320 
DAY AURORA. 
fashion, as it rose, and was lost by its penciled radia- 
tions blending with the illuminated sky. Thus far it 
did not differ materially from the vertical or crepuscu- 
lar rays accompanying rudimentary forms of parhelia. 
But by eleven o'clock this fan-like column had en- 
larged to a cloudy shaft of bright yellow light, twen- 
ty to twenty-four degrees in height, and proceeding 
from a complete segment of illumination, which was 
thickly studded with cirrous clouds. The upper ter- 
minus of this column, unlike the parhelia which we 
had seen before, assu.med a curvilinear wedge shape, 
not unlike the section of a pear, from whose sides rose 
tangentially a series of penciled illuminations termin- 
ating in streaks of cloud strata. 
" The feature about this phenomenon of greatest in- 
terest was a distinct play of light, a series of coruscat- 
ing changes resembling the scintillations of the auro- 
ra. The rays which shot out from the three-curved 
summit sometimes extended twelve or fifteen degrees, 
with a sudden movement of increased energy almost 
resembling ignition : then again they retired, until rep- 
resented by but a few feeble points. The cloud-like 
segment showed in a lesser degree the same move- 
ments ; and at the periods of most active display, the 
vertical or fan-like shaft flashed up into more intense 
illumination. The diameter of this shaft at its en- 
tering base could not have been less than eighty de- 
grees." 
This singular exhibition recalled irresistibly the an- 
alogous phenomena of the aurora, with those anomal- 
ous displays of coronse which have been referred to 
the diffraction of light by atmospheric vesicles or icy 
spiculse. I give it from my notes, as a simple detail 
of facts, without comment or opinion. 
