240 [ACROSS THE ST. LAWRENCE 



a lane of open water. It ran about S.-W. from 

 us and was nearly four miles long. We rowed as 

 hard as we could to warm ourselves up. This 

 lane finally narrowed down to nothing and we had 

 to get on the ice and drag the canoes again. It 

 was awfully hard work and we made slow pro- 

 gress; as nearly as I could judge about one mile an 

 hour. The ice formation was different also, 

 being much thicker, and the rasping and creaking 

 of it was something terrible. Ridges would form 

 in a few seconds and of these we had to be careful 

 so as not to have our canoes caught and crushed. 

 It must have been jamming somewhere about that 

 time, because after a while its motion ceased, and 

 we crossed two or three small lanes of open water, 

 when the dragging of the canoes was resumed. 

 We worked this in spells of ten minutes with an 

 intervening rest of five minutes. During the first 

 part of the dragging we had thrown away every- 

 thing not absolutely required, the boat anchors, 

 one harpoon, knee pads which being soaked 

 were useless our steel hook, all the bottom boards 

 and about one hundred and fifty cartridges, 

 keeping twenty-five in case of need. The wind 

 had not at all abated, but as we got to the south- 

 ward it became more westerly and increased our 

 drift eastwards very perceptibly. Allowance 

 had to be made for it, by working more westerly. 

 This increased our distance considerably, but 

 was the only way to avoid being swept down below 



