G. T. Kingston on the Aurora at Toronto, 65 
- Art. VI.—Aurora at Toronto, Canada ; by G. T. Kryeston. 
A very grand exhibition of aurora, occupying more or bie 
the whole sky, took place on the night of April 15, and ¢ 
tinued with but slight interruption from dusk till daylight aa 
the following mornin 
One part of the display deserving notice from its compara- 
tive rarity was a dark segment similar to those commonly seen 
in the north, though not so well defined, which appeared about 
9 p.m, in the sou th, with an altitude of about 25°. But the 
feature of still more unusual occurrence consisted in a belt of 
luminous haze from 5° to 10° in width, extending through the 
zenith from the eastern to the western point t of the horizon, 
the material of which (in appearance) moved like a torrent 
from east to west with prodigious velocity. 
The apparent movement of translation continued from 
about 13% 10™ to 138 50™, when the matter composing the 
belt became affected by pulsations, which succeeded each other 
in the order from east to west, and with a rapidity still greater 
_ than that of the previous apparent motion of translation. 
About 14" the belt broke up and the pulsations became visi- 
ble over the whole sky, the order of their succession being 
_ from the horizon to the zenith. At 15" the pulsations became 
_ intermittent and ceased to maintain any apparent order in their 
- occurrence: they gradually became more feeble and-ceased with 
_ daybreak. 
Throughout the night a generally diffused luminosity _pre- 
vailed, such as is commonly seen with a full moon an zy 
sky. This was evidently not occasioned by the moon, which 
was scarcely four days old, and was low in the horizon, but was 
part of the aurora wa the brilliancy of whose more active 
features it greatly im 
_ Throughout the day ohn night a considerable magnetic dis- 
turbance was going 0 
From a table aioe ‘the digressions of the declination, total 
orce, and inclination from their respective standard values the 
marks which follow have been derived. The standards em- 
loyed for the sake of brevity for the declinometer and the hor- 
ontal and vertical force magnetometers were the approximate 
mean normals of those instruments relative to the whole day. 
The digressions therefore are affected by the diurnal variations 
proper to the times of observation ; but as these are Il 
compared with the actual digressions, the inaccuracy o cootateual 
by using the same standard throughout will not materially dis- 
Am. Jour. Sci.—SEconD oe Vou. XLVIII, No. 142.Juny, 1869. 
Baas Jn, Pe ae Se ee 
5 Beat 
