A WINTER IN THE WILDERNESS 117 



millions of electric sparks, so brilliantly did they glitter 

 in the bright sun. In a day or two there was more 

 snow, and on the morning of the 8th it had collected 

 in such quantities that we could not leave our hut until 

 we had dug a way out. How suddenly, and with what 

 severity, the cold had set in may be judged from the fact 

 that there was now three inches of ice over the brook 

 with six feet of snow covering it, but the snow had 

 drifted into the hollow way formed by the rocky banks. 

 It was quite a morning's work to dig down to the ice, 

 break it, and obtain water. This necessary can be 

 obtained by melting snow and ice, but water so obtained 

 is not very good, and is, moreover, apt to engender 

 several complaints if regularly drunk. There was six 

 feet of water in the brook under the ice, but in 

 mid-winter the ice was quite a foot thick. The 

 fish, I suppose, had left this shallow water and taken 

 refuge in the deeps of the Severn or some of the 

 lakes in its course, for we could never find any during 

 the winter. 



By the second week in November the surface of the 

 snow was frozen sufiiciently hard to enable us to travel 

 on snow-shoes. These shoes we had made in anticipa- 

 tion of the winter, the materials being always at hand. 

 For all that is needed is tough withes of birch and strips 

 of raw hide. Sometimes the shoes (which much re- 

 semble rackets) are made pear-shaped, and sometimes a 

 pointed ellipse, like a Zulu's shield. I prefer the latter 

 shape. The loops of hide through which the foot is 

 passed when the shoe is used, require to be carefully 

 adjusted, and there is a knack in walking, or rather 

 gliding, which must be learned, or the wearer will be 

 continually skinning his instep owing to the friction. 

 Light sledges are also made on the principle of the 

 snow-shoe, and enable the traveller to drag a hundred- 

 weight or more of provisions and pelts behind him. As 

 either shoe or sledge can be repaired anywhere in a few 



