TRAVELLING WITH DOG-TRAINS

While the march always started in a stately way--the Factor's carriole
in advance--it was not long before the trains abandoned their formal
order; for whenever one train was delayed through any one of many
reasons, the train behind invariably strove to steal ahead so that
after a few hours' run the best dogs were usually leading.

For several hours we followed the lake and the river, and just before
daylight appeared in the southeastern sky the Aurora Borealis vanished
from view. Later, a golden glow tipping the tops of the tallest trees,
heralded the rising of the sun. Coming out upon a little lake--for we
were now short-cutting across the country--we saw that the light over
the distant hills had broken into a glorious flood of sunshine. Half
over the far-off trees, along the horizon, the sun was shining, and the
whole southeastern sky seemed aflame with bands and balls of fire. A
vertical ribbon of gradually diminishing lustre, scarcely wider than
the sun, was rising into the heavens to meet a vast semi-circle of
rainbow beauty arched above the natural sun. Where the strange halo
cut the vertical flame and the horizon on either side three mock suns
marked the intersection. Above the natural sun and beneath the halo,
four other mock suns studded the vertical band of light. It was a
wonderful sight and lasted fully twenty minutes--the sky was just as I
have shown it in my picture of the York Factory Packet.

Now the brigade was halted, in voyageur parlance, "to spell the dogs
one smoke," which, being translated, meant that the dogs could rest as
long as it took their masters to smoke a pipeful of tobacco. The
drivers, conversing in little groups or sitting upon sleds as they
puffed at their pipes, watched the beautiful phenomenon, and the talk