ATTEMPTS AT A BUSn SETTLEMENT. 



by land ; so that we wcro virtually imprisoned, and without the assistance of cither 

 frost or thaw, would have to remain so. 



However, in a few days frost came to our rescue ; and the ice seeming sufficient to 

 bear us, attended by one man with a trunk and traveling bag on a hand-sloigh, and 

 our guns on our shoulders, accompanied by my wife, we started at eai-ly morn on our 

 return to Peterboro,' on foot, by a route considerably shorter than the one we came 

 by water. After walking down Manitou Lake three miles on the glare ice, we had to 

 cross the bush five miles to strike liuckhorn Lake, which being full of springs, its ice 

 is at all times dangerous ; and on gaining the shore, we saw open water in many 

 places where the current ran in the center, but apparently connected between the 

 openings sufficiently to aftbrd a passage. Uaving resolved to attempt crossing, we 

 got safely over more than two-thirds of the distance, when we came to the current, 

 where much of the ice seemed floating. Seeing one place which seemed firm across, 

 we gained it ; and when about on the center of the frozen bridge, our weight broke it 

 off from either side, and we found ourselves in an instant floating in open water on a 

 small floe of ice, miles from any other human beings, and drifting swiftly to the boil- 

 ing rapids about two miles below us. Our astonishment was quickly succeeded by 

 the awe and dread of our perilous situation. 



After a few moments consultation, we decided on attempting the only chance which 

 seemed open to us. Both the wind and current were urging us to the rapids ; and 

 about half way on the right shore, the one which we had been trying to gain, a point 

 projected out so far as to narrow the channel to less than one-half, and the open 

 water washed it. To strike the weather side of this point was now our only hope. 

 So placing my wife on the hand-sleigh, with her cloak spread out for a sail to try to 

 get steerage way, we got as near the larboard side of the floe as possible, and using 

 the butts of our guns for paddles, we by degrees guided our frail and dangerous raft 

 inside of the point, upon which we drifted in safety, and quickly sprung ashore to pay 

 our grateful homage to ITira who had so mercifully preserved us. 



Afraid to trust ourselves again upon the dangerous ice of Buckhorn, we waded 

 through the wet snow on its marshy banks for six miles, to the Indian village, where 

 it connects with Mud Lake. Having become acquainted with many of the Indians in 

 their hunting excursions at Harvey, we went at once to the chief's house, where we 

 were most hospitably entertained and comfortably warmed and dried. 



As the glare ice on Mud lake (which we had yet to cross, a distance of six miles,) 

 was not yet fit to be traveled by horses, the old chief collected all the tribe in the 

 village, got his own sleigh on the ice, placed us in it, and partly drawn partly pushed 

 by the whole tribe of Indians on skates, we flew across the lake at an almost incred- 

 ible speed. They would receive no recompense, and seemed amply repaid by having 

 been able to serve the white lady. The farmer at whose landing we left the lake, 

 seeing that we were so anxious to get to Peterboro' that night, would not harness his 

 team to take us the seven miles, until I paid him down eight dollars — a practical 

 proof of savage generosity and civilized extortion. 



Thus ended our first attempt at a settlement in the bush 



