The New York herald., 1879-11-16
Nordenskjola.s Auroral Researches.


tions during his winter incarceration in the
Arctic Ocean were those respecting the
s.northern lights" This phenomenon has
ever defed scientific elucidation, and every
polar expedition has We'd with its prede-
cessor in the attempt to solve the auroral
mystery. The English expedition OF 1870
76, in its Arctic winter quarters was disap-
pointed in this respect by the paucity OF
the electric displays. The Swedish ex-
plorer, also, in his ardent search for results,
throughout the long night OF his Arctic
winter did not once observe, he tells us, the
magnificent development OF the northern
lights he had SO often witnessed in his own
country. But, whenever the sky was clear.
he saw, constant in the northeast horizon,
and almost always in exactly the same spot,
a family luminous arc, so motlonless as to
admit Of actual measurement. The conclu-
sion he reached is that the aurora comes
from an actual permanent aureole, or ring
of light, girding the northern extremity OF
the globe, whence its fires flash in opposite
directions, both toward the Pole and to-
ward the low latitudes.
Many years ago Humboldt, commenting
on the alleged remarkable fact that part
of Venus not illuminated by the sun often
glimmers with a dim phosphorescent light
(Which he ascrlbed to the earth's emission
of light), said, ''the emission of this light
toward the poles of the earth is continu-
ous" Whether this remark of the great
physicist will hold good or not, we know
that the auroral streamers take place
around the magnetic poles, and from these
high latitudes, as in September, 1869, have
made themselves visible, on widely sepa-
rated meridians, as far south as Havana
and Rome, or within twenty degrees of the
Equator. According to the exhaustive
analysis of the auroral observations Of two
hundred stations in Europe, Asia and
America, made by Professor Fritz. of Berne
the zone of greatest auroral frequency is
narrow belt passing just north of
the North Cape and the Siberian coast,
through Spitzbergen and near Point Bar
row, Great Bear Lake and Northern Labra-
dor. As the observer goes either north or
south of this zone the brilliant phenom-
of display. and while south of the favored
belt the radiant arches are generally seen
in the northern skies, they appear at sta
tions lying north of the belt to be south of
the observers zenith. These observations
tend to confirm Nordenskj5ld's conclusion,
and also to show that the aurora is an at
mospheric phepomenon, and not. as has
been supposed, due to the cosmical causes
acting from beyond tho earth's gaseous en-
velope. It is true that recent researches
seem to show close coincidence be-
tween solar storms and spots and
auroral exhibitions, but the latter may,
nevertheless, be due to thermal and
magnetic changes in the atmosphere and
not to direct solar agency. The Swiss in
vestigator, Fritz. is inclined to infer that the
atmospheric electricity generated by the
friction of winds on the polar icefields has
something to do with auroral displays, and
hence it has been suggested that these dis
plays vary with the increase or decrease of
polar ice. 1t is of great importance to
science to fix even the approximate causes
OF so vast and magnificent part of the
atmospheric phenomena as the aurora pre-
sents As long as it was referred to cosmic
causes, outside of our own planet, no ad-
made. But the observations of the Swedish
explorer will stimulate research into one Of
the most beautiful and suggestive features
of terrestrial economy and creative design.
Modern meteorology has won some of its
most splendid successes from investiga-
tions of the clouds, and especially those
delicate and atten nuated cloud forms known
as the cirrus or ''feather Clouds" composed
of fibrous ice crystals which in Glaisher's
loftiest balloon ascents lover six miles)
were seen flying far above him. These
natural weather guides and storm indi-
Gators, so valuable to the meteorological
seem closely associated with the Arctic
aurora Carl Weyprecht, in the Austro-
Hungarian polar expedition of 1872, re-
peatedly noted clouds and mist taking
the same luminous form as the au-
roral reflection and the stars obscured
by auroras-a fact which, with many
similar observations, points to their connec-
tlon Will ciouus, anu hc suPBeSts that the
light cloudy matter, charged with delicate
ice crystals, is the material basis of the
auroral rejection. 1t this inference is sus-
tained by future research the phenomenon
will be at once seen to affjrd inval liable in
dications OF the varying movements of the
great aerial currents which control the polar
climates and also determine the meteoro-
logical conditions of the temperate zones Of
the earta. Such result would amply re-
ward those who watch out the long night of
the polar winter in this research.
Burial Dime ulties.
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