FORCING WAY THROUGH ICE 19 



with "axe and paddle we were able to move on 

 slowly, spasmodically, and change and relieve 

 the pressure on the canoe when it threatened to 

 sink us. We escaped through in the end, ex- 

 hausted and wet, yet very glad to have escaped 

 disaster to ourselves and to the irreplaceable 

 outfit. 



We saw then how foolhardy we had been to 

 attempt the journey ; how complete might have 

 been the disaster at the very outset of our 

 undertaking. 



We had learned a lesson on overhaste, but, 

 strange as it may seem, it is such uncommon 

 experiences that are a part of the charm of the 

 North — unexpected happenings, unforeseen 

 dangers, forces that may lurk in flood waters, 

 rapids, storms, night winds, ice floes, low- 

 dropping thermometer and steel-blue cold, or in 

 blinding blizzard. The ways of the North are 

 manifold, and men cannot know her long before 

 she bids them see her grim, unshakable strength, 

 and experience a corresponding demand for 

 daring and endurance. 



The wind held in the direction it had sprung 

 from and, working down the channel on the 

 east shore, we had no further difficulty in navi- 

 gating Crooked Lake. It was a long, narrow 

 lake, trending northwards through forested hill- 

 country. The trees on the shore were mostly 

 delicate, thickly branched poplars, not yet in 

 leaf, and here and there a few green spruce 

 trees, sometimes grouped together in clumps, 

 sometimes solitary, while in places the forest 

 had been thinned by fire and many skeleton 



