In the Arctic Regions, - 31 
clothed with a variety of firs, poplars, birches, and 
willows, The current runs with great rapidity, and 
the channel is, in many places, intricate and dangerous, 
from broken ridges of rock jutting into the stream. 
We pitched our tents at the entrance of Cross Lake, 
having advanced only five miles and a half. 
Cross Lake is extensive, running towards the N. E., 
it is said, for forty miles. We crossed it at the nar- 
row part, and pulling through several winding chan- 
nels, formed by a group of islands, entered Cedar 
Lake, which, next to Lake Winneipeg, is the largest 
sheet of fresh water we had hitherto seen. Ducks 
and geese resort hither in immense flocks in the spring 
and autumn. These birds are now beginning to go off, 
owing to its muddy shores having become quite hard 
through the nightly frosts. At this place the Aurora 
Borealis was extremely brilliant in the night, its corus- 
cations darting, at times, over the whole sky, and as- 
suming various prismatic tints, ‘of which the violet 
and yellow were predominant. 
After pulling, on the 14th, ‘seven miles and a quar- 
ter on the Jake, a violent wind drove us for shelter to 
a small island, or rather a ridge of rolled stones, 
thrown up by the frequent storms which agitate thir 
lake. The weather did not moderate the whole day, 
and we were obliged to pass the night on this exposed 
spot, The delay, however, enabled us to obtain some 
