98 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



they are on the inland rivers they appear to be on the 

 average more careful than the Indians. 



On our river there was little danger of drowning, for 

 it was shallow, but there was the danger of getting your 

 feet wet, not only in the way I have described but also 

 in another way that is more common and more difficult 

 to avoid. A shallow river will quickly freeze to the bot- 

 tom in some rapid. The water above the frozen place 

 will then be held back until finally it will burst through 

 the ice somewhere above the obstruction and flood the 

 surface. Now there are places where snowdrifts lie clean 

 across the river in ridges, forming obstructions that dam 

 the water back so that you may have ten or even fifteen 

 inches of water on top of the previous ice. If this flooding 

 has taken place only a few hours before you come to that 

 stretch of the river, there are only two courses open. 

 Either you must scramble up into the hillside and travel 

 parallel to the river till you get below the flooded place, 

 or else you must camp and wait till the surface water 

 has frozen over. In winter this is seldom a long wait. 

 The general rule is that if you come to a bad place in the 

 forenoon you try to get around it, but if you come to one 

 in the afternoon you camp over night and expect the ice 

 to carry you next morning. 



On the last day of our homeward journey we were in 

 a hurry so as not to have to make camp. We had made 

 up our minds to sleep that night at Shingle Toint. For 

 that reason we took more risk than ordinary, traveling 

 over thin flood ice. We all broke through several times. 

 Roxy, being ahead, was the first to break through and I 

 saw how he jumped instantly out of the water into a deep 

 snowbank and rubbed the snow all over his wet feet. 

 This was because dry snow at low temperatures acts like 



