d miles further south,
remains open several days longer. I had with me two Indians,--one was
an old experienced man, named William Cochran; the other a splendid
specimen of physical manhood, named Felix.

When we reached Lake Winnipeg, as far as we could judge by the
appearance of the ice, it must have formed three times, and then have
been broken up by the storms. The broken masses were piled up in
picturesque ridges along the shore, or frozen together in vast fields
extending for many miles. Over these rough ice-fields, where great
pieces of ice, from five to twenty feet high, were thrown at every
angle, and then frozen solid, we travelled for two days. Both men and
dogs suffered a great deal from falls and bruises. Our feet at times
were bruised and bleeding. Just about daybreak, on our third day, as we
pushed out from our camp in the woods where we had passed the night,
when we had got a considerable distance from the shore, Felix was
delighted to find smooth ice. He was guiding at the time. He put on
his skates and bounded off quickly, and was soon followed by the dogs,
who seemed as delighted as he that the rough ice had all been passed,
and now there was a possibility of getting on with speed and comfort.

Just as I was congratulating myself on the fact of our having reached
good ice, and that now there was a prospect of soon reaching my sick
Indian brother, a cry of terror came from William, the experienced
Indian who was driving our provision sled behind mine.

"This ice is bad, and we are sinking," he shouted.

Thinking the best way for me was to stop I checked my dogs, and at once
began to sink.

"Keep moving, but make for the shore," was the instant cry of the man
behind.

I shouted to my splendid, well-trained dogs, and they at once responded
to the command given, and bounded towards the shore. Fortunately the
ice was strong enough to hold the dogs up, although under the sled it
bent and cracked, and in some places broke through.

Very grateful were we when we got back to the rough strong ice near the
shore. In quiet tones we spoke a few words of congratulation to each
other, and lifted up our hearts in gratitude to our great Preserver, and
then hurried on. If we had broken in, we could have received no earthly
aid, as there was not even a wigwam within a day's journey of us.

That night at the camp-fire I overheard William saying to Felix, "I am
ashamed of ourselves for not having taken