The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-01 00:00:00

THE BRILLIANT AURORA BOREALIS.

The following letter has been addressed to a con-
temporary by Mr. E. J. Lowe :
Sir,—Last night and this morning there was an
unusually brilliant display of Aurora Borealis; un-
fortunately the cloudy state of the sky frequently
prevented more than the strong light being seen.
Where less cloudy the phenomenon must have been
very grand. From S4O p.m. until 9 p.m. curtains
of red
thelig
ghltaNrvee roe
f o visiblerangnee thet zenith. By
no
Bryth 1140
was
powerful enough (even throush. much cloud) to
make the bands of a watch visible. From mid-
night, for three-quarters of an hour, the sky was
overcast ; yet at 12 25 a.m: the light emitted was
so strong that it gave the impression of daylight.
The clouds in west and northwest were inky black.
At 12 45 an opening (in the clouds) near the zenith
surroundedaAnl p
ever-changingh A n d r
by
ym aedm white
at lsicsii sr
oe star te
arbvemi nosgrt
disclosed the cupola, which was situated exactly on
more
ienfarmeocispueoenfn strpli
frequently
hcbety:
In a few minutes again overcast,y and remaining so
till 1 10, when the clouds began to clear off. At 115
a.m. magnificent rays of light met 2 deg. east of
Alpha Andromethe, where a wing-shaped mass of
Aurora was situated ; each ray as it approached this
spot became" bended." At this time three-fourth*
of the sky were covered with Aurora. In the north
north-west there was a long black cloud-like line,
which travelled slowly eastward. At 125 a.m. its
south end was passing across Capella, which star
shone brightly through it. From 130 till 2 30,
much cloud. At 2 30. there being more clear sky,
a splendid mass of Aurora Borealis was viouble,
forming an ever-changing cupola close to Grim ma
Trianguli ; 3 15 less bright. All the corns. c ations
moved slowly eastward. The wind south till I. 30
a.m., then south-west. There can be no d'aubt as
*regards the earthquake shocks in Norfolk; or, exa-
mining my pendulum I find that a perceptitile nove-
ment from west to east has taken place.
Observatory, Beeston, Aug. 29.

GARIBALDI'S CORPS.—The followir,been received from Como, dated the Wn in A . ~.....“ We
have here the depot of Garibaldi's co%
Ts. ' When these
men learned that their General was V'ing to C v ntralltaly,
they refused to serve in Piedmont. They r autinied, "--
claiming that they would follow their Genet., sl, that they
had taken up arms to fight, and not to remain in a garrison.
g a(' Ater has
It NM found necessary to adopt severe mean Lres, but they
are not yet appeased. It is announced that th( i troops under
the command of Colonel Medici, in the 17 ,aitoine, have
conducted themselves in a pUllilar manner."

