INDIAN SUMMER. 



383 



appears in the western horizon ; it is then the end of the 

 astronomic twilight ; it is closed night. We may estimate 

 that civil twilight ends when the sun has declined 6° 

 below the horizon, and that a decline of 16° is necessary 

 to terminate the astronomic twilight." 



I often observed the Twilight Bow to be tinged with 

 a delicate rose colour, passing into straw colour, and then 

 into faint emerald green. The line of demarcation be- 

 tween the bow and the illuminated portion of the at- 

 mosphere was often very well defined, quite as clearly as 

 in a secondary rainbow. It appeared most brilliant at an 

 altitude of 60° or 70° above the horizon. It descended 

 slowly towards the boundless level, preserving apparently 

 with considerable exactness the form of a parabola. When 

 the Twilight Bow is best developed, the aspect of the 

 prairie is very singular. Towards the" east it is cold, 

 cheerless, and gloomy ; towards the west it is warm, in- 

 spiriting, and suggestive of pleasant thoughts and cheerful 

 anticipations. No wonder the prairie Indians associate 

 dehghtful dreams of happy hunting-grounds with the 

 setting sun and the beautiful west. They delight to sit 

 silent and thoughtful " in the glory of the sunset," and 

 allow themselves to be transported in imagination 



(t To the Islands of the Blessed, 

 To the Kingdom of Ponemah, 

 To the Land of the hereafter." 



INDIAN SUMMER. 



Indian summer is a phenomenon of constant yearly 

 occurrence and marked characteristics in the north-west. 

 The following table, kindly furnished from the private 

 memoranda of Mr. James Walker, Assistant at the Pro- 

 vincial Observatory, establishes the fact that the hazy, 



