Kingston records (regionally related)

69.

[image signed indistinctly Lady R?-two figures in horse drawn sleigh].

Parhelion.

This afternoon Doctor Macleroy was driving the horses on the snow in his sleigh, we went as far as a place called Kingston Mills, where we turned round to return home to the Dock Yard. All at once we both observed the sky to assume an unusual beautifully mottled appearance which prevailed all over, more particularly in the zenith, as if a mirror had been placed thereby some divine agency to reflect back the snow that covers the earth to a degree of fleecy whiteness in small waves, more lovely and more uniform in size and shape than possible to be imagined, when we first observed this our backs were towards the sun but we had no sooner turned round, than we were fortunate enough to witness a phenomenon very rarely to be seen, a most beautiful Parhelion of two suns.

The mock sun was nearly the same size, as the great luminary itself, but not quite so brilliant, nor did it display a perfect circle. The prismatic hues were beautifully developed in the centre, from where they spread out in faint tints in the colours of the rainbow that kept constantly and incessantly changing. As it spread out towards the edge, it became rather ragged and of a pale yellowish colour of the most delicate tint. The wind was blowing from the South West - the Thermomenter 50 below zero.

Appearances of this kind have been mentioned both by the ancients and moderns, Aristotle observed that in general they are seen near the horizon