98 CEEVIU^. 



log-huts or groups of wooden houses — skirting nules of 

 high snake-fence, or of dark river covered with crashing 

 blocks of ice — they fly along, never relaxing their pace 

 except to pass some heavy-laden wood-sledge. 



This manoeuvre, by the way, when the road is only 

 wide enough for a single sleigh (invariably the case 

 at any distance from' a town), is not so simple a matter 

 as it may appear, neither party being willing to yield an 

 inch more of the hard-beaten track than he can help 

 doing, well knowing that if he get one " runner" in the 

 soft snow on either side he must of necessity be capsized. 

 These large rough sledges, heavily loaded with firewood 

 — an article not easQy spoiled — occupy, on these occa- 

 sions, much the same position in relation to a private 

 sleigh that a heavily-loaded waggon would to a small 

 pony-phaeton ; that is to say, they have it all their own 

 way, and when the driver is a recently arrived Irish 

 emigrant he generally avails himself of the advantage, 

 with an open rudeness which is in pitiable contrast to 

 the manly good-humour of the Canadian or the ready 

 assistance of the grinning negro. 



After sunset the temperature sinks rapidly, icicles 

 hang from the horses' nostrils, and the breath freezes on 

 the beard or blanket-coat, as the north wind whistles 

 through the leafless forest, sweeping the drift in clouds 

 across the country. At night-fall a desolate wooden inn 



