It was a place of veneration.

The primitive instinct, perchance inherited from those far-off ancestors of ours, slumbering in our souls, is sometimes awakened, and then we are called to the woods and the wild places that God made beautiful for us, and at night we gather around our camp fire as our ancient ancestors gathered around theirs, and we love it just as they loved it.
And so it was with the little camp fire on Flat Point and with Doctor Joe and the boys.

With darkness the uncanny light of the Aurora Borealis flashed up in the north, its long, weird fingers of changing colours moving restlessly across the heavens.

The forest and the wide, dark waters of Eskimo Bay sank behind a black wall.
There was absolute silence, save for the ripple of waves upon the shore, each busy with his own thoughts, until presently Jamie asked: "Did you ever see a ghost, Doctor ?" "A ghost?
No, lad, and I fancy no one else ever saw one except in imagination.

What made you think of ghosts ?" "'Tis so--still--and dark out there," said Jamie, pointing toward the darkness beyond the fire-glow.