178 MOOSE-HUNTING, SALMON-FISHING, ETC 



This was then fully two miles distant. While 

 they were thus engaged, your humble servant, 

 with his boatman, prepared their ice-boat 

 for service. To help you who have never 

 seen a boat of the above kind, to better 

 understand the nature of it, as we shall 

 have to talk about it a great deal, I shall 

 spend a part of the time of their absence in 

 explaining its make-up and get-up. The 

 intention is to have the boat resemble as 

 closely as possible a floating ice-cake, and the 

 nearer it can be made to approach that, the 

 more successful the occupants will be. They 

 range from 9 to 11 feet in length, accord- 

 ing as they are intended for one or two 

 parties, and are 6 feet wide. The bottom of 

 the main part is much the shape of a fishing- 

 dory, but much lower on the side. The 

 bow is boarded or canvassed some 2| or 3 feet 

 from the stern, the latter not being over 

 9 inches high. Then there is a cock-pit, 

 formed by the washboard extending from 

 the covered bow to the stern, and it is in 

 this pit the gunners lie. A bend is necessary 

 on the edge of the closed-in bow to hold on 

 small ice-cakes, put there the more strongly 



