REV. JAMES FARQUHARSON ON THE AURORA BOREALIS. 
115 
neighbouring hills ; but while the lower ends of the vertical streamers were at 
this height, their upper might be two or three thousand -feet more. I have 
seen the aurora, however, when the clouds certainly occupied a much more 
elevated region. 
I may now be permitted to make some observations on Mr. Dalton’s de- 
ductions regarding this question : and here I feel that I ought to be very brief, 
as that gentleman may be disposed now to review them himself, for which he 
is infinitely better qualified. He will perhaps now allow, that the more com- 
mon streamers of the aurora, and the zenith arch, are not distinct, although 
contemporaneous phenomena, as he seems to suppose ; but that they are 
exactly the same thing ; — that which is the zenith arch to one set of spectators, 
becoming resolved into common streamers to other spectators who are placed 
at some distance, either to the southward or northward of the former. And he 
may now admit the contemporaneous existence of several parallel arches, even 
within the same field of view. 
Would not the numerous observations made on the 29th of March, 1826, 
from Edinburgh to Warrington, be more easily explained and rendered con- 
sistent with each other, on the supposition, that there were several nearly ver- 
tical fringes of the aurora, almost contemporaneously hanging over many lines 
from Edinburgh to Warrington, at a few thousand feet above the surface of the 
earth ? Are there not even some circumstances, of the numerous observations, 
that do not admit of being reconciled, on the supposition that only one arch 
was seen ? Thus, for instance, the arch over Edinburgh was seen a few degrees 
north of the zenith, at 8 h 15 m P.M. ; that at Jedburgh, 30° south of the zenith, 
exactly at the same hour. These two observations appear quite at variance 
with each other, if the same arch was seen by Mr. Otley at Keswick, at 8 P.M., 
a little south of the zenith, and by Mr. Holden, at Whitehaven, at 8 h 45 m , 
1 5° south of the zenith : — and the observations at all the four places again be- 
come irreconcileable among themselves, if the same arch passed through the 
zenith, at Kirkby Stephen at 9 P.M. and through the same point at Lancas- 
ter at 8 P.M. There are discrepancies also regarding the appearance of the 
arch itself, in respect of luminousness at its different extremities. 
On the other supposition, there would be scarcely any discrepancy. One 
fringe of streamers might hang over Edinburgh ; another nearly over Jedburgh 
Q 2 
