FEBRUARY. 
47 
C — How can this be ascertained ? 
F, — By the same Aurora being visible from distant 
parts of the world at the same moment. 
C. — But if I rightly recollect^, Captain Parry records an ♦ 
instance in which he saw a beam of the Aurora Borealis 
shoot down between him and an opposite hill^ not more than 
a mile or two distant. 
F. — I suppose that to have been a very uncommon 
case. 
C. — Have you ever heard any sound accompanying it ? 
F, — Never : though I have seen very many, and some 
very splendid ones ; and though I have often eagerly and 
intently listened : yet I cannot doubt the fact ; for I have 
been assured by persons of undoubted veracity, that they 
have distinctly heard an accompanying sounds though ex- 
ceeding rarely. Some of these individuals could not be sus- 
pected of having taken the idea from books^ yet the charac- 
ter of the sound attributed to the Aurora exactly agrees in 
all the recorded instances in which it has been heard. It 
was described to me as being like the rustling of a silk flag 
in a smart breeze. These were all heard in Newfoundland^ 
where it is much more common than in this country. For 
two or three years past we have had a very brilliant coloured 
Aurora about this time : in February^ 1837^ the whole of 
the sky appeared of a splendid crimson^ which was reflected 
from the surface of the snow beneath^ and had almost an 
awful^ though very beautiful appearance. I saw a fine one, 
though inferior to this, on the evening of the 2 1 st of Feb- 
ruary, 1838, of which I recorded some particulars. I first 
observed it about half past eight o'clock ; a long^ low, irregu- 
lar arch of bright yellow light extended from the nort?i-east 
to the north-west, the lower edge of which was well defined ; 
the sky beneath this arch was clear and appeared black, but 
it was only by contrast with the light, for on examination^ I 
