AURORA 
their colours from all the tints of yellow to 
the most obscure russet. They often cover 
♦he whole hemisphere, and then exhibit the 
most brilliant appearance. Their motions 
at this time are most amazingly quick ; and 
they astonish the spectator with the rapid 
change of their form. They break out in 
places where none were seen before, skim- 
ming briskly along the heavens, are sud- 
denly extinguished, and are succeeded by 
an uniform dusky tract. This again is bril- 
liantly illuminated in the same manner, and 
as suddenly left a dark space. In some 
nights, they assume the appearance of large 
columns, on one side of the deepest yellow, 
and on the other, gradually changing till it 
becomes undistinguished from the sky. 
They have generally a strong tremulous mo- 
tion from one end to the other, and this 
continues till the whole vanishes. As for 
us, who see only the extremities of these 
northern phenomena, we can have but a 
faint idea of their splendour, and motions. 
According to the state of the atmosphere, 
they differ in colour; and sometimes as- 
suming the colour of blood, they make a 
dreadful appearance. The rustic sages who 
observe them, become prophetic, and ter- 
rify the spectators w ith alarms of war, pes- 
tilence, and famine : nor, indeed, were 
these superstitious presages peculiar to the 
northern islands : appearances of a similar- 
nature are of ancient date ; and they were 
distinguished by the appellations of “ phas- 
mata,” “ trabes,” and “ bolides,” accord- 
ing to their forms and colours. In old times 
they were either more rare, or less fre- 
quently noticed : but when they occurred, 
they were supposed to portend great 
events, and the timid imagination formed 
of them aerial conflicts. 
In the northern latitudes of Sweden and 
Lapland, the aurorae borealis are not only 
singularly beautiful in their appearance, 
but afford travellers, by their almost con- 
stant effulgence, a very beautiful light dur- 
ing the whole night. In Hudson’s bay, the 
aurora borealis diffuses a variegated splen- 
dour, which is said to equal that of the full 
moon. In the north-eastern parts of Sibe- 
ria, according to the description of Gmelin, 
these northern lights are observed to “ be- 
gin with single bright pillars, rising in the 
north, and almost at the same time in the 
north-east, which gradually increasing, com- 
prehend a large space of the heavens, rush 
about from place to place with incredible 
velocity, and finally, almost cover the whole 
sky up to the zenith, and produce an ap- 
BOREALIS. 
pearance as if a vast tent was expanded in 
the heavens, glittering with gold, rubies, 
and sapphire. A more beautiful spectacle 
cannot be painted ; but whoever should see 
such a northern light for the first time, could 
not behold it without terrour. For how- 
ever fine the illumination may be, it is at- 
tended, as I have learned from the relation 
of many persons, with such a hissing, crack- 
ing') and rushing noise through the air, as if 
the largest fire-works were playing off. To 
describe what they then hear, they make 
use of the expression 1 spolochi chodjat,’ 
that is, ‘ the raging host is passing.’ The 
hunters, who pursue the white and blue 
foxes in the confines of the Icy sea, are 
often overtaken in their course by these 
northern lights. Their dogs are then so 
much frightened, that they will not move, 
but lie obstinately on the ground, till the 
noise has passed. Commonly, clear and 
calm weather follows this kind of northern 
lights. I have heard this account, not from 
one person only, but confirmed by the uni- 
form testimony of many, who have spent 
part of several years in these very northern 
regions, and inhabited different countries 
from the Yenisei to the Lena; so that.no 
doubt of its truth can remain. This seems 
indeed to be tire real birth place of the au- 
rora borealis.” 
This account of the noises attending the 
aurora borealis, allowing for some degree of 
exaggeration, has been corroborated by 
other testimonies. A person, who resided 
seven years at Hudson’s Bay, confirms M. 
Gmelin’s relation of the fine appearance 
and brilliant colours of the northern lights, 
and particularly of their rushing noise, which 
he affirms he has frequently heard, and 
compares it to the sound produced by whirl- 
ing round a stick swiftly at the end of a 
string. A similar noise has also been heard 
in Sweden. Mr. Nairne also, being in 
Northampton at a time when the northern 
lights were remarkably bright, is confident 
he perceived a hissing, or whizzing sound. 
Mr. Belknap, of Dover, in New Hamp- 
shire, North America, testifies to this fact. 
M. Cavallo says, that the crackling noise is 
distinctly audible, and that he has heard it 
more than once. Similar lights, called au- 
rorae australes, have been long since ob- 
served towards the south pole, and their 
existence has been more lately ascertained 
by Mr. Forster, who assures us that in his 
voyage round the world with Captain Cooke, 
he observed them in high southern latitudes, 
though attended with phenomena some- 
