168 THE NATUEALIST IN BEEMUDA. 



and luminous arc of the most beautiful roseate or carmine, 

 extending almost to the altitude of the Polar star, and 

 ultimately much above it. Through this reddened portion 

 of the sky, evanescent rays of white light were continually 

 shooting upwards. At nine o'clock the brilliancy of the 

 phenomenon had passed away, and at ten, when I last saw 

 it, the northern part of the heavens was more faintly 

 illuminated. 



The night was calm and fair, with a light air from the 

 south-east, and a young moon, which set between eight and 

 nine. 



This is the second time that I have observed the Aurora 

 Borealis in the Bermudas, during a residence of nearly 

 eleven years. On the former occasion it appeared on the 

 17th of November, 1848. Familiar as I have been with 

 this phenomenon in the latitude of 46° of the North 

 American colonies, I never before observed the heavens 

 radiant with the beautiful deep rose colour which prevailed 

 on both these occasions. 



November 2nd, 1851. In a London newspaper of the 

 4th of October, 1851* which arrived by this day's mad, it 

 is stated, that at twelve p.m., on the evening of the 29th of 

 September last, the Aurora Borealis was very vivid ia Lon- 

 don, and that its brilliancy at one time was supposed to 

 arise from some tremendous conflagration in that metro- 

 polis. 



Allowing for difference of longitude, the appearance of the 



Aurora ia the Bermudas and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, was 



simultaneous with that recorded in London, and the fact of 



its being visible at the same moment from parts of the 



* Vide Bell's Weekly Messenger. 



