ties were not perceptible."--_Account
of the Arctic Regions_, vol. i. ch. v. sec. vi. p. 394. A similar
phenomenon occurs in the Khasia Hills, in the north-east of
Bengal.--_Asiat. Soc. Journ. Beng._ vol. xiii. p. 616.]

[Illustration: THE ANTHELIA AS IT APPEARS TO THE PERSON HIMSELF]

Another luminous phenomenon which sometimes appears in the hill country,
consists of beams of light, which intersect the sky, whilst the sun is
yet in the ascendant; sometimes horizontally, accompanied by
intermitting movements, and sometimes vertically, a broad belt of the
blue sky interposing between them.[1]

[Footnote 1: VIGNE mentions an appearance of this kind in the valley of
Kashmir: "Whilst the rest of the horizon was glowing golden over the
mountain tops, a broad well-defined ray-shaped streak of indigo was
shooting upwards in the zenith: it remained nearly stationary about an
hour, and was then blended into the sky around it, and disappeared with
the day. It was, no doubt, owing to the presence of some particular
mountains which intercepted the red rays, and threw a blue shadow, by
causing so much of the sky above Kashmir to remain unaffected by
them."--_Travels in Kashmir_, vol. ii. ch. x. p. 115.]

In Ceylon this is doubtless owing to the air holding in suspension a
large quantity of vapour, which receives shadows and reflects rays of
light. The natives, who designate them "Buddha's rays," attach a
superstitious dread to their appearance, and believe them to be
portentous of misfortune--in every month, with the exception of _May_,
which, for some unexplained reason, is exempted.

HEALTH.--In connection with the subject of "Climate," one of the most
important inquiries is the probable effect on the health and
constitution of a European produced by a prolonged exposure to an
unvarying temperature, upwards of 30 degrees higher than the average of
Great Britain. But to this the most tranquillising reply is the
assurance that _mere heat, even to a degree beyond that of Ceylon, is
not unhealthy in itself_. Aden, enclosed in a crater of an extinct
volcano, is not considered insalubrious; and the hot season in India,
when the thermometer stands at 100 deg. at midnight, is comparatively a
healthy period of the year. In fact, in numerous cases heat may be the
means of removing the immediate sources of disease. Its first
perceptible effect is a slight increase, of the normal bodily
temperature beyond 98 deg., and, simultaneously, a