, that served to enhance the beauty of
the scene by the airy lightness of their appearance in contrast with the
bright blue of the sea and sky, but did not interrupt the progress of
the travellers. The three canoes always maintained their relative
positions during the journey as much as possible. That is to say, Frank
and the two Indians went first in the small canoe, to lead the way,
while the two large canoes kept abreast of each other when the open
water was wide enough to permit of their doing so. This, besides being
more sociable, enabled the two crews to join in the chorus of those
beautiful songs with which they frequently enlivened the voyage.

During all this day, and for many days following, they continued to
enjoy fine weather and to make rapid progress. Sometimes the ice was
pretty thick, and once or twice they narrowly escaped being nipped by
collapsing masses, which caused them to jump out, hastily throw the
baggage on the ice, and haul the canoes out of the water. On these
occasions the men proved themselves to be sterling fellows, nearly all
of them being cool, prompt, and collected in the moment of danger. No
doubt there were exceptions. La Roche, when any sudden crisis of danger
arose, usually threw himself blindly over the side of the canoe on to
the ice with the lightness and agility of a harlequin. He recked not
whether he came down on his head or his feet, and more than once nearly
broke his neck in consequence of his precipitancy. But La Roche was no
coward, and the instant the first burst of excitement was over he rushed
to render effective assistance. Bryan, too, although not so mercurial
as La Roche, was apt to lose self-command for about five minutes when
any sudden danger assailed him, so that he frequently sat still, staring
wildly straight before him, while the others were actively unloading the
canoes; and once, when the danger was more critical than usual, having
sat till the canoe was empty, and paid no attention to a prompt, gruff
order to jump ashore, he had been seized by the strong arms of Gaspard
and tossed out of the canoe like a puppy dog. On these occasions he
invariably endeavoured to make up for his fault by displaying, on
recovery, the most outrageous and daring amount of unnecessary
recklessness,--uttering, at the same time, an amazing number of strange
expressions, among which "Tare an' ages!" "Och! murder!" and several
others less lucid in signification, predomin