Adrift in the Ice-Fields | Page 2

INDIAN LEGEND 220
XVI. THE BREEDING-GROUNDS OF THE SEAL.--A CURIOUS
SIGHT.--A SHARP ENCOUNTER.--ICE CHANGES 230
XVII. ENLARGING THE BOAT.--WINGED
SCAVENGERS.--NOTICE TO QUIT 244
XVIII. A CHANGE OF BASE.--BUILDING A SNOW-HUT.--THE
VIEW FROM THE BERG.--A STRANGE MEETING 254
XIX. THE RING.--THE BURIAL.--A MAUSOLEUM OF ICE 263
XX. A STRANGE LIFE-HISTORY.--AMONG THE RED INDIANS
271
XXI. NORTHWARD AGAIN.--THE STEAMER.--TAKING TO THE
BOAT 287
XXII. THE FORECASTLE OF THE SEALER.--A SEALER'S
STORY.--THE LAST HUNT.--ARRIVAL AT ST. JOHN'S 303
XXIII. THE CAPTAIN'S VISIT.--HOMEWARD
BOUND.--BROTHER AND SISTER 313

ILLUSTRATIONS:
Adrift.
Map of Prince Edward Island and the Northumberland Straits.
Adrift in the Ice Fields.
Capt. Lund headed a Party to assist their Friends

Gie me my Guse, Mon, and dinna delay me
Well, George, you're here at last
And the next Second the glittering Teeth were about to close upon his
helpless Victim
On the Top of the Berg they felt repaid for the Fatigue of their Journey
and Ascent
Kneeling beside it, the Lad bowed his Head as if in silent Prayer
In His Hands La Salle Waved the Banner
[Illustration]
[Illustration: (map of Prince Edward Island and the Northumberland
Straits.)]
[Illustration: ADRIFT IN THE ICE FIELDS.]
CHAPTER I.
OUR COMPANY.
Five hundred miles away to the north and east lies the snug little Island
of St. Jean; a beautiful land in summer, with its red cliffs of red
sandstone and ruddy clay, surmounted by green fields, which stretch
away inland to small areas of the primeval forest, which once extended
unbroken from the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the waters of
the Straits of Northumberland.
Drear and desolate is it in winter, when the straits are filled with ice,
which, in the shape of floe, and berg, and pinnacle, pass in ghostly
procession to and fro, as the wind wafts them, or they feel the diurnal
impetus of the tides they cover, to escape in time from the narrow
limits of the pass, and lose themselves in the vast ice-barrier that for
five long months shuts out the havens of St. Jean from the open sea.

No ship can enter the deserted ports, over whose icy covering the
farmer carries home his year's firing, and the young gallant presses his
horse to his greatest speed to beat a rival team, or carry his fair
companion to some scene of festivity twenty miles away. Many spend
the whole winter in idleness; and to all engaged in aught but
professional duties, the time hangs heavily for want of enjoyable
out-of-door employment. It is, therefore, a season of rejoicing to the
cooped-up sportsman when the middle of March arrives, attended, as is
usually the case, by the first lasting thaws, and the advent of a few
flocks of wild geese.
Among the wealthier sportsmen great preparations are made for a
spring campaign, which often lasts six or eight weeks. Decoys of wood,
sheet-iron, and canvas, boats for decoy-shooting and stealthy approach,
warm clothes, caps, and mittens of spotless white, powder by the keg,
caps and wads by the thousand, and shot by the bag, boots and
moccasons water and frost proof, and a vast variety of small stores for
the inner man, are among the necessaries provided, sometimes weeks in
advance of the coming of the few scattering flocks which form, as it
were, the skirmish line of the migrating hosts of the Canada goose.
It is usual for a small party to board with some farmer, as near as
possible to the shooting grounds, or rather ice, for not infrequently the
strong-winged foragers, who press so closely on the rearguard of the
retreating frost king, find nothing in the shape of open water; but after
leaving their comrades, dead and dying, amid the fatal decoys on the
frozen channels, sweep hastily southward before cold, fatigue, hunger,
and the wiles and weapons of man, can finish the deadly work so
thoroughly begun.
Such a party of six, in the spring of 186-, took up their quarters with
Captain Lund, a pilot, who held the larger portion of the arable land of
the little Island of St. Pierre, which lies three miles south of the mouth
of the harbor of C., and ends in two long and dangerous shoals, known
as the East and West Bars.
The party was composed of Messrs. Risk, Davies (younger and older),
Kennedy, Creamer, and La Salle. Mr. Henry Risk was an English

gentleman, of about fifty-five years of age, handsome, portly, and
genial, a keen sportsman, and sure shot with the long, single, English
ducking-gun, to which he stuck, despite of the jeers and remonstrances
of the owners of muzzle and breech-loading double barrels.
Davies the elder, an old friend of the foregoing, had for many years
been accustomed to leave his store and landed property to the care of