252 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



traders subsist almost entirely on fish caught 

 in the autumn, prior to the lake being 

 frozen; but the water being shallow, they 

 remove to a deeper part, as soon as the lake 

 is covered with ice. The Aurora Borealis 

 was brilliantly displayed on both the nights 

 we remained here, but particularly on the 

 7th, when its appearances were most diver- 

 sified, and the motion extremely rapid. Its 

 coruscations occasionally concealed from 

 sight stars of the first magnitude in passing 

 over them, at other times these were faintly 

 discerned through them; once I perceived 

 a stream of light to illumine the under sur- 

 face of some clouds as it passed along. 

 There was no perceptible noise. 



Mr. Mac Murray gave a dance to his 

 voyagers and the women; this is a treat 

 which they expect on the arrival of any 

 stranger at the post. 



We were presented by this gentleman 

 with the valuable skin of a black fox, which 

 he had entrapped some days before our ar- 

 rival; it was forwarded to England with 

 other specimens. 



