1 76 Auroral Arches. 



AURORAL ARCHES. 



It will be interesting to compare the accounts of the remark- 

 able auroras recently seen in Scotland with descriptions of 

 similar phenomena observed in other places. 



The following passages are extracted from the Daily Review 

 (Edinburgh) relative to an auroral arch, on Wednesday even- 

 ing, the 15th February. They occur in two anonymous letters 

 addressed " to the Editor." 



1. Penicuick. "There was observed on Wednesday evening, 

 the 15th February, an extremely rare phenomenon. About 

 half-past eight on the evening in question an arch appeared, 

 spanning the heavens from N.E. to S.W., and, what is un- 

 usual, its path was directly overhead for the first half hour. 

 At either extremity it ended in a point about 8° above 

 the horizon; and it gradually expanded until it reached the 

 zenith, where it attained a breadth of about 5°. It was 

 throughout brilliantly white, and contrasted remarkably with 

 the blue sky. It was quite transparent except at the extre- 

 mities, the stars shining through it; and the night being 

 cloudless it was of singular beauty and grandeur. After the 

 first half hour the arch began to decline towards the south- 

 east, and by half-past ten it had lost much of its brilliancy.'" 

 — C. 



2. Edinburgh. " For volume and power of light the phe- 

 nomenon of Wednesday night, the 15th February, far exceeded 

 any single streamer of the Aurora Borealis. The arch ran east 

 and west, almost directly overhead, and stretching out to both 

 horizons. The shape presented to the eyes of most persons 

 was that of a dead straight line of brilliant light, at first 

 yellow, but when it commenced to melt out of sight, of a 

 silvery hue. It resembled a magnificent javelin horizontally 

 suspended over the city, and produced at one end to a point 

 in the horizon directly beyond Holyrood, at the other to Cor- 

 storphine Hill. The light at first surpassed that of the Comet 

 of 1858, and there was an entire absence of motion in the 

 luminous pathway ; nor did it change its direction in the least 

 in the last half hour of its existence, as was proved from 

 bearings taken of it when first seen." — X. 



Mr. J. Anderson, of Pratis, Fifeshire, in a letter to the 

 Fifeshire Herald, exclaimed concerning the same aurora — 

 "The wondrous beauty of the arch on Wednesday evening can 

 hardly be described. It seemed a heavenly pathway of gold, 

 shedding its brilliant light across the land, and leading 

 1 Eight onward to the goldea gates of heaven.' " 



Similar arches to that described were seen on the 29th 



