18 OUT TO LAKE ILE A LA CROSSE 



may not get through — better if we had delayed 

 a week longer. The ice is fast on this shore a 

 long way down, but as pressure is heavy and the 

 freshet flood is rising, it has probably drawn off 

 the shore on the far side, and an open channel 

 may be over there. If it remains calm the ice 

 will hold as it is, but wind from a contrary 

 quarter would move the whole ice surface and 

 send the pressure in whatever direction it pleased 

 to blow. But here we are, we'll try her anyhow." 

 So we pushed off into the icy water and headed 

 for the opposite shore across the head of the 

 lake. Reaching there we found an open channel 

 along shore, as Joe had surmised, and turned 

 the canoe's head northward along it. All went 

 well until we reached the cut across the lake 

 which the incoming police party in their large 

 canoe had opened up the day before. We had 

 not long entered this narrow channel when a 

 soft north-east wind began to rise and drift 

 over the ice, and anxiously we saw the pressure 

 begin to close the channel before us, and the 

 ice rasped against the windward side of our light 

 canoe. Briefly Joe uttered a word of warning — 

 for we were in imminent danger — bid me seize 

 an axe and break the pressure off the bows as 

 far as I could, while he worked madly with his 

 paddle in the stern. For an hour we laboured, 

 more like madmen than sane men, while we 

 could feel the canoe at times creaking and almost 

 giving way to the weight of ice against her sides 

 that threatened to break her into matchwood. 

 Luckily the ice, in most places, was water- 

 soaked and rotted, and by labouring incessantly 



