62 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
In the South a faint, scarcely visible band lies close to the horizon. 
All at once it rises rapidly, and spreads east and west. The waves 
of light begin to dart and shoot : some rays mount towards the zenith. 
For a short time it remains stationary, then suddenly springs to life. 
The waves of light drive violently from east to west, the edges assume 
a deep red and green colour, and dance up and down. The rays shoot 
up more rapidly, they become shorter ; all rise together and approach 
nearer and nearer to the magnetic Pole. It looks as if there were a 
race among the rays, and that each aspired to reach the Pole first. 
And now the point is reached, and they shoot out on every side, to the 
North and the South, to the East and the West. Do the rays shoot 
from above downwards, or from below upwards? Who can distin- 
guish? From the centre issues a sea of flames: is that sea red, white 
or green? Whocan say? It is all three colours at the same moment! 
The rays reach almost to the horizon: the whole sky is in flames. 
Nature displays before us such an exhibition of fireworks as trans- 
cends the powers of imagination to conceive. Involuntarily we listen: 
such a spectacle must, we think, be accompanied with sound. But 
unbroken stillness prevails; not the least sound strikes on the ear. 
Once more it becomes clear over the ice, and the whole pbenomenon 
has disappeared with the same inconceivable rapidity with which it 
came, and gloomy night has again stretched her dark veil over every- 
thing. This was the aurora of the coming storm—the aurora in its 
fullest splendour. No pencil can draw it, no colours can paint it, 
and no words can describe it in all its magnificence.” 
The chief features of scientific importance at the present moment 
may be classified as follows :— 
1. The arch. Is the vertex of the arch always in the magnetic 
meridian, and to what extent may it deviate from it? Is the form 
of the arch always consistent with the theory that it is a horizontal 
ring suspended in the atmosphere and seen in perspective ? 
2. What is the relation of the aurora to cloud formations? Is 
there especially independent evidence of the presence of the crystals 
in the atmosphere during the manifestations of the aurora? Do the 
movements of auroral streamers show any evidence of being affected 
by “wind”? 
3. Does the frequency of the aurora show any periodicity depend- 
ing on the phases of the moon ? 
4, The spectrum of the aurora. 
As regards the position and shape of the arch, the observer should 
try, whenever a well-defined arch appears, to fix carefully the posi- 
tion of the vertex with reference to the magnetic meridian. The 
