132 THE OCEAN. 
whole sky has been flushed with intense crimson, 
which, reflected from the snow beneath, had an 
awful, though beautiful appearance. ‘The follow- 
ing details of one which I observed in Lower Ca- 
nada, in February, 1837, will give a notion of the 
appearance of this meteor in its more usual state. 
“T first observed it about half-past eight o’clock: 
a long, low, irregular arch of bright yellow light 
extended from the north-east to the north-west, 
the lower edge of which was well defined; the sky 
beneath this arch was clear, and appeared black, but 
it was only by contrast with the light, for on ex- 
amination, I could not find that it was really darker 
than the other parts of the clear sky. The upper 
edge of the arch was not defined, shooting out rays 
of light towards the zenith: one or two points in 
the arch were very brilliant, which were varying in 
their position. Over head, and towards the south, 
east, and west, flashings of light were darting from 
side to side: sometimes the sky was dark, then 
instantly lighted up with these fitful flashes, vanish- 
ing and changing as rapidly; sometimes a kind 
of crown would form around a point south of the 
zenith, consisting of short converging pencils. At 
nine o’clock, the upper and southern sky was filled 
with clouds or undefined patches of light, nearly 
stationary; the eastern part, near the top, being 
bright crimson, which speedily spread over the upper 
part of the northern sky. A series of long converg- 
ing pencils was now arranged around a blank space 
about 15° south of the zenith, the northern and 
eastern rays blood-red, the southern and western 
