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Aurora Australis. Mr. Forster’s description. Long columns of white light spreading over the whole sky.

In an article on Auroræ in high Southern latitudes (Phil. Trans. No. 461, and vol. liv. No. 53), we find that Mr. Forster, who as naturalist accompanied Capt. Cook on his second voyage round the world, says:—“On February 17th, 1773, in south latitude 58°, a beautiful phenomenon was observed during the preceding night, which appeared again this, and several following nights. It consisted of long columns of a clear white light shooting up from the horizon to the eastward almost to the zenith, and gradually spreading over the whole southern part of the sky. These columns were sometimes bent sideways at their upper extremities; and though in most respects similar to the northern lights of our hemisphere, yet differed from them in being always of a whitish colour, whereas ours assume various tints, especially those of a fiery and purple hue. The sky was generally clear when they appeared, and the air sharp and cold, the thermometer standing at the freezing point.” This account agrees very closely in particulars with Capt. Maclear’s notice of Aurora Australis [after referred to], and especially in the marked absence of red Auroræ.

The height of the barometer does not appear to be mentioned, the temperature being apparently much the same as in the more recent cases.

Capt. Maclear’s Aurora Australis, 3rd March, 1874. Light of pale yellow tint only.

In a letter dated from H.M.S. ‘Challenger,’ North Atlantic, April 10th, 1876, Capt. Maclear was good enough to communicate to me some particulars of an Aurora Australis seen 3rd March 1874, in lat. 54° S., long. 108° E. The letter is mainly descriptive of the spectrum (which will be described in connexion with the general question of the spectrum of the Aurora). It states that the red line was looked for in vain, and that the light appeared of a pale yellow, and had none of the rosy tint seen in the northern displays.

Capt. Maclear’s Auroræ described in ‘Nature.’

Capt. Maclear has since contributed to ‘Nature,’ of 1st November 1877, a description of four Auroræ seen from the ‘Challenger’ in high southern latitudes (including the one communicated to me). He speaks of the opportunity of observing as not frequent, either from the rarity of the phenomena, or because the dense masses of cloud prevalent in those regions prevented their being seen except when exceptionally bright. There were four appearances described:—

Feb. 9, 1874.

(1.) At 1.30 on the morning of February 9th, 1874, preceded by a watery sunset, lat. 57° S. and long. 75° E., bar. 29·0 in., ther. 35°; brilliant streaks to the westward. Day broke afterwards with high cirrus clouds and clear horizon.

Feb. 21, 1874.

(2.) At 9.30 P.M., February 21, 1874, lat. 64° S., long. 89° E., bar. 28·8 in., ther. 31°; one bright curved streamer. The Aurora preceded a fine morning with cumulo-stratus clouds, extending from Jupiter (which appeared to be near the focus) through Orion and almost as far beyond. Under this a black cloud, with stars visible through it. Real cumuli hid great part of the remainder of the sky, but there were two vertical flashing rays which moved slowly to the right (west). Generally the Aurora was still bright.

March 3, 1874. Auroral line found in light to southward.

(3.) At midnight, March 3rd, 1874, lat. 53° 30´ S., long. 109° E., bar. 29·1, ther. 36°, after some days’ stormy weather, a brilliant sunset, followed by a fine morning. Soon after 8 P.M. the sky began to clear and the moon shone out. Noticing the light to the southward to be particularly bright, Capt. Maclear applied the spectroscope, and found the distinguishing auroral line.

Brilliant white clouds seen.

About midnight the sky was almost clear, but south were two or three brilliant light clouds, colour very white-yellow, shape cumulo-stratus. From about west to near south extended a long feathery light of the same colour, parallel with the horizon, and between south and west there appeared occasionally brilliant small clouds. The upper edges seemed hairy, and gave one the idea of a bright light behind a cloud. The forms changed, but no particular order was noticed.

(Here follows a description of the spectrum, and the mode in which a delineation by the lines was obtained.)

