The daily progressive-miner., 1918-03-21
AN ALASKA AURORA
 BOREALIS

SAoAP eAe Ae1iA Pooe tWO V SiOSh iuot Saturday morning we left the light house station on Lincoln Rock, at the upper end of Clarence Strait, and leaded for home. We arrived there
 he evening before on the gas boat, Good Tidings" to deliver the monthly nail and supplies for the two men n charge of the station.
 | The sea was calm, but the air was quite chilly. One hour after we left he Lincoln Rock light station the sky north of our position on the waters was clear, while to the south of us and as far as we could see it was
 At that time there seemed to be no be nothing to show that anything un- usual was coming to pass in the nor- thern skies.
 But little before four o'clock my attention was called to the play of very bright streaks of perpendicular
 light in the direction of northeast to our position. 1 noticed at once that some of the streamers were quite ac-
 i've. In a short while a large are, more like the half of an eclipse than Q circle, was formed, one end of it resting on the northern part of Prince 2f Wales Island and the other on the lower end of Etolin Island, a distance of perhaps about fifty miles between he two positions.
 Ever since I was boy I have seen many displays of northern lights. They are a common sight to us. Whenever they are seen our people ,laim that they can always fortell the condition of the weather in the next few days and even the general trend Of affairs for the whole year according to the activities and appearance of these lights. In the olden times a lot of superstitious beliefs were laid and practiced among our people when ever the northern lights were seen. The causes of these lights were al- ways attributed to some of the works Of the departed spirits, and so forth.
 As have just said, these northern lights are familiar to us. But the one 1 saw on last Saturday morning, the 16th of March, was to me very un- usual and very interesting. Within the area of the arc the color of the phenomenon was jet black. I did not see any stars visible in that space Around the upper edge of the arc long streamers of light were very bright and active. Tho movements of these streamers wre almost regular. Keep ing their perpendicular position ac- cording to the surface of the arc they would move from the end of the same toward the other end. Some times from each end of the arc these upright rays of light would move to- ward each other. The streamers looked as if they were equally spaced and their brightness and length seem- ed to be about the same.
 While all this was going on and be- hind these long streamers, I could see other waves of light flashing, and, as if controlled by some regular me- chanical device, quivering beautifully The upper edge of the arc revealed a band of different colors that seemed to be intermixed with each other. Occas- ionally very bright light, sometimes straight and narrow, sometimes tri- angular and later on very irregular in shape, appeared here and there with in the arc
 At times an intense activity of the whole phenomenon was on and when ever that occurred the appearance of the space within the arc became black CT. The sight caused me to feel that there was truly some unseen power and law governing the whole display. Perhaps to me 1t was an individual op- tical illusion. must confess. how ever. that like my ferefathers. the sight of the Aurora Borealis made me feel that was witnessing an object of nature that filled me with awe and wonder.
 About twenty minutes past four this heavenly electrical disply com menced to be less in it's movements and intensity. The we'll defined arc became irregular Where 1t was dark before. now it was light. First the quiverine wayessok light in the back ground slowly disappeared. then the