OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



145 



which remained nearly unaltered for three quarters of an hour, its light being 182 1- 

 of a yellow east and remarkably brilliant. After this an arch was gradually v^-^L 

 formed by the light extending over to W.N.W., the brightest portion of it 

 being still that in the eastern quarter. The arch was irregular and some- 

 times not continuous, but divided into a number of luminous patches like 

 nebulcv. We also noticed, and now remembered to have done so once before, 

 that there were in some places narrow but long horizontal separations of the 

 light, appearing like so many dark parallel streaks lying over it, which, how- 

 ever, they were not, as the stars were here most plainly visible. The mag- 

 netic needle was not affected. This night Avas one of the clearest we had 

 during the winter, the milky-way appearing unusually bright and well-defined. 



On the 22d, the electrometer was tried, the wind being light from the 

 N. W., with overcast weather, and some very small snow falling; but no 

 perceptible effect was produced upon the gold leaf. In the evening, the 

 Aurora appeared, like a white cloud in the E.S.E. At half-past nine, 

 an irregular arch extended from that point of the horizon to the S.W., 

 the breadth being from one to two degrees, though constantly varying, and 

 its height in the middle, ten degrees. When this kind of arch appears most 

 perfect, it. is less frequently than any other kind attended with coruscations, 

 or very rapid motion in the light. When these do accompany it, they are 

 almost invariably observed to proceed from the upper side of the arch only. 



In the evening of the 23d, though the wind was from the N.W., a 

 number of small roundish clouds, very unusual here at this season, rose 

 from the S.E., and the sky was very prettily illuminated in the intervals by 

 the Aurora. These clouds remaining quite dark in their appearance, ex- 

 cept about their edges, even during the most brilliant display of the Aurora, 

 seemed to indicate that the latter phenomenon was the most distant of the 

 two. The light of the Aurora was, as usual, much the brightest in the S.E. 

 quarter. This phenomenon again made its appearance very beautifully, on 

 the 24th, resembling, in most particulars, that described on the 14th. It was 

 principally confined to the southern half of the heavens, and the different 

 streamers and coruscations, though almost infinitely varied, had an evident 

 tendency to arch from E.b.S. over to the opposite horizon. The " merry 

 dancers " were also playing about with indescribable rapidity, and many of 

 the sheets of light, when they overlapped in meeting, had a very perceptible 

 lilac tinge. 



On the morning of the 28th, the Aurora Borealis appeared faintly to the 



u 



