Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/414

1841 the streamers rose from a base at 20° above the horizon to an altitude of 70°. At 8 15 it formed a double arch from W.S.W. to E.N.E. at the horizon, the altitude of their centres in the S.S.E. being 38° and 53°; they continued visible forty-five minutes, descending slowly to the S.S.W. At 9 15 p.m. it again appeared W.N.W. and E.S.E. in concentric arches of diffused light, with apparently a rapid internal motion, like a current passing through and lighting up thin mist. The centres of these concentric arches first became visible in the S.S.W. at an altitude of 30°, rising in succession slowly to the zenith, and thence declining in the N.N.E. to an altitude of 50° at 9 50, when the S.S.W. semi-hemisphere was perfectly clear, and the Aurora was very dimly seen to the N.N.E. At 9 53 a bright diffused light suddenly appeared from behind a dark cloud, and two or three minutes afterwards pink and green colours of considerable intensity were seen amongst it, principally at the edges, and before 10 o'clock bright streamers darted upward from the cloud to the zenith, forming coronæ, and exhibiting bright flashes of all the prismatic colours, green and red being the more frequent and conspicuous: this Aurora had much motion, darting and quivering about the sky in rapid flights, and in every direction. It sank in a few minutes beneath the horizon to the S.S.W., in the contrary direction to the series of successive concentric arches of diffused light before mentioned. Some very thin clouds now covered the E.S.E. portion of the sky, and a deposit of very fine snow