Observations on the aurora borealis made by George Back, on his expedition to the Canadian Far North

On an expedition he led in the Canadian Arctic from 1833 to 1835, George Back (1796-1878) made one of the first studies of the phenomenon of the northern lights (aurora borealis). A British naval officer, artist and explorer, Back had begun his career in the Canadian Arctic with the legendary Sir John Franklin. He and his colleagues wrote this journal at Fort Reliance, a post built in 1833 at the eastern tip of Great Slave Lake.