OF farri?:ry. 



397 



or three iiwhes in length often hang at their 

 iio-:e«. 



Travelling on Lake Champlain is at all times 

 dangerous ; and it is very common for sleigh, 

 Horses, and men, to fall through the ice where 

 the water is some hundred feet deep ; and 

 there is no warning of danger till the Horses 

 drop in pulling the sleigh after them : luckily, 

 the weak places are of no great extent, the 

 traveller extricates himself from the sleigh as 

 quick as possible, and he finds the ice generally 

 strong enough to support him, though it will 

 not bear the weight of the Horses. The pul- 

 ling of them out is done in a manner perfectly 

 unique, the Horses are strangled to save their 

 lives. 



When the Horses fall through, for there are 

 always two in these sleighs, their struggles 

 only tend to injure and sink them ; but as they 

 have always round their necks a rope with a 

 running noose, the moment the ice breaks, the 

 driver and passengers get out, and catching 

 hold of the rope, pull it with all their force, 

 which, in a very few minutes, strangles the 

 Horses ; and no sooner does this happen than 

 they rise in the water, float on one side, and 

 are drawn out on strong ice, w here the noose 

 of the rope being loosened respiration returns, 

 and, in a short time, the Horses are on their 

 feet and as much alive as ever. This opera- 

 tion has been known to be performed two or 

 three times a day on the same Horses. The 

 Canadians tell you that Horses \vh ch are often 

 on the lake get so accustomed to being hanged, 

 tliat they think nothing at all of it. But, 

 though the case is very common, the attempt 

 does not always succeed ; for it sometimes 

 happen^! that both sleigh and Horses go to 

 the bot'om, if they cannot be extricated in 

 time- 



Another remarkable fact respecting the 

 Canadian Horses is their fondness for fish. 

 The nsh thus eaten, except in size, resemble 

 a cod, and are from four to nine inches lono- • 

 the English call them tommy cod : the manner 

 of catching them is by cutting holes in the ice 

 and putting down either nets or lines. Over 

 this hole a temporary house is built, large 

 enough to contain half a dozen people, and a 

 stove to keep them warm. They who cannot 

 afford deals to build a house, substitute large 

 pieces of ice, with which they form a kind of 

 defence against the weather. 



Midnight is the best time for fishing; and 

 they place a strong light near the hole, which 

 attracts the attention of the fish, and brinffs 

 them round it in large quantities. There are 

 a number of these houses on the rive: St. 

 Charles, which have a strange appearance 

 in a dark night, especially those made of ice. 



INSTINCT. 



A Horse having been turned into a field by 

 its owner, Mr. Joseph Lane, of Fascombe, in 

 the parish of Ashelworth, was rn'ssed there- 

 from the next morning, and the usual inquiries 

 set afoot, as to what could have become of 

 him. He had, it seems, been shod, all fours, 

 a few days before, and as usual got pinched in 

 a foot. Feeling, no doubt, a lively sense of 

 proper shoeing, and desirous of relieving the 

 cause of pain, he contrived to unhang the gate 

 of his pasture with his mouth, and make the 

 best of his way to the smithy, a distance of a 

 mile and a half from Fascombe, waiting res- 

 pectfully at the door until the bungling artist 

 got up. The smith relates, that he found 

 him there at opening his shed ; that the 

 Horse advanced to the forge and held up hi* 

 ailing foot ; and that he himself, upon exami> 



6 H 



