A RIVER VIEW. 213 



cold. The new black ice is found to be covered with 

 a sudden growth of frost-ferns exquisite fern-like 

 formations from a half-inch to an inch in length, 

 standing singly and in clusters, and under the morn- 

 ing sun presenting a most novel appearance. They 

 impede the skate, and are presently broken down and 

 blown about by the wind. 



The scenes and doings of summer are counterfeited 

 in other particulars upon these crystal plains. Some 

 bright, breezy day you casually glance down the river 

 and behold a sail a sail like that of a pleasure 

 yacht of summer. Is the river open again below 

 there, is your first half -defined inquiry. But with 

 what unwonted speed the sail is moving across the 

 view ! Before you have fairly drawn another breath 

 it has turned, unperceived, and is shooting with equal 

 swiftness in the opposite direction. Who ever saw 

 such a lively sail ! It does not bend before the breeze, 

 but darts to and fro as if it moved in a vacuum, or like 

 a shadow over a scene. Then you remember the ice- 

 boats, and you open your eyes to the fact. Another 

 and another come into view around the elbow, turn- 

 ing and flashing in the sun, and hurtling across each 

 other's path like white-winged gulls. They turn so 

 quickly and dash off again at such speed, that they 

 produce the illusion of something singularly light and 

 intangible. In fact, an ice-boat is a sort of disembod- 

 ied yacht ; it is a sail on skates. The only semblance 

 to a boat is the sail and the rudder. The platform 

 under which the skates or runners three in number 



