Strange Sight in NG Skies

ABOUT 7.30 p.m. on November 28 the natives rushed to our dining-room at Angoram, Sepik River, New Guinea, asking us to have a look at an unusual phenomenon in the skies.

In the western sky, about 30 degrees high, lay a huge red “snake” making two turns down towards the horizon. It was quite a spectacle in the otherwise cloudless skv.

Next day I started off on a two weeks patrol from the Sepik to the NW coast and inland. From village to village I was asked whether I had seen the big snake in the sky. Some natives who knew I was about to visit them had even drawn sketches on a piece of paper to show me what they had seen. They told me the same story everywhere: A red flame shot up from the horizon; soon transforming itself into an enormous snake. Eventually it faded away.

It would be interesting to know over how large an area this phenomenon was observed. About 100 miles up the Sepik River and some 30 miles radius from its estuary it was quite a sight.—Astrono mos.

Mr. N. G. Cassidy, newly appointed Senior Chemist in the Department of Ag riculture, has arrived in Suva.