SPECTACLE IN THE SKY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 67, 21 March 1938, Page 6

SPECTACLE IN THE SKY.

Thousand* of frightened Portuguese peasants rushed from their homes one night recently and pointed to huge shafts of blood-red, greenish-blue and purple light shimmering on the northern horizon. '"It's the end jof the world!" they cried. J In London tlw luminous heaven* also caused alarm. Half the city appeared to be ablaze. Frantic citizens telephoned newspaper offices. "Where's the fire?" they asked. Out in Windsor fire engines clanged through the streets. "Windsor Castle is afire." everyone said. In south-western France, in the alpine villages of Switzerland and along; the Danube in Austria, the heavenly blaze brought thousands into city streets and country roads. "Fire?" they asked one another. "War? ! Doomsday ?" I In Holland crowds awaiting the birth of I Crown Princess Juliana's baby hailed the cel&s;tial spectacle. "A good omen." they said. But in tlie lowlands of Scotland men and women shook their heads. "Xorthern lights," they •declared. "always spell misfortune for i Scotland." The excitement spread across the Atlantic. Bermudians stared at the distant glow. In Canada, much closer to the phenomenon, the Canadian Press reported that "wire services throughout northern Ontario were disrupted," while oceanic radio transmission went dead. " Meanwhile scientists, calmer than their , fellow mortals, took the apparition casually. It was not a fire, not a war and definitely not the end of the world, they said. It was merely a rare and beautiful Aurora Borealis —a luminous phenomenon of electrical origin, visible only at night. At the University of i Grenoble, in France, it was said that "a similar J Aurora Borealis had not been seen in Western Europe since 1709." ■ Two hours after its appearance the ! spectacle faded away. Portuguese peasants I returned to worldly conterns. Scotsmen for--got their ominous forebodings. Londoners j climbed into bed. The northern hemisphere I hung up a sign: Business as usual.