THE FROZEN ST. LAWRENCE 13 



hibernation and filled the land with the howling of 

 hungry wolves. The severity brought with it 

 suffering and death. Only eight out of the twenty- 

 eight men that joined Champlain survived that 

 winter. Starving Indians attempted to cross from 

 the opposite side of St. Lawrence to the settlers' 

 camp. Drifting ice swept down the river, and 

 jamming their frail canoes, crushed them like shells. 

 The sure-footed Indians were equal to the occasion, 

 and leaped from their skiffs to the ice floes. It is 

 told that even women burdened with children 

 accomplished that feat. They presented themselves 

 at the camp, their bodies emaciated from long priva- 

 tion, and devoured the food given to them with the 

 ferocity of tigers. They seized the carcase of a dead 

 dog that had been lying in the snow for two months 

 and used as a bait for foxes, but neither disgust nor 

 remonstrances prevented them from thawing and 

 eating the offal. 



Through such a winter Champlain lived. Spring 

 ushered in for him and his survivors, still weak and 

 ailing, a period of new hope. A general west wind 

 blew down the river and loosened its ice-bound 

 banks. The frozen stalactites suspended from the 

 cliff relaxed their hold and thundered to the ground. 

 A prevision of open water set the wood duck in- 

 land on wing. Champlain looked on a new world 

 awakened from sleep and arising to put on its 

 beautiful garments. The early steps of Spring could 



