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VIII. Notices respecting New Boohs. 



Aurora? ; their Characters and Spectra. By J. Rand Capron, 



F.B.A.S. E. and E. Spon, London (46 Charing Cross) and 



JNew York (446 Brown Street): 1879. 

 ^TVHOUGH of all visible things, both above and below, the most 

 -*- pure, ethereal, peaceful, yet the sornetimes-seen changeful, 

 fitful shining of the Aurora Polaris in the sky is most fre- 

 quently likened by men in general, on any of its grander displays, 

 to conflagrations of cities and war's alarms! — as when, on one of 

 those rarer occasions on which the usually very Northern lights, 

 extending far southwards, have been seen superbly even in Pales- 

 tine, it is recorded in the second book of Maccabees (ch. 5, vv. 2 & 3) 

 that 



"There were seen horsemen running in the air, in cloth of 

 gold, and armed with lances like a band of soldiers, and troops 

 of horsemen in array, encountering and running one against ano- 

 ther, with shaking of shields, and multitude of pikes, and drawing 

 of swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments, 

 and harness of all sorts." 



When the delicate, innocent Aurora can so often be described in 

 this warlike guise, we may be excused for alluding to the present 

 state of science and scientists towards it in somewhat of military 

 phrase, while yet describing a state of things seldom occurring in 

 earthly warfare. For, behold, the campaign of the last eleven-year 

 cycle of Solar activity cum Auroral brilliancy has been duly fought 

 out ; yet who can say with what results achieved ? Most creditably 

 to themselves, observers in every civilized country, and more espe- 

 cially in America and Western Europe, have discharged at the 

 strange phenomenon, the spearmen of the sky, their biggest guns 

 in volleys, in platoons, and as single isolated sharp-shooters' pieces, 

 from rock and tower as well as from populous cities and large obser- 

 vatories. They have also exploded mines enough to have hoisted the 

 very auroral testudo or corona right above their heads . But uo w that 

 the cycle is over, the battles ended, where are the prizes ? what is the 

 spoil? The lively opponents have vanished with all their flashing 

 sheen of golden armour for full three years past ; but the slain are 

 still nowhere to be found, and we know not when, where, or how 

 the next encounter may take place. 



The present, then, while it is certainly no occasion for claiming 

 the triumphs of victory, is happily not one for deploring any very 

 ruinous defeat; it is merely that every one is nonplussed with 

 the past, uncertain of the present, and dark on the future — a time, 

 therefore, this above all others, for gathering up our scattered forces, 

 comparing notes, collecting information, and preparing to present 

 a new front to the foe at present invisible, but certain to return 

 before long. In fact this is the very time for a book on the Aurora, 

 for chronicling in black and white every thing that has yet been 



Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 9. No. 53. Jan. 1880. F 



