REMARKABLE PHENOMENA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3110, 30 January 1871, Page 2

REMARKABLE PHENOMENA.

From our own recent experiences in the way of auroral displays and meteors, the following extracts from the " European Mail" regarding similar phenomena in Europe will be of interest, and probably aid in giving a true direction to the enquiries into the nature or origin of these phenomena, on which so many intelligent minds in this colony are at present engaged :•— " Kemaekable Meteor.— On November 19 those who happened to be out of doors about nine o'olock had an opportunity of witnessing a beautiful, though Bomewhat startling phenomenon. The sky was dark, with few stars visible, when a large and brilliant meteor suddenly appeared in the north-ea3t. It was like a large ball of fire, with a long tail resembling that of a comot. When first observed it was high in the heavens, being, indeed, w;itbin three or four degrees of tho zenith. The meteor approached the earth with great rapidity. in an oblique direction, travelling towards tho south-west, and when it came appareatly to within 300 feet of the ground the ball burst into many fragments, the pieces falling like a shower of fire, which, however, disappeared before reaching the earth. In its passage through the atmosphere the meteor diffused a bright light that made everything as visible ns at mid-day. It was not like sunlight, nor moonlight, but had the appearance of the limo or magnesium light. Many people in narrow streets, who could not see tho meteor, but who wero startled by the light, exclaimed, ' A fire, a fire !' As soon as the meteor bur9t the light suddenly ceased, except that faint traces resembling the aurora borealis were visible in the quarter where the phenomenon first appeared. What at first seemed a smnll white cloud soon spread over a largo surface of the heavens, and continued for hours in its extended form, but without the peculiar flickering rays characteristic of tho aurora. Those who were in quiet neighborhoods heard a low rumbling noise immediately after the meteor shot across tho heavenß." The Aurora Borealis and the Telegraphs. — We become acquainted with tho observations of the aurora borealis, at Bagdad, by the strange, but not accountable circumstance that itj deranged the transmission- of our despatches over tho Indo-European telegraph, and upset the telographio arrangements in tho Ottoman dominions, where its appear-

ance was very^general. ...The circumstance not onlyprepares us for an extension' of the phenomenon not generally expected, but also for its occurrence, in, the past, when the rare display of the aurora in the south must have furnished prodigies for the historian. The examination of these, as of recorded comets, is worthy of being pushed.