/ 
110 REV. J. FARQUII ARSON’S EXPERIMENTS ON THE INFLUENCE 
when the fringes come into the plane of the dip. I employ the term fringe, which 
1 first used in my paper on the definite arrangement and order of progress of the 
meteor, as the term arch can have reference properly to two only of its dimen- 
sions, while fringe may include the idea of all the three. 
The observations of the 28th January lead to the conclusion, that the N. 
pole of the needle (meaning the pole that is directed towards the N.) shifts 
towards the most brilliant end of the fringe. The successive phenomena of that 
evening were remarkably distinct, giving great facility to accuracy of observa- 
tion ; and I remember nothing of the kind surpassing them in splendour. The 
first fringe of that evening, which crossed the zenith, and faded in its W. end 
as it got into the plane of the dip, exhibited, in the most distinct way, the man- 
ner of the progress southward, by the extinction of streamers at its northern 
face, and the sudden formation of new ones along the whole of its southern 
face. 
After making the attempt, I have found it impracticable to keep any journal 
in detail, of the falling stars, on account of the great numbers that often occur 
in the same evening ; but I have not failed to observe them since my attention 
was directed to them in the remarkable manner I mentioned to you in a 
former letter*. I have now no doubt whatever that they are a branch or 
modification of the Aurora borealis. In a vast majority of cases their paths 
are parallel to the streamers of the aurora, that is, they are directed away 
from that part of the heavens to which the upper end of the dipping needle 
points ; and in those cases, comparatively few in number, where this parallelism 
* Date Nov. 1 1 . — During the course of these observations, my attention lias been incidentally directed 
to another meteor, that of falling stars ; and the conclusions to which my observations of these phenomena 
(as yet I must acknowledge very limited) have uniformly led, I have no doubt you will acknowledge to 
be interesting. I would have introduced this subject to you in my last, had I not felt it proper to 
wait till the views regarding them, which had at that time opened to me, should be ascertained to be 
correct or not, by some continuance of observation. 
On the evening of the 21st of September at 10£ r. m. there occurred an Aurora, rising above 
the northern horizon in detached groups of bright streamers and nebulous patches of light. Many 
flashes of sheet lightning were seen, during and after its continuance, in the western part of its space ; 
and in the eastern part several falling stars descending among, and having paths quite parallel to, the 
streamers. I could not quite satisfy myself whether the course of the sheet lightning was vertical in 
a downward direction, on account of its suddenness ; but that was the impression to which my obser- 
vations chiefly led. Rut the correct parallelism of the paths of the falling stars to the streamers led 
