376 
The Aurora. 
[June, 
IV. THE AURORA.* 
S HIS is the day of editions de luxe. Even Science shares 
the decorative emotion, and appears in holiday attire. 
Of the many objedts in Nature which attradt alike 
the fancy of the artist and the more sober imagination of 
the scientific student, few possess the same kind of fascina- 
tion as that afforded by the Northern Lights. Their mys- 
terious and capricious uncertainty; their ever-changing 
aspedt ; their delicate nuanees of tint ; the weirdness of the 
surrounding objedts in those regions where they are seen in 
greatest perfection ; and, lastly, the completeness with which 
they baffle explanation — all these constitute a set of attri- 
butes possessed by no other natural phenomenon, not even 
by the rainbow. 
The volume recently brought out by Mr. J. Rand Capron, 
entitled “Aurorae : their Characters and Spectra,” is indeed 
worthy of its attractive title. Well printed, possessed of 
spacious margins, and illustrated with several fine chromo- 
lithographs and many uncoloured plates, the work now lying 
before us presents an inviting contrast to the many cramped 
and ill-printed treatises which enshrine so many precious 
chapters in Science. 
All that can be gleaned from past or present literature on 
the subjedt of the Aurora, Mr. Capron has embodied in his 
treatise. While giving us epitomised notes of the latest 
researches of Lemstrom, Backhouse, and R. H. Prodter, he 
does not forget the good work of Sir J. Franklin and of 
Parry, and the older observations and speculations of pre- 
scientific ages obtain their due meed of notice. The pages 
of Seneca, Aristotle, and Josephus alike bear witness to the 
interest excited by auroral displays ; and from the first- 
mentioned author the passage may be recalled in which it is 
narrated how, under Tiberius Caesar, the cohorts ran together 
in aid of the colony of Ostia, supposing it to be in flames, 
“ when the glowing of the sky lasted through the great part 
of the night, shining dimly like a vast and smoking fire.” 
Almost every observer of Aurorae has formed his own im- 
pressions as to the character and origin of the phenomenon. 
It is hardly strange therefore, considering the immense 
* Auroras: their Characters and SpeCtra. By J. Rand Capron, F.R.A.S. 
London : E. and F. N. Spon. 1879. 
