252 H. C. RUSSELL. 
AURORA AUSTRALIS. 
By H. C. RussEtt, B.A., C.M.G., F.R.S. 
[Read before the Royal Society of N.S. Wales, Novembrr 3, 1897.] 
Wiruin the last few years associations of persons interested in 
the study of auroral displays have been formed, in the countries 
which surround the North Pole, with the common object of inves- 
tigating the phenomena presented. Many new and important 
facts have already been brought to light, and something has been 
done towards connecting the phenomena about the North and 
South Poles. I have done a little by collecting and publishing 
the reported Aurora Australis, but I feel that what has been done 
is not enough, and that if these records are published in our 
Society’s volume they will reach a much wider circle, and further 
will, I hope, lead all those who see the Aurora Australis to report it. 
Sailors generally believe that the Aurora is a sign of coming 
bad weather, and they are keen observers. Nearly all the infor- 
mation about displays come to me in ships’ logs, but we want also 
the help of those on shore who are in good positions for observing. 
Two of the auroral displays in April this year were unusually 
magnificent, and one of them which I want to bring before you 
this evening was the finest ever seen in the southern hemisphere, 
so far as I have been able to ascertain. 
This was observed by Capt. Campbell Hepworth, r.N.R., of the 
R.M.S. Avrangi, who sent me the following description of what 
he saw, which reads much more like the description of an aurora 
seen in the far north by arctic observers, than what we should 
expect to be seen between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia, 
where the Aorangi was in 96° East and 474° South, when the 
aurora was seen :— 
‘BRIEF NOTES OF A FINE AURORA SEEN ON APRIL 20, 1897. 
It was first seen as a diffused light over the southern horizon, 
like the light over a distant city which is illuminated by electric 
