A Sportsman 93 



starting an opening, from which it rips up the whole 

 length of the lake with surprising rapidity. But old 

 Winter is stubborn and keeps on with his inevitable 

 grasp, and stilling the wind upon a colder night, skims 

 over the lake with half an inch or more of crystalliza- 

 tion, and keeping still the wind the following day, 

 adds half an inch or more. Not even then is the 

 victor^'- gained, for Boreas, now rampant, sends down 

 a blast from the north, breaking up the ice for a mile 

 or more, and leaping over for another mile breaks in 

 below and tears open a mile or two, and so on for ten 

 miles, skipping alternate miles perhaps. 



Then cold weather, continuing, thickens up the 

 frozen spaces, strong enough to bear teams, while the 

 open places are still kept unfrozen by the envious gales, 

 until caught by a still night, when the open spaces are 

 cased over and one continuous mantle of ice reaches from 

 one lake end to the other. Then the lake is closed un- 

 til the first part of May following, and upon the ice falls 

 the winter accumulations of snow, and as this weight 

 depresses the ice surface, the water arises over the 

 latter, permeating the snow and creating a top of snow 

 ice which may be several feet in thickness. 



Despite this accumulation, more or less soft places 

 occur over springs in places where the water is not very 

 deep, which cut away the ice, requiring caution in pass- 

 ing over, though the danger from going in is not great, 

 as the surrounding ice is strong enough to bear one's 

 weight in getting out. Horses are worked out in the 

 manner I have before described, and many times I have 

 gone in and aided in extracting horses without loss. 



It was at one of the periods I have referred to when 

 the lake was ribbed with alternate strips of ice from a 



