’ 25 Q 
TRAVELS 
is generally of but a brittle texture, breaks it, and fuddenly falls 
into the water, which bubbles up all about the fledge, nor does it 
flop till it gets to the fecond layer of ice. This unexpected fall 
produces a horrible fenfation; and though there are rarely more 
than two feet of diflance from one flratum of ice to the other, yet 
the fight of the water, the plunging of the horfe, &c. are exceed¬ 
ingly alarming. 
In our travels on the ice we fell in with fifhermen who ufe the 
hook and bait: they fometimes flopped, and amufed us by fhevy¬ 
ing us the fifh they had caught. Their figure was a great curio- 
fity to us : they fcour over the ice in long wooden pattens, and 
fhove themfelves along with a pole they hold in their hand. The 
velocity of their progrefs is almofl incredible ; and the wonderful 
celerity of motion in their bodies, without the fmallefl preceptible 
aClion in their legs (for they ufe only their arms), forms a very 
flriking fight to a perfon beholding them for the firfl time. When 
employed in fifhing, they exhibit a very curious piClure, on account 
of the contrail which is obfervable in all thofe objeCls. They 
carry along with them a fmall triangular fail, which, when they 
have occafion to remain long feated on the ice, they fpread, in 
order to fhelter them from the wind. Having perforated the ice 
with a kind of chifel, which makes a part of their apparatus, they 
plunge the hook into the fea to the depth of about thirty feet: 
if the cold happens to be fomewhat fevere, they are obliged to be 
continually flirring the water at the orifice of the hole to prevent 
its freezing. We witneffed feveral lucky dips of the fifhermen’s 
hooks, 
