362 



RURICOLA ON THE AURORA BOREALIS. 



life had he only been half so wise." The instances with which I have 

 furnished the reader are sufficient to show that the oyster which seems 

 so inactive and harmless a creature, is in truth one of no ordinary 

 strength, having sufficient to render its enemies extremely cautious 

 how they assail it. Besides the rat, the mouse, the lobster, and the 

 monkey, the oyster has other enemies to contend with} for the sea-star, 

 the cockle, and the muscle also prey upon it ; but its most universal 

 destroyer, and the one from which it has the least chance of escape, is 

 of that species to which the late illustrious Dando, of oyster-eating 

 celebrity, belonged. 



Laytonstonc, July. 1833. 



THE AURORA BOREALIS, OR NORTHERN LIGHTS, HISTORI- 

 CALLY CONSIDERED. 



BY RURICOLA. 



Two of your former numbers contain some valuable observations on 

 the Aurora Borealis ; I beg leave to submit the following on the same 

 subject historically considered, for the purpose of correcting what I 

 suppose to be an error, which has been for a long time in considerable 

 circulation. 



In Collins's posthumous u Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the 

 Highlands of Scotland " is this passage : — 



" As Boreas threw his young Aurora forth 

 In the first year of the first George's reign." 



Upon which the editor of the Ode, in or about 1 789, subjoins a note, 

 copied in subsequent editions of Collins's poems, and among others by 

 Mr. Pickering, in his Aldine edition of 1830, in these words: — "By 

 young Aurora Collins undoubtedly meant the first appearance of the 

 northern lights, which happened about the year 1715 ; at least it is 

 most highly probable from this peculiar circumstance, that no ancient 

 writer whatever has taken any notice of them, nor even any modern 

 one previous to the above period." 



That " the first appearance of the northern lights happened about 

 the year 1715 " would be hardly credible, considering the nature of the 

 phenomenon, even if they had not been previously noticed by any 



