mazes of this tangled wood, our eyes were recreated by a ravishing scene. When it presents itself after a disastrous combat, the spectacle consoles the afflicted heart of the savage warrior. From the mountain's top we contemplated the "dance of the manitous or spirits, and the glorious entrance of departed champions into the country of souls." Vast columns of light varying in splendor, appeared to divert and balance themselves in the heavens:—some of perpendicular form; others resembling undulatory waves; now concealing, now exhibiting themselves under diversified aspects until the entire hemisphere seemed brilliantly {143} illuminated. All these masses united at the zenith, and then separated under a variety of forms.
Mysterious, solemn, cold and clear,
Their steps majestic rise,
Like barriers round this earthly sphere,
Like gates of Paradise.
Well may imagination faint
Before your sacred blaze,
And baffled science fail to paint
The source of heaven-lit rays.
The aurora borealis, is a phenomenon which I always contemplate with mingled admiration and pleasure. All that is seen, all that is heard in this unfathomable solitude, is both agreeable and instructive. It strikes, captivates, and elevates the mind towards the Author of nature. Mirabilia opera Domini!
After much fatigue, labor, and admiration, on the 15th we traversed the high lands separating the waters of Oregon from those of the south branch of the Sascatshawin, or the ancient Bourbon river, so called before the Canadian conquest by the British.[112] It is the largest tributary of*
