A RIVER VIEW 193 



run over a board full of nails or spikes, that scratch 

 their bottoms and retard their progress, giving the 

 looker-on an uncomfortable feeling. 



A beautiful phenomenon may at times be wit- 

 nessed on the river in the morning after a night of 

 extreme cold. The new black ice is found to be 

 covered with a sudden growth of frost ferns, — ex- 

 quisite fern-like formations from a half inch to an 

 inch in length, standing singly and in clusters, and 

 under the morning sun presenting a most novel 

 appearance. They impede the skate, and are pres- 

 ently broken down and blown about by the wind. 



The scenes and doings of summer are counter- 

 feited in other particulars upon these crystal plains. 

 Some bright, breezy day you casually glance down 

 the river and behold a sail, — a sail like that of a 

 pleasure yacht of summer. Is the river open again 

 below there ? is your first half-defined inquiry. But 

 with what unwonted speed the sail is moving across 

 the view! Before you have fairly drawn another 

 breath it has turned, unperceived, and is shoot- 

 ing with equal swiftness in the opposite direction. 

 Who ever saw such a lively sail ! It does not bend 

 before the breeze, but darts to and fro as if it 

 moved in a vacuum, or like a shadow over a screen. 

 Then you remember the ice-boats, and you open 

 your eyes to the fact. Another and another come 

 into view around the elbow, turning and flashing 

 in the sun, and hurtling across each other's path 

 like white-winged gulls. They turn so quickly, and 

 dash off again at such speed, that they produce the 



