NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 393 



Was surprised to find the heavens most beautifully illu- 

 minated by the aurora borealis, the vertical rays of light 

 appearing to move over a surface of carmine, or deep rose 

 colour. Often as I have witnessed this phenomenon in the 

 latitude 46, and present longitude, I never before saw the 

 aurora so brilliant in colour as on this occasion. During 

 the eight years I had spent in Bermuda, this was the only 

 instance in which I had enjoyed the sight of the aurora. 



This aurora was witnessed at sea by Captain Drummond, 

 who was returning from leave of absence, on board one of 

 the Royal Mail Steamers from England, which in those 

 days touched at the Bermudas. On that night, November 

 17th, when in about the latitude of Bermuda, and five 

 hundred miles distant from the islands, he was called on 

 deck between ten and eleven to see " a most wonderful 

 sight." He says " on reaching the deck the whole sea 

 appeared as one sheet of blood through which the ship was 

 ploughing its way. Though I had seen many auroras I 

 had never seen one like this, the whole sky of a deep 

 carmine, shaded to rose, strongly reflected on to the sea, 

 giving the whole expanse to the horizon as if of blood." 



In 1851, at seven o'clock in the evening of Septem- 

 ber 29th, the aurora borealis was again seen in the Ber- 

 mudas. The sky became beautifully illuminated all along 

 the intervening hills of the north shore, for a considerable 

 distance east and west. The lower portion that was vis- 

 ible to us exhibited the usual white light of the aurora 

 — more or less divided at intervals — surrounded by a wide 

 and luminous arc of the most beautiful roseate or carmine, 

 extending almost to the altitude of the polar star, and ulti- 

 mately much above it to the zenith. Through this red- 

 dened portion of the sky, rays of white light were con- 

 tinually shooting upwards, but these were evanescent; and 

 disappearing at intervals. 



