CROSSING THE NELSON. 237 



it to drift down past the lower end would mean that 

 we would be carried with the current out to sea and be 

 irrevocably lost. 



After carefully considering the situation, we concluded 

 to portage across the island of ice and launch on the 

 other side. Accordingly the boat was unloaded and 

 piece by piece everything was carried safely across, but 

 when we attempted to portage the boat it and we 

 continually broke through the surface. We were there- 

 fore obliged to cut a channel right through the island, 

 the full width of the boat. After much labor this was 

 accomplished, the boat hauled through, reloaded, and 

 again pushed out into the flowing pack, which carried 

 us, in spite of all our endeavors, far down toward the 

 mouth of the river. 



At length we had succeeded in getting within thirty 

 feet of the solid south-shore ice, but even then, when the 

 shore seemed almost within reach, we were nipped in 

 the floe and again carried helplessly downward, until it 

 seemed as if, after all, we were going to be carried out 

 to sea. 



We used every effort to free the boat, but all of no 

 avail. At last, however, civil war among the floes 

 caused a split and brought deliverance. A few rapid 

 strokes and our old craft bumped against the solid ice. 



The bowman, Fra^ois, quick as a flash, sprang out 

 with the end of the tow-line, while the rushing ice 

 again caught the boat and bore it downward. Francois 

 held on to the tow-line with all his might, but the tug- 

 of-war was going against him; he yielded, fell, and 

 for a short distance was dragged over the broken hum- 

 mocks of ice, but bracing his feet against one of these, he 



