Of all optical phenomena, the Aurora Borealis, or the northern day-break, is one of the most striking, especially in the regions where its full glory is revealed. The site of the appearance, in the north part of the heavens, and its close resemblance to the aspect of the sky before sunrise, have originated the name. The “Derwentwater Lights” was long the appellation common in the north of England, owing to their display on the night after the execution of the unfortunate earl of that name. The scene in the illustration is a picture of the auroral light, as observed from the neighborhood of Loch Leven—a scene in itself admirably calculated to exhibit the phenomenon; and to convey any adequate idea of its magical aspect, as seen in high latitudes, the painter’s hand and the poet’s art are needed. A native Russian, Lomonosov, thus refers to the spectacle:— “Where are thy secret laws, O Nature, where? Thy torch-lights dazzle in the wintry zone; How dost thou light from ice thy torches there? There has thy son some sacred, secret throne? See in your frozen sea what glories have their birth; Thence night leads forth the day t’ illuminate the earth. “Come then, philosopher, whose privileged eye Reads Nature’s hidden pages and decrees: Come now, and tell us whence, and where, and why, Earth’s icy regions glow with lights like these, That fill our souls with awe; profound inquirer, say, For thou dost count the stars, and trace the planet’s way. “What fills with dazzling beams the illumined air? What wakes the flames that light the firmament? The lightning’s flash: there is no thunder there, And earth and heaven with fiery sheets are blent; The winter’s night now gleams with brighter, lovelier ray Than ever yet adorned the golden summer’s day. “Is there some vast, some hidden magazine, Where the gross darkness flames of fire supplies? Some phosphorous fabric, which the mountains screen, Whose clouds of light above those mountains rise? Where the winds rattle loud around the foaming sea, And lift the waves to heaven in thundering revelry?”