32 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



trees, and fastened them to the shore above the boat, so as to 

 secure it from the ice which was accumulating, and to save the 

 boat from being cut by it. "We were now indeed in winter 

 quarters, and we made the best of it. The Indians made 

 baskets of cane, Mr. Pope played on the violin, I accompanied 

 with the flute, the men danced to the tunes, and the squaws 

 looked on and laughed, and the hunters smoked their pipes with 

 such serenity as only Indians can, and I never regretted one 

 day spent there. 



"While our time went pleasantly enough, a sudden and 



startling catastrophe threatened us without warning. The ice 



began to break, and our boat was in instant danger of being cut 



to pieces by the ice-floes, or swamped by their pressure. Housed 



from our sleep, we rushed down pell-mell to the bank, as if 



attacked, by savages, and discovered the ice was breaking up 



rapidly. It split with reports like those of heavy artillery ; and 



as the water had suddenly risen from an overflow of the Ohio, 



the two streams seemed to rush against each other with violence, 



in consequence of which the congealed mass was broken into 



large fragments, some of which rose nearly erect here and 



there, and again fell with thundering crash, as the wounded 



whale, when in the agonies of death, springs up with furious 



force, and again plunges into the foaming waters. To our 



surprise, the weather, which in the evening had been calm and 



frosty, had become wet and blowy. The water gushed from 



the fissures formed in the ice, and the prospect was extremely 



dismal. When day dawned, a spectacle strange and fearful 



presented itself: the whole mass of water was violently agitated ; 



its covering was broken into small fragments, and although not 



a foot of space was without ice, not a step could the most daring 



have ventured to make upon it. Our boat was in imminent 



danger, for the trees which had been placed to guard it from 



the ice were cut or broken into pieces, and were thrust against 



her. It was impossible to move her; but our pilot ordered 



every man to bring down great bunches of cane, which were 



lashed along her sides ; and before these were destroyed by the 



ice, she was afloat, and 'riding above it. While we were gazing 



on the scene, a tremendous crash was heard, which seemed to 



have taken place about a mile below, when suddenly the great 