March 6, 1874. Capt. Maclear suggests whether a low barometer has to do with the absence of red.

(4.) At 8 P.M., March 6th, 1874. This was a slight Aurora, seen to the southward; after this the clouds changed to high cirrus. Capt. Maclear suggests whether a low barometer has any thing to do with the absence of red in the spectrum, the normal state of the barometer being an inch lower in those regions than in more temperate latitudes.

Barometer falls after the Aurora, and strong gale from the S. or S.W. follows.

Edin. Encyc. vol. iii. article “Aurora.” Dr. Kirwan observed that the barometer commonly falls after the Aurora. Mr. Winn, in the seventy-third volume of the Phil. Trans., makes the same remark, and says that in twenty-three instances, without fail, a strong gale from the south or south-west followed the appearance of an Aurora. If the Aurora were bright, the gale came on within twenty-four hours, but was of no long continuance; if the light was faint and dull, the gale was less violent, longer in coming, and longer in duration.

Pale yellow glow rare in the Aurora Borealis.

The pale yellow-coloured glow referred to by Capt. Maclear is, in my experience, rare in the Aurora Borealis. It is probably the “æqualiter et sine eruptionibus aut radiis fulvi,” described by Seneca (antè, p. 1), and may probably belong to more southern climes.

Spectrum of Auroræ Australes extends more into the violet.

We shall see too, by-and-by, that these Auroræ Australes as to spectrum extend more into the violet than the Aurora Borealis. The yellow, as complementary to violet, is likely thus to make (in the absence of the red) its appearance.

It is, however, somewhat singular that Carl Bock found almost exclusively yellow Auroræ in Lapland.

In Proctor’s ‘Borderland of Science,’ article “The Antarctic Regions,” we find quoted a passage from a letter by Capt. Howes, of the ‘Southern Cross,’ in which a graphic description is given of a Southern Aurora:—

Capt. Howes’s description of a Southern Aurora.

“At about half-past one on the 2nd of last September the rare phenomenon of the Aurora Australis manifested itself in a most magnificent manner. Our ship was off Cape Horn, in a violent gale, plunging furiously into a heavy sea, flooding her decks, and sometimes burying her whole bows beneath the waves. The heavens were as black as death, not a star was to be seen, when the brilliant spectacle first appeared.

Balls of electric fire resting on mast-heads &c.

“I cannot describe the awful grandeur of the scene; the heavens gradually changed from murky blackness till they became like vivid fire, reflecting a lurid glowing brilliancy over every thing. The ocean appeared like a sea of vermilion lashed into fury by the storm, the waves dashing furiously over our side, ever and anon rushed to leeward in crimson torrents. Our whole ship—sails, spars, and all—seemed to partake of the same ruddy hues. They were as if lighted up by some terrible conflagration. Taking all together—the howling, shrieking storm, the noble ship plunging fearlessly beneath the crimson-crested ways, the furious squalls of hail, snow, and sleet, drifting over the vessel, and falling to leeward in ruddy showers, the mysterious balls of electric fire resting on our mast-heads, yard-arms, &c., and, above all, the awful sublimity of the heavens, through which coruscations of auroral light would shoot in spiral streaks, and with meteoric brilliancy—there was presented a scene of grandeur surpassing the wildest dreams of fancy.”

The foregoing picture presents a singular contrast to the yellow-white Auroræ described as seen in high southern latitudes by Capt. Maclear, and is interesting as a southern Aurora of a red or ruddy tint. Looking, however, at the extreme rarity of red Auroræ in those latitudes, and the description of “mysterious balls of electric fire resting on our mast-heads, yard-arms, &c.” (a phenomenon not often noticed in connexion with the Aurora), it suggests itself that the case in question may have been an instance not of a true Aurora, but of an electric display, with conditions approaching those experienced by travellers who have found themselves in mountainous districts surrounded by storm-clouds charged with electricity[6].