St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-09-23

that forest fires are contributory to the
unusual atmospheric conditions. As
tronomers, however, readily connect tht
situation with the present solar activity
commonly referred to as sun spots, o
which the general public has seer
evidence in an exceptional frequency anc
brilliancy of auroral displays.
Northern lights have occurred so otter
in the last three weeks that they have
attracted much attention, and even the
! layman has suspected some connection
I between them and the colored veil that
seems to be drawn over the sun and the
moon. OF course there is no authority
for assuming any relationship between
! these auroral displays and the forest
fires, though the two may bear joint
relation to the atmospheric conditions
Naturally the theory that the forest fires
have created the atmospheric COMPOSE
ton which gives the heavenly bodies
their unnatural cOlors has its strongest
supporters in the Office of the United
States weather bureau, where it is gen
orally accepted that dense volumes OF
smoke will rise high into the air and
spread out so widely that even the
western fires would be likely to contri.
butte to the conditions now observed in
New England. But New England has
had great fires of her own in the last few
weeks and certainly has sent up large
proportion of the smoke that is suspend
ed in the air.
Those who have taken an interest in
this subject may remember the awful
days in August. 1888, when the Kraka-
toa in the East Indies broke into its
tiercest eruption and for a number OF
days was hurting its interior into the
air. The laval dust created then. fine as
flour, was blown all over the world, and
the only explanation ever found for the
red sunsets of those days That dust
had the same general effect of interfering
with the radiation of solar impulses as
is attributed to smoke; hence it is to be
expected that the smoke from the forest
fires will cast its veil over the sun and
moon and give them the same appear
ance that they sustained from the laval
dust.
The sun spots are exerting their in
tiuence on the temperature and 1t is
significant that the temperature is high
all over the country at the present time.
John Richie, lr.. of the Boston board Of
health, has been a close observer OF
the phenomena Of the last two or three
weeks. He says that two or three
groups Of spots were noticed bv astron-
omers these spots representing tremen-
dOus disturbances on the sun, such
as come in cycles of eleven or twelve
years. In places favorable for observa-
ton the auroral displays, or northern
lights usually attending the solar erup-
tions, have been particularly beautiful.
The aurora borealis has been of the
highest tint Of red, silver and green and
has been seen here and in New Hamp-
shire and Vermont At times 1t has
been observed TO cover the whole hori-
zon Such displays are likely to be
repeated for some time.
Shorn of the scientific reasoning
through which the astronomers come
to their deductions, the explanation Of
the existing heat wave, which combines
with the fOrest-fre smoke to give
strange color to the sun and moon is
that it is generated largely bv the
frequent solar cruptious into which a
planet OF the size Of the earth would
sink like a pebble in the ocean. Some
how the activities create an extra strata
high up in the air that influence radia-
ton materially, So the earths atmo-
sphere must be warm and gloomy; the
sun and moon must be red, and there
must be auroral displays Boston
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