The Litchfield County Post

Extract of a letter from a gentleman of
N. Y. dated Gibraltar, October
12, 1827.
"We were sitting in the round house
at about eight o'clock in the evening of
the 25th of Sept, the vessel moving very
quietly along, when the mate came and
called out to us to look at a very singular
appearance which the sky had suddenly
assumed. We immediately went upon
deck, when a scene presented itself which
filled us with amazement and no small a-
larm. The western sky was illuminated
with broad stripes of a fiery color, radia-
ting from a point which was then near the
zenith, but which frequently shifted its po-
sition falling some times from ten to fifteen
degrees towards the horizon. A bright
light was seen issuing at the same moment,
from behind a heavy cloud in the south
east, as if the moon were about to emerge
from it, though she had, in fact, just set in
an opposite direction.
The northern
hemisphere was soon filled with stripes
of the same fiery hue, which were constant-
ly changing their form and mingling with
each other, while vivid coruscations of
light, like distant flashes of lightning, were
constantly playing among them, and height-
ened their brilliancy. In the course of an
hour the whole firmament assumed the
same appalling aspect. A rumbling, or
rather rushing noise was heard over our
heads, accompanied for a short time by an
unearthly sound, which a superstitious im.
agination might easily have fancied to be a
chorus of spirits in the air. It was a
splendid, but awful and portentous scene.
Our captain was perfectly confounded, &
after gazing for a few moments in silent
consternation said in a tone of prophetic
solemnity, "Gentlemen, it is my candid
and serene opinion, that this world is com-
ing to an end." The alarm which I felt
myself was of a very different character.
I apprehended some sudden tempest or
dreadful convulsion of nature; and these
apprehensions were increased by a pon-
drous mass of the blackest clouds I ever
beheld, which hung over the northern ho-
rizon. The barometer indicated a favor-
able state of the atmosphere, or we should
have immediately taken in all sail, and
prepared ourselves for the worst. At a-
bout 11 o'clock the bright fiery color and
regular radiation gradually disappeared.
leaving only a tinge of lurid red upon the
scattered clouds that hung in the air. But
a brilliant light now shot up in the north,
resembling the Aurora Borealis, and not
unlike the singular phenomenon which ex-
cited so much attention a short time ago
at New-York. It streamed up in paral-
lel lines to the height of forty degrees,
and during the whole of its appearance
light volumes of smoke seemed to be scud-
ding furiously before it, producing a cu-
rious alternation of light and shade, and
so rapid as almost to appear like the faint
flashes of lightning. It was not long how-
ever, before the western sky was again on
fire, and it retained, with little intermis-
sion during the remainder of the night,
the same extraordinary features which it
first exhibited. It was a remarkable cir-
cumstance that the central point, whence
the rays of light seemed to emanate, or
the focus, perhaps where they concen-
trated, was the darkest point in the heav-
ens, the light increased as it approached
the horizon. In the early part of the eve-
ing, when this strange appearance was
first observed, the atmosphere was rather
hazy, though sufficiently clear for the stars
to be visible. Black, threatening clouds
rested nearly the whole extent of the ho-
rizon.
There were several squalls and showers
of rain in the course of the night, during
which the preternatural light was for a
time obscured; but even when the sky was
completely overcast, faint flashes like the
reflection of a fluttering and unsteady
light were incessantly playing upon the
vessel. Though the moon had set at 8 o'-
clock, the night was as light as if she had
been shining in full splendor. The sun
rose next morning with a frightful and un-
natural glare, and the whole day was as
red as if it had been dyed with blood."