86 
Prof. Haiisteen on the Aurora Borealis. 
Lat, 64° 41'. If the place of the observer be within the circum- 
ference of the ring of the aurora borealis, as is the case with the 
colonies in the western districts of Greenland, the arch will be 
seen to the south, provided the observer be south from its centre, 
and to the east, if he be east from it. These rules may be shortly 
expressed in the following formula. If the observer be on the 
outside of the ring of the aurora borealis, he will see the highest 
point of the arch in the same direction with the centre of the 
ring : if he be within the ring, the highest point of the arch 
will be seen in the direction opposite to that of the centre of the 
ring 
That the centre of the ring of the aurora borealis does not 
coincide with the north pole of the earth, is a very remarkable 
fact. This centre coincides as near as possibk with the magnetic 
pole in North America, the place of which we have determined 
in the first volume of this Journal From this, we are led to 
suppose that there must be some connection between the aurora 
borealis and the magnetism of the earth. This conjecture is 
strengthened by the observations of Captain Cook with respect 
to the aurora australis. When that celebrated navigator, on his 
second voyage, was sailing round the south pole, he often saw, 
in the southern parts of the Indian sea, arches of the aurora 
australis, the highest point of which always lay to the south-east, 
so long as the ship sailed between the meridian of the Indian 
Peninsula and the parallel of 60°, In that region the variation 
of the compass is between 30° and 40° W. The highest point 
of the arch of the aurora australis coincides here too with the 
direction of the needle. But as soon as he approached the meri- 
dian of Van Dieman’s Land, where the variation of the compass 
, disappears, the highest point of the arch of the aurora australis 
• Accounts with regard to the appearances of the aurora borealis in Easter Fin- 
mark, as well as observations important to the physical science of the globe in ge- 
neral, are expected from Dean Deinboll ||, and with the more eagerness that these 
tracts are seldom visited by men of science, who, besides, when they do visit them, 
hurry' back, after a short survey, from regions the winter of which the inhabitant 
of the south views with horror. 
li Parish clergyman at Vadsoe, near Wardhuus (the most northerly parish in 
^Europe), and lately a much respected and patriotic member of the Norwegian 
*Storthing.-.«TRANsi,ATOE, 
Christiania Mag. of Nah Hist. p. 19. 
