318 - A MY6TEBIOU8 PHENOMENON. 



comes from, I won't undertake to say. The old Ingins who, 

 five and twenty year ago, fished and hunted over these regions, 

 told of it as a thing to wonder at, and that it was handed 

 along down from generation to generation, as one of the 

 mysteries of this wilderness. I mind once I was out among 

 the Adirondacks, trappin' martin and sable. I shantied for 

 a week with Crop, under the shadow of Mount Marcy. It 

 was twenty odd year ago, and that old mountain stood a 

 good deal further from a clearin' than it does now. Crop 

 and I had a good many hard days' work that trip ; but we 

 got a full pack of martin and sable skins, and two or three 

 wolf scalps, besides a bear and a painter, and we didn't com- 

 plain. Wai, one afternoon, we put up a shanty in an open 

 spot two miles from our regular campiu' ground, and built 

 our fire for the night. There was no moon, and though the 

 stars shone out bright and clear, yet in the deep shadow of 

 the forest it was dark and gloomy enough. We had eaten 

 our supper, and I was smokin' my last pipe before layin' 

 myself away, when all at once the forest was lighted up 

 like the day. It was all the more light from the sudden 

 glare which broke upon the darkness, and there, for an 

 instant, stood the old woods, lighted up like noon, every 

 tree distinct, every mountain, every rock, and valley, as per- 

 fect and plain to be seen as if the sun was standin' right 

 above us in the sky. Crop was as much astonished as I 

 was, and he crept to my feet and trembled like a coward, as 

 he crouched beside them. I looked up, and flyin' across the 

 heavens was a great ball of fire, lookin' for all the world as 



