In the parts of Alaska where fish can be caught for food, Indians live in small villages. In the center of each village they put up a tall pole carved and painted in the forms of birds and animals with big ugly faces. These are called Totem Poles. Each tribe or family has some bird or animal such as an eagle or a bear for its mascot, as you might call your club “the Lions” or “the Owls,” and the Totem Pole is the tribe’s sign.

If you should suddenly see at night the whole northern sky hung with curtains of fire and ablaze with flashing flames shooting from the ground far up into the heavens, you might think, as I did the first time I saw it when a boy, that the World was coming to an end. It looked as if the World were on fire and were about to explode. This amazing sight is called the Aurora Borealis or Northern Light, and it may be seen often in Alaska and sometimes, though perhaps only once or twice in a lifetime, much farther south. It is a terrifying sight to those who have never seen or even heard of such a thing before, and yet the Aurora Borealis does no more harm than a beautiful sunset or a rainbow in the sky.

What causes the Aurora Borealis? That’s a hard question to answer. Electricity has something to do with it and so have sun spots. Have you ever heard of sun spots? Sometimes a dark spot will appear on the sun and move slowly across it. You can’t see sun spots because the sun is much too bright to be stared at. But men who look through telescopes with darkened glass to protect their eyes can see these spots and they can photograph them with special cameras. After a sun spot appears on the sun there is usually a very bright Aurora Borealis.

That’s all I can tell you. A little girl once asked, “What is a thought made of?” That’s a hard question to answer too.