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crimson columns, the most beautiful of all, as it ascended towards the common focus crossed the planet Jupiter, then at an altitude of thirty-six degrees. The appearance was peculiarly interesting, as the planet shone through the crimson clouds with its splendor apparently augmented rather than diminished.

A few shooting stars were seen at intervals, some of which above the ordinary magnitude and brightness. One that came from between the feet of the Great Bear, at eight minutes after one o'clock, and fell apparently near to the earth, exhibited a very white and dazzling light and as it exploded scattered shining fragments very much after the manner of a sky rocket.

As early as seven o'clock, the magnetic needle began to show unusual agitation, and after that it was carfully observed. Near eleven o'clock, when the streamers were rising and the corona forming, the disturbance of the needle was very remarkable, causing a motion of one degree and five minutes, in five minutes of time. This disturbance continued until ten o'clock the next morning, the needle having traversed an entire range of one degree and forty minutes, while its ordinary deflection is not more than four minutes.

Another writer, speaking of the same appearance, says-We can compare the spectacle to nothing but an immense umbrella suspended from the heavens, the edges of which embraced more than half the visible horizon; in the south-east its lower edge covered the belt of Orion, and farther to the left the planet Jupiter shone in all its magnificence and glory, as through a transparency of gold and scarlet. The whole scene was indescribably beautiful and solemn. It was a spectacle of which painting and poetry united can give no adequate idea, and which philosophy will fail to account for to the satisfaction of the student of nature, or the disciple of revelation. The cause can be known only to HIM at whose bidding

Darkness fled-Light shone,

And the etherial quintessence of heaven
Flew upward, spirited with various forms
That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars.

The appearance of April 23d 1836, is thus described by Olm

sted-Last night we were regaled with another exhibition of the auroral lights, in some respects even more remarkable than that of the 17th of November. It announced itself as early as a quarter before eight o'clock, by a peculiar kind of vapor overspreading the northern sky, resembling a thin fog, of the color of dull yellow, slightly tinged with red. From a bank of the auroral vapor that rose a few degrees above the northern horizon, a great number of those luminous columns called streamers ascended towards a common focus, situated, as usual, a little south and east of the zenith, nearly or perhaps exactly at the magnetic pole of the dipping-needle. Faint undulations played on the surface of the streamers, affording sure prognostics of an unusual display of this mysterious phenomenon. The light of the moon, now near its first quarter, impared the distinctness of the auroral lights, but the firmament throughout exhibited one of its finest aspects. The planet Venus was shining with great brilliancy in the west, followed at small intervals by Jupiter and the moon; while the larger constellations, Orion and Leo, with two stars of the first magnitude, Sirius and Procyon, added their attractions. The sky was cloudless, and the air perfectly still.

There are but few examples on record of the auroral lights displaying themselves with peculiar magnificence in moonlight.

Notwithstanding the presence of the moon, by half past ten o'clock, the auroral arches, streamers. and waves began to exhibit the most interesting appearances. No well-defined arch was formed, but broad zones of silvery whiteness, composing greater or less portions of arches, were seen in various parts of the heavens. Two that lay in the south, crossing the meridian at different altitudes, were especially observable. From each proceeded streamers, all directed towards the common focus. At the same time, those peculiar undulations called merry dancers, were flowing in broad and silvery sheets towards that point, writhing around it in serpentine curves, and often assuming the most fantastic forms. The swiftness of their motions, which were generally upward, and often with their broadest side foremost, was truly astonishing. Toward the horizon the undulations were comparatively feeble; but from the elevation of about thirty degrees to

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the zenith, their movement was performed in a time not exceeding one second, a velocity greater than we have ever noticed before, which was still distinctly progressive.

Five minutes after eleven o'clock, a few large streamers, of the whiteness of burnished silver, radiated from the common focus towards the east and the west. These were soon superseded by a mass of crimson vapor, rising simultaneously a little south of west, and north of east, and ascending towards the focus in columns eight or ten degrees broad below, but tapering above; these disappeared in about ten minutes, and the lights were subsequently a pure white, except an occasional tinge of red. During the appearance of the crimson columns a rosy hue was reflected from white houses and other favorable surfaces, imparting to them an aspect peculiarly attractive.

From this time until half past two o'clock, our attention was almost wholly absorbed in contemplating the sublime movements of the auroral waves: they evidently were formations entirely distinct from the columns, which either remained stationary, or shot out a broad stream of white light towards the focus, while the waves apparently occupied a region far below them.

At half past two o'clock, a covering of light clouds was spread

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over a large portion of the sky, and our observations were dis

continued. At this time, although the moon was down, yet its absence produced little change in the general illumination; the landscape appeared still as if enlightened by the moon, and it was easy to discern the time of night by a watch, from the light of the aurora."

On the preceding page, is a view of the Aurora as witnessed by the French philosophers in the year 1838-9, at Borekop, bay of Alten, coast of W. Finmark, lat. 70° N. It presented the form of a scroll with folds overlapping, and waving like a flag agitated by the wind. Its brightness varied very suddenly, and the colors changed from bright red at the base, to green in the middle portions, and yellow at the top. The brightness would diminish, and colors fade, sometimes suddenly, and sometimes by slow degrees. After this, the fragments would be gathered, and the folds reproduced; the beams seemed to converge at the zenith which was doubtless, the effect of perspective.

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But it is in the Arctic regions that this phenomenon is witnessed in its greatest splendor, and presenting a variety of the most beautiful tints. In that cold region, clouds seldom obscure the sky, nothing in the form of fog or mist veils the deep blue of the

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heavens, every star blazes forth like a diamond, and a thousand icy pinnacles throw back their light, accompanied with magnificent prismatic displays. The bold hunters who penetrate the arctic circle in the pursuit of the silver fox and the sable, witness its grandest exhibitions. The whole sky is lighted up with the bright coruscations, and it is said that a rushing sound, like that of winds sweeping over a distant forest is heard. The inhabitants of the Shetland islands call the streamers merry dancers.

The appearance of the aurora, and the emotions it excites, are thus beautifully described by Whittier:

A light is troubling Heaven! A strange, dull glow
Hangs like a half-quench'd veil of fire between
The blue sky and the earth; and the shorn stars
Gleam faint and sickly through it. Day hath left
No token of its parting, and the blush

With which it welcom'd the embrace of Night,
Has faded from the blue cheek of the West;
Yet from the solemn darkness of the North,

"Stretch'd o'er the empty place" by God's own hand,
Trembles and waves that curtain of pale fire,
Tinging with baleful and unnatural hues

The winter snows beneath. It is as if
Nature's last curse-the fearful plague of fire,
Were working in the elements, and the skies
Even as a scroll consuming.

Lo, a change!

The fiery wonder sinks, and all along
The dim horizon of the clouded North
A dark, deep crimson, rests a sea of blood
Untroubled by a wave. And over all

Bendeth a luminous arch of pale, pure white,
Clearly contrasted with the blue above,
And the dark red beneath it. Glorious!

How like a pathway of the Shining Ones,

The pure and beautiful intelligences

Who minister in Heaven, and offer up

Their praise as incense; -or like that which rose
Before the pilgrim Prophet, when the tread
Of the most holy angels brighten'd it,
And in his dream the haunted sleeper saw
The ascending and descending of the blest!

And yet another change! O'er half the sky
A long, bright flame is trembling like the sword
Of the great angel at the guarded gate

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