THIN ICE 



you have acquired some of the obscure 

 stability of the gyroscope. You tend to 

 stay on your plane of motion, though the 

 ice itself has strength to hold only part 

 of your weight. Thus the wild duck, 

 threshing the air with mighty strokes, 

 glides over it, held up by the same ob- 

 scure force. The ice has no time to 

 break and let you through. You are 

 over it and onto another bit of uncracked 

 surface before it can let go. 



The day warmed a little with a clear 

 sun but the frost that night bit deep 

 again and the next morning the ice had 

 nearly doubled in thickness and would 

 not crack under any strain which my 

 weight could put upon it. A second 

 freezing, even though both be thin, gives 

 a stronger ice than a single freezing of 

 equal depth, just as the English bow- 

 maker of the old days used to glue to- 

 55 



