2-3 8 
TRAVELS 
legs, for the fpace of eight or ten yards This ftrange mode of 
travelling with a fkating horfe, upon an element where we could 
count the fifhes under the fledge and under the horfe’s feet, was 
not very amufing to us, though we were already accuilomed to a 
road of ice. I was at fome pains to fatisfy myfelf as to the reafon 
why the ice was fo clear and pellucid in particular parts of the river 
only; and I think I difcovered it in the united adtion of the folar 
rays and of the wind. The wind having fwept away the fnow 
-and cleared the furface of the ice, the fun, at the end of March and 
beginning of April, having acquired confiderable force, had melted 
and rendered fmooth the furface, which at firil is always fomewhat 
rough and uneven ; this being frozen during the night, formed a 
mirror of the moil perfedl poliih. The luflre of the ice on this 
river is very remarkable; had it not been for the little ihining 
and perpendicular fiifures, which ihewed the diameter of the ice’s 
thicknefs, it would have been utterly impoffible for us to diflin- 
guiih it from the water below. Where the river happened to be 
of a profound depth, we could perceive our vail diflance from the 
bottom only by an indiflindl greenifh colour : the reflection that 
we were fufpended over fuch an abyfs made us ihudder. Under 
this terrifying impreffion, the vail depth of the river, and dazzled 
by the extraordinary tranfparency and brilliancy of the ice, we 
crept along the furface, and felt inclined to ihut our eyes, or 
turn away our heads, that we might be lefs fenfible of our danger. 
But when the river happened to be only a yard or two deep, we 
were amufed to be able to count the pebbles at the bottom of 
the water, and to frighten the fifhes with our feet. 
