250 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
America, from intense cold to almost Gulf Stream tempera- 
ture: the result was that for one or two days all sheltered 
portions of the bay would be ice-bound, and the succeed- 
ing days the surface of the water covered with little bergs 
and sheet-ice, like an Arctic floe. 
The 12th of February had been as balmy as an English 
spring day, and the rays of the sun were reflected in innu- 
merable colors off the prismatic surface of the blocks and 
cakes of ice floating seaward with the retiring tide. The 
pungies and canoes employed in oyster-dredging floated 
listlessly on the bosom of the calm water, for not a breath 
of wind fanned their snow-white cotton sails; even so still 
was the atmosphere that their crews’ voices could be heard 
distinctly at distances really surprising; while the low land 
of Turtle-egg Island, Holland and Hooper’s Island, from the 
rarefied state of the atmosphere, appeared to hang suspend- 
ed in the air. I had passed the afternoon lounging on the 
beach in front of the principal store on Devil’s Island, a 
spot which was the favorite resort of old and young, who 
had-time to spare for gossip. Rising from a leaning posi- 
tion against the stern of a boat, which I had assumed the 
better to enjoy the perfect peacefulness of the scene sur- 
rounding me, I was about to retire to my lodgings, when 
I casually remarked, addressing my language to no one in 
particular, that if this weather continued, as I believed it 
would, there was an end to duck-shooting in this locality 
for the season. An old weather-beaten fellow, who, from 
his appearance, had seen over sixty winters with very few 
summers, put in an oar in the way of conversation, and 
vouchsafed me the information that, “ if he knew any thing 
of the looks of the sky and water, with the next run of the 
‘tide we would have a gale, and cold enough to take a fel- 
low’s nose off.” This prophecy I thought little of at the’ 
time, but an hour or two before midnight it was verified. 
