7. That the appearance of the Aurora Borealis is no wise peculiar to the winter solstice, but has been observed in each of the eight months of September, October, November, December, January, February, March, and April, and may be regarded, therefore, as coincident with the Arctic winter; and that the appearance of an Aurora in the Southern Hemisphere, in the month of February, or beginning of the Antarctic winter, as observed during the voyage of Captain Cook, in the year 1773, is [p423] consistent with the persuasion, that the Aurora Australis, in its turn, is a phenomenon of the Austral or Antarctic winter.
8. That considerable or powerful displays of the Aurora are infrequent, even in the extreme Polar regions; and that it is very considerable or powerful displays alone, which make themselves visible in the lower latitudes, north or south of the equator.
9. That no appearance belongs to the Aurora itself, but that of its coruscations, columns, spears, or streamers; and that all colours, therefore, or coloured figures, not belonging to the coruscations, but coincident in their appearance, are to be regarded only as reflections or refractions of light, derived from the coruscations by the clouds which happen to cover the sky.
10. That the colours, or coloured light, proper to the Aurora, or seen in the columns or coruscations themselves, are varied from column or coruscation to column or coruscation, and severally continued in the direction, and throughout the length or height, of each.
11. That, in the late example, the columns or coruscations situate in the due north, or apparent centre or focus of the phenomenon, exhibited a light at least comparatively white; and that the variation, from white to colour, had an apparent relation to the comparative remoteness of each column or coruscation from the column or coruscation in the central north.
12. That the direction or position of the columns or coruscations of the Aurora, are so far from being uniformly convergent toward the zenith, or uniformly vertical, or from the horizon to the zenith, that, in the late example, they did not converge toward the zenith, but, contrariwise, diverged from it; spreading themselves like the sticks of a fan, or like stalks in a flower-basket.
13. That the columns or coruscations of the Aurora are not uniformly rectilinear in their figure; but that, in the late example, those on the north-eastward were curved outwardly, or “bent sideways,” as described in the appearance of the columns or coruscations of an Aurora seen in the Southern Atlantic, during the voyage of Captain Cook, in the year 1773.
[120] Literary Gazette, Sept. 29, 1827.
[121] “PENCELLS.—Pencills, or flagges for horsemen, must be a yard and a halfe long.” Harleian MSS., cited in an interesting and valuable essay on the “Banners used in the English army, from the Conquest to the reign of Henry VIII.” By N. H. NICOLAS, Esq., F.S.A—Retrospective Review, Oct. 1, 1827.
“The Pensell, or Pennoncelle, was the diminutive of the Pennon, being a long narrow flag.”—MEYRICK’S ANCIENT ARMOUR.