A RIVER VIEW. 211 



down upon the busy scene as from a hill-top upon a 

 river meadow in haying time, only here the figures 

 stand out much more sharply than they do from a 

 summer meadow. There is the broad, straight blue- 

 black canal emerging into view, and running nearly 

 across the river ; this is the highway that lays open 

 the farm. On either side lie the fields or ice-mead- 

 ows, each marked out by cedar or hemlock boughs. 

 The farther one is cut first; and, when cleared, 

 shows a large, long, black parallelogram in the midst 

 of the plain of snow. Then the next one is cut, leav- 

 ing a strip or tongue of ice between the two for the 

 horses to move and turn upon. Sometimes nearly two 

 hundred men and boys, with numerous horses, are 

 at work at once, marking, ploughing, planing, scrap- 

 ing, sawing, hauling, chiseling ; some floating down 

 the pond on great square islands towed by a horse, 

 or their fellow-workman ; others distributed along 

 the canal, bending to their ice-hooks ; others upon the 

 bridges, separating the blocks with their chisel-bars ; 

 others feeding the elevators ; while knots and strag- 

 gling lines of idlers here and there look on in cold 

 discontent, unable to get a job. 



The best crop of ice is an early crop. Late in the 

 season, or after January, the ice is apt to get " sun- 

 struck, " when it becomes " shaky," like a piece of 

 poor timber. The sun, when he sets about destroy- 

 ing the ice, does not simply melt it from the surface 

 that were a slow process ; but he sends his shafts 

 into it and separates it into spikes and needles 



