lOO The Home of the IVoIveirjie and Beaver. 



for it would never do to run short of firewood in 

 the night, Paul descends to the lake for water, and 

 soon returns with a bucket full, but to obtain it he 

 has had to break open the ice with his ice-axe, and 

 the exposed surface freezes before he can reach the 

 camp. 



And now while Groves boils the kettle and fries 

 a little venison, Paul goes again to the lake to catch 

 a dish of fish. Let us see how he sets about it. 

 First of all he scrapes away the snow with his shoe, 

 and having laid bare a portion of the ice proceeds 

 to chop a hole in it with his axe. In about ten 

 minutes the unfrozen water is reached, and the hole 

 enlarged until it is a couple of feet square. Paul 

 now puts a piece of rav/ venison on his hook, which 

 is of considerable size, and fastened to a thick, 

 strong line, and drops it into the hole, first tying a 

 long bough at the end of the line, so that a heavy 

 fish cannot pull it into the water, for the cold is too 

 intense to permit of his sitting down and fishing 

 according to our acceptation of the term ; if he did 

 anything h^If so foolish, he would infallibly be 

 frost-bitten, and lose a toe or two, or perhaps his 

 nose. Not caring for either of these contingencies, 

 Paul walks briskly about, but his patience is not 

 long tried, for in less than five minutes tlie line 

 runs violently out, and he hauls up a fine breanj 



