224 
1771. 
Qe nema somm 
Decembex. 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
I do not remember to have met with any tra-__ 
vellers into high Northern latitudes, who remark- | 
ed their having heard the Northern Lights make | 
any noife in the air as they vary their colours or — 
pofition; which may probably be owing to the: 
want of perfect filence at the time they made their 
obfervations on thofe meteors. [I can pofitively _ 
affirm, that in ftill nights I have frequently heard _ 
them make a ruftling and crackling noife, like 
the waving of a large flag in a freth gale of wind. 
This is not peculiar to the place of which I am _ 
now writing, as I have heard the fame noife very © 
plain at Churchill River; and in all probability _ 
it is only for want of attention that it has not | 
been heard in every part of the Northern hemif- 
phere where they have been known to fhine | 
with any confiderable degree of luftre. Itis, how- _ 
ever, very probable that thefe lights are fome- — 
times much nearer the earth than they are at 
others, according to the ftate of the atmofphere, 
and this may have a great effect on the found: 
but the truth or falfehood of this conjecture I 
leave to the determinations of thofe who are bet- _ 
ter fkilled in natural philofophy than I can pretend 
to be. ( 
Indian deer (the only fpecies found in thofe 
parts, except the moofe) are fo much larger than — 
thofe which frequent the barren grounds to the | 
North of Churchill River, that a fmall doe is | 
equal in fize to a Northern buck. The hair of © 
the) | 
