896 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA : 
The winter generally continues till the lat¬ 
ter end of April, and sometimes even till May, 
when a thaw comes on very suddenly. The 
snow soon disappears; but it is a long time 
before the immense bodies of ice in the rivers 
are dissolved. The scene which presents itself 
on the St. Lawrence at this season is most 
tremendous. The ice first begins to crack 
from side to side, with a report as loud as that 
of a cannon. Afterwards, as the waters be¬ 
come swollen by the melting of the snow, it 
is broken into pieces/ and hurried down the 
stream with prodigious impetuosity; but its 
course is often interrupted by the islands 
and shallow places in the river; one large 
piece is perhaps first slopped, other pieces 
come drifting upon that, and at length pro¬ 
digious heaps are accumulated, hr some places 
rising several yards above the level of the 
water. Sometimes these mounds of ice are 
driven from the islands or rocks, upon which 
they have accumulated, by the wind, and are 
floated down to the sea in one entire body ; if 
in going down they happen to strike against 
any of the rocks along the shore, the crash is 
horrible: at other times they remain in the 
same spot where they were first formed, and 
continue to obstruct the navigation of the 
river for weeks after every appearance of host 
is banished on-shore; so very w idely also do 
