SOUNDS ACCOMPANYING THE AURORA. 461 



Lieutenant Hooper spent the winter of 1849-50 at the fishing station of 

 New Fort Franklin, a wretched log hut near the Fort Franklin on Bear 

 Lake, where Sir John wintered in 1826-27. At this miserable station 

 Hooper spent much of his time in observing the almost nightly displays of 

 the aurora. This singular and beautiful appearance, " the most gorgeous as 

 well as most wonderful of northern, and perhaps of any other, phenomena," 

 seems to have engaged the constant attention and the most earnest specula- 

 tion of the young ofl&cer. Probably no predecessor in Arctic exploration 

 studied the subject with greater zeal than Hooper; certainly no other ofl&cer 

 ever succeeded in representing the aurora by an equal number of curious 

 and suggestive drawings. For these reasons, therefore. Lieutenant Hooper 

 deserves to be heard on this subject, on which, besides, he writes, in his 

 accustomed vigorous and picturesque style : " A beautiful aurora," he 

 writes, in his journal, on the 9th December 1849, " appeared in arch from 

 north-north-east to north-north-west, and gradually assumed an appearance 

 similar to that produced by the aurora of the 7th, in broken vertical rays, 

 coruscating towards the zenith. The stars were visible in myriads and very 

 bright. At eleven p.m. I returned from viewing, and listening too, to the 

 aurora, which then presented a gorgeous spectacle. It had shifted from its 

 position, and at that hour covered one-half of the heavens, from east through 

 south to west — ^its beauty was of so exquisite a nature as to be indescrib- 

 able, but I will attempt to give some idea of its position and main features. 

 Orion then bore south-south-west, and, on each side of that constellation, to 

 about four points, rays were converging very nearly to the zenith, at per- 

 fectly regular distances, and in form reminding one of the lines of longi- 

 tude on a globe, and like these they were divided just below the zenith. 

 Around and about them were wreaths and rolls, straight lines and curves, 

 dense columns and scattered outposts of the luminous fluid, never still for 

 a moment, but waving and rolling, advancing and retiring, folding and un- 

 folding, rapid as thought and changeful as a dream. In its eternal change 

 it was like the fickle kaleidoscope, ever presenting some new appearance, 

 never returning to its former shape, and yet always as wondrous in beauty, 

 or, if possible, more so, than before it altered its appearance. Some of 

 the flying Hues were drawn up or let down like the curtain in a theatre, and 

 they expanded and contracted incessantly. Others again looked like heavy 

 breakers, curling and turning under and about. There was one large mass, 

 a perfect blaze of light, which seemed not to be more than twenty feet above 

 me ; others with less body appeared to be far away. This night I was also 

 able, by personal observation, to settle a point long doubted by me. I have 

 heard the aurora, not once, but many times ,- not faintly and indistinctly, but 

 loudly and unmistakably — now from this quarter, now from that, now from a 

 point on high, at another time from a point low down. At first it seemed 



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