176 Twenty-fourth Report on the State Museum. 



There was no spring, but water was easily procured by pulling up 

 moss; the space thus made being soon filled with excellent cold 

 water which, when settled, was sufficiently clear for use. The night 

 came down dark and chill, and a strong westerly wind made the 

 camp-fire burn fiercely. The rubber blanket, spread upon a thick 

 bed of balsam boughs, kept me from the wet moss, and some of the 

 small trees, piled bodily to windward, tempered the blast ; the rear 

 of the camp being a large rock. 



At about eight o'clock in the evening the sky was lightened by 

 that brilliant aurora borealis which excited such attention through- 

 out the northern hemisphere by its w^onderful iridescence, and 

 brought the inhabitants of beleaguered Paris upon their ramparts, 

 to gaze with awe at a manifestation by many deemed of dire import. 

 It shot up from the north-west, and, passing over to the east, formed 

 a broad crimson belt overhead ; while the whole dome of the heavens 

 was lit with silvery glory, which flashed and swayed in seeming con- 

 cord with the eddies of a gale then whirling round the mountain. 

 With every wave and brightening of the aurora a sighing, whisper- 

 ing sound was heard, like the rustling of great folds of silk, which 

 my guide assured me was the '' noise of the northern light." At the 

 north-western horizon pencils of blue darted up toward the zenith, 

 but I was in doubt whether the color was not that of the sky, seen 

 through intervals in the auroral cloud. The rays seemed to center a 

 few degrees south of the zenith. The display lasted long into the 

 night. The guide, who was without coat or blanket, kept himself 

 warm by chopping fire-wood, and we hailed the day with 

 pleasure. 



October 15th. — We had not far to ascend from our camp, before 

 we reached a dense growth of dwarf balsam trees, which form a bar- 

 rier to the summit. They were at first about seven or eight feet 

 high ; with much labor we pushed or chopped our Avay through 

 them, their branches being stifi* and numberless and intricately 

 locked. At 8 a. m. we walked upon the trees, which had dwindled 

 to great shrubs, flattened to the ground, with long, spreading, lateral 

 branches, and stood at last upon the summit. 



The view hence was magnificent, yet differing from other of the 

 loftier Adirondacks, in that no clearings were discernible ; wilderness 

 everywhere; lake on lake, river on river, mountain on mountain, 

 numberless. Northward was Whiteface mountain ; then shone the 

 lower Saranac lake, half hidden by Moose mountain, while below glit- 



