

 On the horizon lay a dark bank of cloud, and above it a 

 beautifully broken sky of the "mackerel back " order, the lighted 

 portions of which rose in a fashion suggestive of mountain peaks 

 silhouetted against a grey-blue background. Above this the 

 light showed soft pinks and greens, and pale blues. East and 

 West it dwindled in a haze extending from the horizon to 

 about halfway up, but above that to the zenith the heaven 

 assumed a grey-blue tone of much luminosity. Till about mid- 

 night these soft colours continued, but thereafter slowly faded 

 before the advancing dawn, though even half an hour later it 

 was still possible to read and write by the aid of this strange 

 reflection. The phenomenon succeeded a cloudless day of 

 extreme heat, tempered by a gentle breeze from the sea which 

 fell away towards nightfall. 



In explanation of the occurrence, which formed the subject 

 of much comment at the time, there is subjoined a short 

 notice which appeai-ed in the Scotsman issue of 3rd July from 

 a Meteorological Correspondent, and which for lack of anything 

 more explicit may be offered as a reasonable solution. 



"Although the 'midnight glow' is a somewhat rare phenom- 

 enon in the latitude of Edinburgh, it is a common enough 

 event farther North. In the Shetlands, for example, at this 

 time of the year, there is generally enough light at midnight 

 to permit of the ready taking of photographs ; while in still 

 higher latitudes, as is well known, the sun does not set at all. 

 The 'glow' is purely an atmospheric effect. Just as at sunrise 



