Outward passage.—aurora eorealis. if 
On the 3d of April 1820, I observed the most in¬ 
teresting display of this meteor, that nearly forty 
passages to and from the fishery had afforded. 
The evening was fine and clear, the wind westerly. 
The aurora first appeared in the north, and gra¬ 
dually extended in a luminous arch across the ze¬ 
nith, almost to the southern horizon. A dim sheet 
of light then suddenly appeared, and spread over 
the whole of the heavens to the eastward of the 
magnetic meridian, while only a few insulated 
specks were visible to the westward. The eastern 
aurora; were grey and obscure, and exhibited little 
motion ; but the arch extending across the zenith, 
showed an uncommon playfulness of figure and 
variety of form. Sometimes it exhibited a lumi¬ 
nous edge towards the west, in some places con¬ 
centrated into a fervid brilliancy. The rays were 
a little oblique to the position of the arch ; but 
generally parallel to each other, and commonly 
ran in the direction of the magnetic north and 
south. At one time they extended sideways 
against the wind ; at another in the contrary di¬ 
rection. Now they shot forward numerous lu¬ 
minous pencils, then shrunk into obscurity, or 
dispersed into the appearance of mere vapour. 
The colours were ycllowisli-white and greyish- 
white. All the stars of the fourth magnitude 
were visible through the meteor, even in its most 
B 
