Occasional streamers of equally pure white light ran upwards from either end of the bow. The moon was only a day old, but the landscape was lighted up as if by the full moon; and the effect of Kyle Akin lighthouse, the numerous surrounding islands, and the still sea between was a true thing of beauty. The display itself formed a great contrast to the more brilliant but restless forms of Auroræ generally seen. I particularly noticed a somewhat misty and foggy look about the brilliant arc, giving it almost a solid appearance. The space of sky between the horizon and the lower edge of the arc was of a deep indigo colour, probably the effect of contrast. I had a strong impression that the bow was near to the earth, and was almost convinced that the eastern end and some fleecy clouds in which it was involved were between myself and the peaks of some distant mountains. I have not seen any other account of this Aurora, of which I was able at the time to obtain a sketch. This is reproduced on Plate VII. It was a lovely sight, and wonderfully unlike the cloud-accompanied and crimson Auroræ which I had seen in the South. It is noticed in Parry’s ‘Third Voyage’ that the lower edge of the auroral arch is generally well defined and unbroken, and the sky beneath it so exactly like a dark cloud (to him often of a brownish colour), that nothing could convince to the contrary, if the stars, shining through with undiminished lustre, did not discover the deception. [Sidenote: No trace of brown colour in segment of sky below the arc.] I saw no trace of brown colour. The segment below the arch resting on the horizon was of a deep indigo colour. [Illustration: Plate VII.] _Dr. Allnatt’s Aurora, June 9th, 1876._ [Sidenote: Dr. Allnatt’s Aurora, June 9, 1876. Band of auroral light appeared. Streaks of cirro-stratus divided the Aurora. Want of electric manifestations attributed to absence of sun-spots.] Dr. Allnatt, writing to the ‘Times’ from Abergele, North Wales, near the coast of the Irish Channel, reported an Aurora on the night of the 9th June, 1876. After a cool and gusty day, with a strong N.E. wind and a disturbed sea, there appeared at 11 P.M. in the N. horizon a broad band of vivid auroral light, homogeneous, motionless, and without streamers. About midnight a long attenuated streak of black cirro-stratus stretched parallel with the horizon, and divided the Aurora into nearly symmetrical sections. On the preceding day the sky was covered with dark masses of electric cloud of weird and fantastic forms. The season had been singularly unproductive of high electric manifestations, which Dr. Allnatt thought might be attributable to the comparative absence of spots on the solar disk. [It may here be noted how conspicuous the years 1877 and 1878 have been for absence of Sun-spots and of Auroræ.] [Illustration: Plate VIII.] _Herr Carl Bock’s Lapland Aurora, 3rd October, 1877._