6 Field and Forest Rambles. 



even. As the words pass from mouth to mouth, " The river has 

 closed! " idlers stroll toward the bank to witness adventurers 

 with their long poles picking their way from hummock to 

 hummock, until at length they gain the shore. Next day it is 

 perfectly safe ; skaters are seen wherever the ice is unbroken, 

 and horses and sleighs cross. The river is now hermetically 

 sealed for the next five months, unless at what are called " air- 

 holes," where several blocks jammed together cause an eddy 

 which does not freeze up for some weeks afterwards. The 

 latter is one of the dangers in skating and travelling on the 

 rivers, until the safe portions have been indicated by sticking 

 pine saplings along the routes. Should an unsuspecting traveller 

 fall into one of these open air cavities, he will most assuredly 

 be carried under the ice if the current is at all strong, his only 

 chance, in the absence of assistance, being to swim against 

 the current. One afternoon I saw a skater plump into one of 

 these dangerous places, when suddenly another, observing the 

 accident, pulled off his coat, and as he skated past the man in 

 the water, tossed it towards him, who caught the sleeve, and was 

 dragged out by the impetus wherewith the other was going. 

 The feat was done so cleverly that I asked the performer if he 

 had been accustomed to save persons in that way, and he told 

 me that he had pulled many out of air-holes, and that provided 

 one is a good skater and can get near enough to the individual, 

 there is no more ready and efficacious method. On another 

 occasion I observed a skater fail, when another pulled off his 

 coat and dashed toward the drowning man, who caught it, and 

 was lying on the ice in a shorter time than I take to write down 

 the fact. . The best skating takes place immediately after the 

 freezing-over. Sometimes when the ice is glare and smooth, 

 a good skater can in a few hours go down from Fredericton, 

 the capital, to St. John, over eighty miles. The climate 

 inland is dry, cold, and bracing, with a clear atmosphere and 

 most exhilarating, so that when well wrapped up one abso- 

 lutely does not feel a temperature many degrees under zero 



