326 THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE 



Others were crushed up into fragments like broken glass. 

 The real ice on the river did not appear to have been 

 more than three feet thick, clear as glass and blue as an 

 Italian sky. Upon the top of this was about four feet 

 of white ice. This was as hard as a rock, and had no 

 doubt been caused by the flooding of the snow when the 

 water rose, and its subsequent freezing. On the top of 

 the white ice was about eighteen inches of clear snow, 

 which had evidently never been flooded. Everything 

 remained in statu quo during the rest of the day. The 

 river was certainly rising, but slowly. Captain Wiggins 

 anticipated no sudden change, and laughed at some of 

 his sailors who, alarmed at the apparition of the ice 

 mountains, began to remove their valuables out of the 

 ship. I did not make any long excursion, but kept near 

 our quarters. I got a flying shot at the sparrow-hawk, 

 and dropped him upon the snow. That we were on the 

 eve of summer was everywhere apparent. Great numbers 

 of geese and large flocks of swans were continually pass- 

 ing northwards. I had strolled out on the edge of the 

 river bank without my snow-shoes, when just at the 

 moment that I stepped upon a treacherous bank, and 

 was struggling up to the breast in snow, a flock of geese 

 passed right over my head. I had my gun in my hand, 

 but was perfectly helpless. These geese were smaller 

 than the one I had shot, and showed black on the belly. 

 They were, no doubt, the lesser white-fronted goose 

 {Anser erythropus). An arrival of gulls also took place. 

 Besides the large dark-mantled species which I had seen 

 the day before, a smaller pale-mantled species arrived, 

 which I afterwards identified as the common gull. 

 Another bird, which heralded the speedy presence of 

 mosquitoes, was the white wagtail. A small party of 

 these charming birds arrived, one of them not having 



