THE AUROKA BOREALIS. 7l9 



8. Observations of Aurora, by Captain Maguire. Point 

 Barrow, 1852-54. 



The aurora was found to be connected with the movements of 

 the declination needle ; the brighter the aurora, the quicker the 

 magnetic changes became, and from repeated observations it 

 appeared that " the appearance of the aurora in the south was 

 " connected with the motion of the magnet to the eist of the 

 " magnetic north, and if in the north to the west of the same." 



In addition to these disturbances, considerable irregularities 

 took place in the daytime, generally in the forenoon, and always 

 in cloudy and misty weather. It was no uncommon occurrence 

 for the magnet to go out of the field of the telescope, not return- 

 ing again for several minutes, and it was generally to the east- 

 ward on these occasions. 



Of 40 instances in which the deflection was beyond the scale, 

 30 were deflections to the east, and 22 of these were between 

 7 and 9 a.m., i.e.^ the time of the maximum easterly deflection ; 

 and six of the westerly disturbances were between 11 p.m. and 

 1 am., the time of the greatest westerly deflection. 



The aurora was seen six days out of seven, and at the time of 

 the hourly observations on 1,079 occasions, i.e., nearly one-third 

 of the whole number of observations. 



The aurora was very seldom seen between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.^ 

 but increased from 5 p.m. rapidly and pretty regularly until 1 a.m., 

 then diminished in the same way until 9 a.m. 



Not a single display of aurora occurred between 10 a.m. and 

 4 p.m. Thus there is a close resemblance between the display of 

 aurora and the westerly disturbances at Point Barrow. 



9. Observations of Aurora made in the Second German 

 Expedition. 



The aurora was of very frequent appearance, almost every 

 clay> y^t we have not succeeded well on account of cloudy 

 weather. 



The aurora was always first • seen in the south-east, i.e., in the 

 direction of the magnetic meridian. 



After their first appearance remarkable changes took place in 

 the bands of light, which always stretched from west to east, 

 and often reached from the horizon to the zenith. The higher 

 the bands of light or streamers are above the horizon, the wider 

 they are. 



The appearance extends by degrees over the northern half of 

 the sky, which at first was clear of streamers, and the beams now 

 reach their greatest brilliancy and are seen to converge toward 

 the magnetic pole, i.e., in direction of dipping needle. The 

 phenomenon then fades away, first becoming paler in the west 

 and south. 



The arc in the south-east remains to the last, and sometimes 

 another display follows from it during the night. 