The half-yearly meeting of this company was
held at the London Tavern, yesterday—Sir J. Car-
michael in the chair.
Mr. COURTENAY, the secretary, read the adver-
tisement convening the meeting and the report,
which said:—
" The number of messages transmitted over the
company's wires in the half-year ending June 30,
1859, amounted to 63,005, being an increase of
13,627 messages over the corresponding half-year of
1858, and an increase of 11,303 over the number
transmitted in the six months ending 31st Decem-
ber last. This large increase in the business of the
company has not yielded an equivalent addition to
the gross revenue, on account of the considerable
reduction which has been made in the tariffs, as the
charge of a single message between Paris and Lon-
don and London and Brussels is now only 7s. 3d. ;
but the receipts for the present half-year of £14,113
ss. 10d. have enabled the directors to pay off the
balance of costs of repairs of cables, &c., without
trenching in any way on the reserve fund, and to
recommend the declaration of a dividend at the
rate of 7 per cent, per annum. After appropriat-
ing 10 per cent. of the net revenue to the reserve
fund, a balance of £193 4s. 11d. will remain to be
carried over to the credit of the current half-year.
It may not, perhaps, be generally known to the
shareholders, that although the company's cables
from. Dover to Calais, and Dover to Ostend, have
been laid down between seven and eight years, the
total cost of repairs, which have arisen solely from
damages caused by anchors of large ships, has only
amounted to £4,546 15s. 5d., which is, in the
opinion of your directors, very strong evidence of
the great superiority of heavy cables, wherever
there is the slightest risk from anchorage, The
directors have now the pleasing duty of congratu-
lating the shareholders on the successful completion
of two new important lines of submarine telegraph
—viz., between Folkestone and Boulogne, and be-
tween the coast of Norfolk, Heligoland, and Den-
mark, and they wish to take this opportunity of
expressing their sense of the admirable manner in
which these cables have been both mannfaßtured
and submerged by the contractors, Messrs. Glass,
Elliot, and Co. The cable to Boulogne Is unquestion-
ably the strongest and most perfect submarine cable
that has hitherto been constructed, and contains six
conducting wires, which will, it is calculated,
most thoroughly develope the telegraphic in-
tercourse between this country, France, and
Southern Europe, while one wire will 'be devoted
to the requirements of the London Stock Exchange
and the Paris Bourse, so that in future the great
inconvenience arising from Stock Exchange mes-
sages being delayed from a press of other business
will be entirely avoided. This important advantage
will of itself greatly facilitate and increase the num-
ber of despatches between London and Paris. As
soon as this new service via Boulogne is perfectly
organised, it is the intention of the directors to put
into complete working order the original Calais
cable, which operation will, in the opinion of the
company's engineer, be very easily effected, and
attended with but small expense. The company
will then possess 10 efficient conducting wires for
telegraphic purposes between England and France,
besides six to Belgium, and five to Hanover, Den-
mark, and the north of Europe. The only line now
remaining to be established, under the concessions
granted
to the company, is that between the Chan-
nel Islands and the French coast. This cable,
which will consist of one conducting wire, is now
being manufactured, and will be laid down in the
course of the ensuing month. In making estimates
for the construction and laying down of the various
submarine lines, the directors were unable to fix the
exact points of landing on the,different coasts, and
consequently could not make allowance for the cost
of land lines to connect the cables with the respec-
tive systems of continental telegraphs. With the
view of avoiding ancborage ground, several of the
points of landing originally proposed have since
been changed, and altogether about 25 miles of
land telegraphs are in course of construction, a
portion of which, where near the coast, will be sub-
terranean ; but the total expense of these lines, to-
gether with the establishment of new stations at
Emden, Heligoland, and Westerhever (in Den-
mark), will be more than covered by the small
amount of additional capital which it is proposed
to raise. At the next meeting of shareholders the
directors trust to submit a complete statement
of the capital account of the company, with a
view to its being closed, as all the contracts en-
tered into by the company will then be completed,
and at the same time they intend recommend-
ing the establishment of a reserve fund on an ex-
tended scale with a view not only for the repair of
accidents, but also to meet any ultimate deprecia-
tion of submarine cables. The shareholders are
doubtless aware that objections were taken by her
Majesty's late Government to the company laying
their cables on the English coasts, on account of
certain privileges contained in their concessions.
These objections were, however, overruled by the
rights conferred on the company under the royal
charter of incorporation, and as this company re-
quire nothing more than a reasonable protection
against undue competition— a protection which
has been accorded either by exclusive concessions
or by means of guarantees or subsidies to every
other submarine company in existence—the direc-
tors feel confident that they will be enabled to
arrange such terms with the present Ministry as
will be satisfactory to the shareholders, the Govern-
ment, and the public in general."
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, congratulated the shareholders on the con-
tinued prosperity of the company, and stated that,
at a meeting of the Electric and International Tele-
graph Company, Mr. Robert Stephenson, the emi-
nent engineer, had stated that submarine telegraphs
would not last more than six or eight years. That
probably might be the case with the telegraphs
laid down on the principle of that belonging to
Mr. Stephenson's Company between Orfordness
and the Hague, with only four small wires and in
a very difficult sea, but it was not so with their
telegraphs, which were of considerably greater
weight. Indeed, the directors had had portions of
their Dover and Calais cable taken up, and though
it had been down eight years, the shareholders
might observe—a specimen of it being on the table
—thatit was as perfect as on the day when it was
first submerged; and on this point they had re-
ceived the following letter, dated as late as the
previous day :
" To the Chairman and Board of Directors of the
Submarine Telegraph Company :
Gentlemen,—Agreeably to your instructions,
we have picked up at sea, and cut out and carefully
examined several portions of your submarine cable
between Dover and Calais, laid in the autumn of
1831, and which, therefore, is now just eight years
old. We cut the cable at six miles (nautical) from
this shore, and at lesser distances, so that we might
obtain fair average specimens of your property.
" We are now enabled to report, for the informa-
tion of the board, that so far from exhibiting any
serious symptoms of deterioration, the external
iron and the internal hempen and gutta percha
coatings are in most excellent preservation, and
that they promise to continue in their present satis-
factory condition for a long period yet to come.
In fact, the natural depreciation of the metal coat-
ing, as well as of the interior of the cable, is not
only practically of very little importance, but it is
rather encouraging from the small effect as yet per-
ceivable.
"We have much pleasure in forwcrding here-
with specimens of the cable removed, so that the
directors may personally inspect them.
" The only damage sustained by the company,
up to the present time, has been from positive me-
chanical injuries done to the cable by the dragging
of ships' anchors, and the total cost to the company
of repairs rendered necessary from this source has
not exceeded for all the company's cables, for the
whole term of eight years, the sum of £5,000, or
about £5OO per annum.—We are, gentlemen, your
obedient servants,

(Signed) " T. It. CRAMPTON.
"W. ANDREWS."
Mr. SANDER
and the stsa°setrnoT
felt highly gratified at the re-
portt of the chairman ; and was
It t
much gratified
trving that a reserve fund
was being established o meet any contingencies
whiCh might arise, as
he lookedme to that fund as the
surest guarantee for the
fut
line. are prosperity of their
Sir CHARLES BRIGHT, thow,b, havinga the
weight to his
graaphs railway f
highest opinion of r
ivetpheson
telegraphs engineer, could not g that
opinion with regard to electric
, Dover to
which the had had very little experience. 'The
lines l'aid down from Dover to Calais
Ostend, Spezia to Corsica—which was submerged
in Issl--bad required very' little repairs, though
That front Orfordness to the Hague, owing to its
being constructed with only four small wires and
the nai`tree of the sea, had required a steamer to
watch it, and would probably not last more than
the time r.tated ; but that was altogether different
from any 1.4' the cables of this company, which he
looked 111,0,1 as likely to last for very many more
Years the; i they had vet been down, With regard
to a resers -e !Lind he looked upon it as very judi-
cious, and was' convinced that the additional traffic

arising frog ifir new lines would be so great as
to prevent a. ly Lliminution of dividends to the pro-
prietors from the establishment of that fund.

Mr. CRAM] ' TON k; aving been called upon,
,pro-
ceeded to und' o variou,cz portions of the specimen
cable on the t able, to shz+w that it was as perfect
and as good as though wade yesterday, the only
perceptible dii Terence being that there was a little
less moistness in the tow, so that it did not so rea-
dily dirty the t ingere iu handling. It was worthy