31 8 Mtismgs by Camp- Fire and Wayside 



lighted lantern on the margin to guide us back. A 

 wolf took umbrage at this proceeding, and chal- 

 lenged it with two or three of his high-keyed half- 

 howling barks. That ended the hunt on the North 

 Twin. Not a deer would show himself. 



The canoe was carried, the next day, to a fine 

 large double lake, called Sand-bar. We were only 

 fairly launched, the following night, when a peculiar 

 glow was seen upon the wavelets, the distant shores 

 came out in full view, and looking up, the sky was 

 overarched, from north to south and from horizon 

 to horizon, by a spectacle of indescribable magnifi- 

 cence — one which is familiar enough, no doubt, in 

 the sub-polar regions, but certainly very rarely seen 

 in this latitude. It was a curtain, falling perhaps 

 the distance of a mile, supported from either side 

 by flitting rafters of light, and waving as if blown 

 by the wind. The color was what we may call a 

 luminous ashes of roses, touched here and there 

 with pink and yellow. The line of the curtain was 

 not straight, but curved either way, and while con- 

 stantly varying, kept to the general direction of 

 north and south. The scene changed as if the cur- 

 tain were rolled up, leaving a bar of the same color 

 of light across the sky. This began to break and 

 divide, and soon faded from view. The rafters of 

 light also became feebler and shorter, and vanished. 

 Descriptions of displays like these are given in the 

 literature of the Arctics, but always in general 

 terms, conveying no idea of the utter strangeness 



