REMARKS ON THE AURORA BOREALIS, 



EXTRACTED FROM 



Dr. RICHARDSON'S JOURNAL. 



The account of the Aurora Borealis, in the following pages, is an exact 

 transcript of notes taken at the moment of the appearance of the different 

 phenomena. 



To place a connected view of the appearances before the reader, the whole 

 of the observations in the month of December, 1820, have been given, to 

 which a few remarkable nights in the other months have been added. 



The altitudes and dimensions of the different masses of light w T ere ascer- 

 tained merely by the eye, and therefore have no pretensions to accuracy, and 

 it is only the apparent shapes that are described, the effect of perspective not 

 being taken into account. The bearings given of the Aurora are also to be 

 taken with some latitude, but they are more likely to be generally correct 

 than the altitudes, as they were ascertained by the different angles of our 

 buildings ; or, in some cases, when the masses of light were near the horizon, 

 by their relations to distant trees, and peaks of hills, whose bearings from 

 the spot of observation were known. To reduce the bearings given to mag- 

 netic bearings, the easterly mean variation of the compass at Fort Enterprise, 

 amounting to 36° 20' is to be applied. The dip of the needle there was 

 86° 59'. To shew the condition of the atmosphere with regard to the trans- 

 mission of sound, and its capacity for moisture, the state of a rapid about a 

 quarter of a mile from the house, which continued open all the winter, has 

 been occasionally mentioned. 



The forms of the Aurora are described in such language as occurred at the 

 time, without any regard whatever to theory ; but it may be proper to remark, 

 that in reference to Mr. Dalton's opinions, detailed in Rees's Cyclopaedia, 

 which comprised the whole of my limited reading upon the subject up to the 

 time of observation. I have been more particular in noting the directions of 

 the small slender beams of light, of which the masses were sometimes com- 

 posed, than I should otherwise have thought necessary. It will be seen that 



