DOES THE AURORA EMIT SOUND f 371 



the natives, and insisted on by Hearne, by my friend Mr Dease, and by 

 many of the oldest residents in the fur countries, though I have not had the 

 good fortune to hear it myself" 



The long months of the winter and spring gradually passed, the dulness 

 of Arctic life in winter being unrelieved by any noteworthy incident. Simp- 

 son, however, was delighted that the weather was much milder than in the 

 preceding year, and from this circumstance he augured favourably for the 

 result of his next voyage to the Polar Sea. Winter lingered long and stub- 

 bornly around Fort Confidence, and even when the Mackenzie Eiver had 

 broken, and vegetation had made considerable progress at Fort Norman, there 

 was no crack in the ice around the solitary fort at the mouth of Dease River. 

 " At length," exclaims Simpson, with a burst of enthusiasm, " June came 

 with a change, sudden, delightful, and complete. The frost almost entirely 

 ceased ; the temperature at mid-day attained from 40° to 70° in the shade ; 

 the snow disappeared as though by magic from the surface of the ice and of 

 the ground, forming many brooks and rills of water ; willows timidly put 

 forth their buds, and the woods grew vocal with the voice of song. . . . 

 With renovated hopes and thankful hearts, we prepared to try our fortune a 

 third time on the Polar Sea." 



On the 15th June, Dease and Simpson, with their exploring party, set 

 out from Fort Confidence for the Coppermine River. The journey was con- 

 ducted with wonderful intrepidity and spirit, and the labours of the portages, 

 the dangers of the rapids, etc., only seemed to give zest to an enterprise, 

 which Simpson at least enjoyed as much as if it had been a sporting excur- 

 sion. This officer accepted the discomforts of the journey in the gayest 

 humovir. "The journey was pleasant enough," he says, "for, except a little 

 snow one day, and plenty of rain the next, we enjoyed fine weather, besides 

 a picnic party regularly every morning and evening. We crossed mountains, 

 swamps, streams, and frozen lakes ; shot two or three deer, and ate them ; 

 and finding the rapid Kendal River flooded, passed over on a raft, and on 

 the 19th had the happiness to find the three men left in charge of our boats 

 and baggage safe and well. ... On the 22d we ran down to the Bloody 

 Fall without stopping to make a single portage, making, in fact, light of the 

 rapids, which the falling of the river rendered much less formidable than on 

 the same day of the previous year, though some of them did not fail to, 

 initiate our new hands, by pouring a few harmless waves into the boats. 

 The descent occupied nearly eleven hours, the windings of the river greatly 

 increasing the actual distance. Our deposit of provisions in the cleft of the 

 rock was untouched by man or beast, but slightly affected by damp ; . . . 

 the rudders, masts, etc., were found safe on the islet below." 



After a few days spent in exploring' Richardson River, the explorers 

 emerged from the mouth of Coppermine River on the 3d July, and com- 



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