NORTHERN OCEAN 235 



our way we saw many Indian deer/ and beaver were very plenti- 1771. 

 ful, many of which the Indians killed ; but the days were so 

 short, that the Sun only took a circuit of a few points of the 

 compass above the horizon, and did not, at its greatest altitude, 

 rise half-way up the trees. The brilliancy of the Aurora 

 Borealis, however, and of the Stars, even without the assistance 

 of the Moon, made some amends for that deficiency ; for it 

 was frequently so light all night, that I could see to read a very 

 small print. [224] The Indians make no difference between 

 night and day when they are hunting of beaver ; but those 

 nocturnal lights are always found insufficient for the purpose 

 of hunting deer or moose. 



I do not remember to have met with any travellers into 

 high Northern latitudes, who remarked their having heard the 

 Northern Lights make any noise in the air as they vary their 

 colours or position ; which may probably be owing to the want 

 of perfect silence at the time they made their observations on 

 those meteors. I can positively affirm, that in still nights I 

 have frequently heard them make a rustling and crackling 

 noise, like the waving of a large flag in a fresh gale of wind. 

 This is not peculiar to the place of which I am now writing, 

 as I have heard the same noise 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 hemisphere where 

 they have been known to shine with any considerable degree of 

 lustre. It is, however, very probable that these lights are some- 

 been the original name of any particular place or lake, but was doubtless applied 

 to this lake by Hearne on account of the great marsh which covers much of the 

 delta of Slave River, and later it was applied to the lake now known as Atha- 

 basca Lake on account of the character of the delta at the mouth of Athabasca 

 River, near which Peter Pond, a trader from Montreal, established in 177S the 

 first trading- post on the Mackenzie waters. His map of 1785 designates the 

 lake Arabasca Lake. Petitot states (Royal Geographical Society, vol. v. N.S. 

 1883, p. 728) that Great Slave Lake is called " Thu-tue,' or ' Lake of the Breasts,' 

 by the Chipewyans, because its eastern part is terminated by two extensive 

 bays, in outline fancifully resembling the female bosom."] 



\} Indian Deer = Wood Caribou {Rangifer caribou (Gmel.)). — E. A. P.] 



