Facts in the case which would reveal the secret of this beautiful display of nature are not complete and numerous enough at present to establish the cause of this phenomenon on a sure basis; yet enough facts, it would seem, have been obtained to satisfy the strong mind capable of bridging over a wide expanse. Facts in an argument are like piers to a bridge-the more we have of them, c. p., the more substantial the structure. When the facts are _legion_, the structure becomes a causeway, and there is no need of argument. Argument is a bridge--the fewer the facts, the more the necessity for the bridge; the less the facts, the more argument necessary to connect the few we have, and the more skill is required to make substantial connecting links between the few solid piers (facts) that exist. One of the queer things in connection with this is, the public have looked chiefly, if not wholly, to the astronomers for an explanation of this phenomenon, when it is not their special province to explain matters in this department of nature. The explanation belongs to the department of meteorology, and not to astronomy. But the fact of having looked to the astronomers shows how little the world knows of meteorology and how few meteorologists there are able, ready, and willing to rise and explain in face of the opposition of the public, who seem to think that the explanation must necessarily belong to astronomy. Astronomy proper deals with the position of the earth in space and its relation to the other heavenly bodies, whether suns, fixed stars, planets, satellites, comets, or other bodies in the vast space about us. Meteorology deals with the atmosphere of the globe, in all its forms. Astronomy could be studied in the early ages; its grand facts were not wholly dependent upon the advanced condition of the mechanic arts; it could be studied even without the aid of telescopes, though telescopes have added much to its advancement. Meteorology, on the contrary, depended on the advancement of the arts and sciences; they must first be perfected ere we could know much about this branch of science. To one unfamiliar with the advancement and perfection of meteorology within the past ten years, this statement may seem strange, yet it is an undisputable fact that, prior to the establishment of the daily weather reports, the knowledge on this subject amounted to very little, and was not even worthy of being designated a science. Prior to the advent of the weather map the world was in absolute ignorance of the laws governing the atmosphere. Sure, we had had large volumes on the laws of storms, but the later revelations leave them shelved high and dry on the shores and as useless as a wreck in a similar condition; with the daily weather map before us we have no need to even open these huge volumes; they are completely circumvented, and only negative in value--to show how little was known of the subject