Factories. I often met with half-caste children, whose parents had died
or deserted them; who are growing up with numbers at the different
posts in great depravity. Should their education be neglected, as it
has hitherto been, and should they be led to "_find their grounds_,"
with the Indians, it cannot be a matter of surprise, if at any time
hereafter they should collectively or in parties, threaten the peace of
the country, and the safety of the trading Posts.

SEPT. 4.--The Indians who brought the boy in the canoe to the boat on
my way to the Factory met me on my return, and he is taking his passage
with the other two children to the Settlement. Though I have now made
the voyage several times from York Fort to the Colony, I do not find
that the labour and difficulty of the way are at all relieved. Some
parts of the tracking ground might evidently be improved by cutting
away the willows at the edges of the river; and the track over a few of
the portages might also be made better; some of the large stones
likewise might be removed when the water is low, which is expeditiously
done by digging a large hole by the side and undermining them; when
they are rolled over and buried. But to improve the passage materially,
appears to me to be impracticable, from the shallowness of the water,
and the rapidity of the current in many of the rivers. We saw that
beautiful phenomenon called the '_Aurora Borealis_,' or the northern
lights, on most clear evenings, consisting of long columns of clear
white light, shooting across the heavens with a tremulous motion, and
altering slowly to a variety of shapes. At times they were very
brilliant, and appeared suddenly in different parts of the sky, where
none had been seen before. It has been observed, that this phenomenon
is not vivid in very high latitudes, and that its seat appears to be
about the latitude of 60 deg..

Many of the Indians have a pleasing and romantic idea of this meteor.
They believe the northern lights to be the spirits of their departed
friends dancing in the clouds, and when they are remarkably bright, at
which time they vary most in form and situation, they say that their
deceased friends are making merry.

The northern Indians call the Aurora Borealis "Edthin, i.e. Deer, from
having found that when a hairy deer-skin is briskly stroked with the
hand in a dark night, it will emit many sparks of electrical fire as
the back of a cat will."

On the 5th of October we