sky. Toward the north the spectacle was appalling. A huge arch spanned
an unnaturally dark segment resting on the horizon, and above this
arch sprang up beams and streamers in a state of incessant agitation,
sometimes shooting up to the zenith with a velocity that took one's
breath, and sometimes suddenly falling into long ranks, and marching,
marching, marching, like an endless phalanx of fiery specters, and
moving, as I remember, always from east to west. The absolute silence
with which these mysterious evolutions were performed and the
quavering reflections which were thrown upon the ground increased the
awfulness of the exhibition. Occasionally enormous curtains of lambent
flame rolled and unrolled with a majestic motion, or were shaken to
and fro as if by a mighty, noiseless wind. At times, too, a sudden
billowing rush would be made toward the zenith, and for a minute the
sky overhead would glow so brightly that the stars seemed to have been
consumed. The spectacle continued with varying intensity for hours.

This exhibition occurred in Central New York, a latitude in which the
Aurora Borealis is seldom seen with so much splendor. I remember
another similar one seen from the city of New York in November, 1882.
On this last occasion some observers saw a great upright beam of light
which majestically moved across the heavens, stalking like an
apparition in the midst of the auroral pageant, of whose general
movements it seemed to be independent, maintaining always its upright
posture, and following a magnetic parallel from east to west. This
mysterious beam was seen by no less than twenty-six observers in
different parts of the country, and a comparison of their observations
led to a curious calculation indicating that the apparition was about
one hundred and thirty-three miles tall and moved at the speed of ten
miles per second!