OBSERVATIONS ON THE AURORA BOREALIS.

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It commenced with the close of the day, with a strong glare of light in the northernheavens, but without any definite shape or boundaries; and continued in this condi-tion till nearly eight o’clock, about which time some faint colourless streamersappeared, and occasionally dim flashes of light swept across the sky, generally fromeast to west, and at a higher altitude than was reached by any of the streamers ; noneof which appeared to have any reference to the northern glare of light, which con-tinued nearly steady from first to last. The horizontal span of this light reached frombeneath the tail of the Great Bear , or about the shoulder of Bootes , on the easternside, to nearly the chest of Pegasus, on the western side ; hut the boundaries were sobadly defined that no exact points in the heavens could be selected to mark the pre-cise dimensions. The altitude of this northern light was quite as difficult to ascertainas its horizontal range, because of its gradual softening into the ordinary nocturnalcolour of the sky. I can only say that it embraced a Lyrce and a Cygni, which wereseen within it—the latter star just within its upper edge.

Such were the characteristics of the meteor till nearly nine o’clock, about whichtime commenced the first novelty in the history of the Aurora Borealis. A glow oflight made its appearance close to the tail of the Great Bear, which waxed to a con-siderable degree of brightness, and after remaining for about half-a-minute it gradu-ally waned in splendour until it finally disappeared, This spectacle had just endedwhen a horizontal arrangement of short glowing beams, of the usual shape of streamers,began to parade the northern heavens, about half way between the steady glare oflight, already described, and the pole star. They came into existence on the easternside of the meridian, and marched very orderly, one after another, westward, in thesame regular order of succession as they sprang into existence, until they reached apoint directly beneath Cassiopiea s Chair, where they became extinct, and were suc-cessively lost in the sky at the moment of their respective arrival at this spot, theirapparent destination. This scene lasted several minutes, almost without interruption ;during some part of the time the line of columns, between the two points in theheavens, was complete from one to the other, and had very much the appearance ofan army of soldiers marching in single files, where the observer could just see themcoming into view on his right, and vanish on his left, the whole marching past as iffor his especial review. The bases of these luminous beams were flat and well defined,but the upper extremities were of a diffused radiant character, and gradually softenedoff till lost. During the time of this strange spectacle, several minor groups mademomentary displays in different parts of the northern sky, and all seemed to move inthe same direction, from east to west.

The next scene in the drama was partly similar to that just described, but of fargreater splendour and extent. It began about half-past nine, at a point near thetip of the tail of the Great Bear, with a steady glow of pale light, from which issued