METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
723 
compared its motion to the waving of a ribbon. See Second Voyage, p. 144. As the light pro- 
ceeded along the arch, coruscations emanated from it ; and as the motion became violent the 
curve was often deflected and sometimes broken into segments, which were brightest at their 
extremities, and in general highly coloured. When one ray of the Aurora crossed another, 
the point of intersection was sometimes marked by a prismatic spot, very similar to that 
which occurs in the intersections of coronce about the moon, but far more brilliant ; and when 
the segments, which generally crooked toward the zenith, were much curved, colours were 
perceptible in the bend. Generally speaking, after any brilliant display, the sky became 
overcast with a dense haze, or with light fleecy clouds. 
The Aurora has been frequently observed to rest upon a dark nebulous substance, which 
some persons have supposed to be merely an optical deception, occasioned by the lustre of 
the arch ; but this appearance never occurs above the arch, which would be the case, I think, 
if these surmises were well founded. We sometimes saw this cloud before any light was 
visible, and observed it afterwards become illuminated at its upper surface, and exhibit all the 
appearances above mentioned. It was the general opinion that the lustre of all the stars was 
diminished by the Aurora, but particularly by tins part of it. Captain Parry, however, ob- 
serves in his Journal, p. 142, that the stars in this dark cloud were uuobscured, .except by 
the light of the Aurora. Pie, however, agrees with us in the lower part of the arch being 
always well defined, and in the upper being softened oft’, and gradually mingled with the azure of 
the sky. It is worthy of notice, that we never observed any rays shoot downwards from this 
arch, and I believe the remark will apply equally to the observations of Captains Parry and 
Franklin. We frequently observed the Aurora attended by a thin fleecy-cloud like substance, 
which, if not part of the meteor, furnishes a proof of the displays having taken place within 
the region of our atmosphere, as the light was decidedly seen between it and the earth. 
This was particularly noticed on the 28th of September, 1827. The Aurora on that 
night began by forming two arches from W. by N. northward to E. by N., and about eleven 
o’clock threw out brilliant coruscations. Shortly after the zenith was obscured by a lucid 
haze, which soon condensed into a canopy of light clouds. We could detect the Aurora 
above this canopy by several bright arches being refracted, and by brilliant colours being 
apparent in the interstices. Shortly afterwards the meteor descended, and exhibited a 
splendid appearance, without any interruption from clouds, and then retired, leaving the 
fleecy stratum only visible as at first. This occurred several times, and left no doubt in my 
own mind of the Aurora being at one time above and at another below the canopy formed about 
our zenith. I must not omit to observe here, that on several occasions, when the light thus 
intervened between the earth and the cloud, brilliant meteors were precipitated obliquely 
toward the south and south-west horizons. 
This supposition of the light being at no great elevation is strengthened by the different 
appearances exhibited by the Aurora at the same times to observers not more than from ten 
to thirty miles apart, and also by its being visible to persons on board the ship at Chamisso 
Island, after it had vanished in Escholtz Bay, only ten miles distant, as well as by the Aurora 
being seen by the barge detached from the Blossom several days before it was visible to persons 
on board the ship, about two hundred miles to the southward of her. Captain Franklin has 
mentioned a similar circumstance in his notices on the Aurora Borealis in his first expedition, 
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