But if the auroral streamers are generally manifested at great heights in our atmosphere, it would appear from the observations of persons living in the regions where the auroras are most frequent, as also from those who have been stationed in high northern and southern latitudes, that the phenomenon sometimes descends very low. Both Sabine and Parry saw the auroral rays projected on a distant mountain; Ross saw them almost at sea-level projected on the polar ice; while Wrangel, Franklin, and others observed similar phenomena. Dr. Hjaltalin, who has lived in latitude 64° 46' north, and has made a particular study of the aurora, on one occasion saw the aurora much below the summit of a hill 1,600 feet high, which was not very far off. The same aurora is sometimes observed on the same night at places very far distant from one another. The great aurora borealis of August 28th, 1859, for instance, was seen over a space occupying 150° in longitude--from California to the Ural Mountains in Russia. It even appears now very probable that the phenomenon is universal on our globe, and that the northern lights observed in our hemisphere are simultaneous with the aurora australis of the southern hemisphere. The aurora of September 2d, 1859, was observed all through North and South America, the Sandwich Islands, Australia, and Africa; the streamers and pulsations of light of the north pole responding to the rays and coruscations of the south pole. Of thirty-four auroras observed at Hobart Town, in Tasmania, twenty-nine corresponded with aurora borealis observed in our hemisphere. The auroral phenomena, although sometimes visible within the tropics, are, however, quite rare in these regions. For the most part they are confined within certain zones situated in high latitudes north and south. The zone where they are most frequent in our hemisphere forms an ellipse, which has the north pole at one of its foci; while the other is situated somewhere in North America, in the vicinity of the magnetic pole. The central line of the zone upon which the auroras seem to be most frequent passes from the northern coast of Alaska through Hudson's Bay and Labrador to Iceland, and then follows the northern coast of Europe and Asia. The number of auroras diminishes as the observer recedes from this zone, and it is only in exceptional cases that they are seen near the equator. Near the pole the phenomenon is less frequent than it is in the region described. In North America we occupy a favorable position for the observation of auroras, as we are nearer the magnetic poles than are the Europeans and Asiatics, and we consequently have a greater number of auroras in corresponding latitudes.