164 DIFFICULT WALKING. 



we were compelled to jump swiftly to get safe from one to an- 

 other, each step sending the cake deep into the water beneath, so 

 that the person behind would be obliged to wait until it had re- 

 gained its position once again before attempting a similar passage. 



Along the edges of the river the ice had formed and cracked 

 again, leaving the walking very dangerous as well as difficult ; this 

 often necessitated the climbing of long, steep, icy slopes before 

 gaining a secure footing. Then again the ice had formed over 

 beds of sharp rocks, often at high tide, and the water retreating 

 had undermined the support, when suddenly, while walking over 

 these, they would give way and we would fall often several feet 

 on the rocks below, making most treacherous as also dangerous 

 travelling. Again long open stretches of water would compel 

 us to go by the land, either around some inland pond or lac sale. 

 (salt lake, as the people call these inlets of the sea, and of 

 which there are so many all along the coastline), or over some 

 low and narrow, or high strip of land to the river again. Some- 

 times we would crawl along the edge of some high and sloping, 

 or steep and rocky crest, often coming suddenly to the brink of a 

 precipitous height of twenty to thirty feet, where a single false 

 step would have sent us to the rocks or sharp ice below ; or 

 perhaps we would suddenly sink to our armpits into some con- 

 cealed, snow-covered spruce thicket, from which we would ex- 

 tricate ourselves only with great difficulty. 



From some high hilltop we could see lofty crests sloping to some 

 narrow or often perpendicular cut, through which the river, now 

 frozen and now with open glistening waters, ran towards the sea, a 

 distant maze on our south. A mile or so ahead we could see the 

 buildings, and the white church with its steeple, of the little Mission 

 station. Here are about a dozen buildings where many of the 

 families that live upon the islands outside in the summer, together 

 with the foreigners who conduct the school and Sunday church 

 services, pass their winter quite cosily and more or less merrily 

 in teaching and being taught. 



It was a difficult tramp, but a delightful one. At length we 



