OUR WOOD -BISON HUNT 129 



Munn and I decided our quarry to be, as indeed he is, the 

 rarest of the rare. We travelled all day along and up and 

 down ridges, where men and dogs could scarcely drag the 

 sledge for fallen timber and sharp ascents, and where the 

 snow was deep, and breaking trail excessively hard, 

 especially with tripping-shoes on which you sank to the 

 knee, and with the toe of which you barked your shins as 

 you raised your foot after every step to shake off the 

 shovelful of accumulated snow. 



In this fashion we worked our way for about twenty 

 miles, and yet saw no signs. But we did have a fine camp 

 in the woods that night, with a roaring, warming fire, and 

 such a glorious- auroral exhibition as I had never before 

 beheld, nor ever afterwards saw surpassed. Now there 

 were dancing waves of changing red and violet expanding 

 and narrowing and whirling across the sky in phantom 

 dances ; then great radiant streaks of golden-greenish 

 pierced the heavens like iridescent search-lights of incom- 

 parable power and brilliancy. It was all so startlingly 

 brilliant and wonderfully beautiful. And I lay on my 

 back, with the Indians on one side and the dogs all 

 around, and stared at the magnificent spectacle, and for- 

 got the rabbits. 



The Indians have no definite idea touching the aurora; 

 in their always apt nomenclature they call it the " lights 

 that move quickly," and in general accept the exhibition 

 as merely the sign of wind or fine weather. The Dog- 

 Ribs say it is the spirits of their ancestors holding a 

 dance ; another tribe varies this only by substituting fight- 

 ing for dancing ; but there is really no attempt at solu- 

 tion. They are too thoroughly occupied in solving the 

 problem of living. They do claim, however, that the au- 

 rora is at times audible, and some scientists agree with 

 them. Personally I can add little certainty to the uncer- 



