would seem that the world had been ransacked to provide stories of
adventure for the boys of America; but within the region between the
Straits of Canso and the shores of Hudson's Bay there still lie hundreds
of leagues of land never trodden by the white man's foot; and the
folk-lore and idiosyncrasies of the population of the Lower Provinces
are almost as unknown to us, their near neighbors.

The descendants of emigrants from Bretagne, Picardy, Normandy, and
Poitou, still retaining much of their ancient patois, costume, habits,
and superstitions; the hardy Gael, still ignorant of any but the
language of Ossian and his burr-tongued Lowland neighbors; the people of
each of Ireland's many counties, clinging still to feud, fun, and their
ancient Erse tongue, together with representatives from every English
shire, and the remnants of Indian tribes and Esquimaux hordes,--offer an
opportunity for study of the differences of race, full of picturesque
interest, and scarcely to be met with elsewhere.

The century which has with us almost realized the apostolic
announcement, "Old things are passed away; behold, all things have
become new," with them has witnessed little more than the birth,
existence, and death of so many generations, and the old feuds and
prejudices of race and religion, little softened by the lapse of time,
still remain with their appropriate developments, in the social life of
the scattered peoples of these northern shores.

Regretting that the will to depict those life-pictures has not been
better seconded by more skill in word-painting, the author lays down his
pen, hoping that the pencil of the artist will atone, in some degree,
for his own "many short-comings."

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. OUR COMPANY 9

II. BUILDING THE ICE-HOUSES.--MATTHEW COLLINS'S
GHOST 19

III. THE SILVER THAW.--A FOX HUNT.--ANTHONY
WORRELL'S DOG 55

IV. THE GRAND FLIGHT.--A GOOD STRATAGEM.--THE
PACKET LIGHT 75

V. A MAD SPORTSMAN.--SNOW-BLIND.--A NIGHT OF PERIL 95

VI. ADDITIONS TO THE PARTY.--AN INDIAN OUTFIT.--A
CONTESTED ELECTION 110

VII. A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER.--BREAKING UP OF
THE ICE.--JIM MOUNTAIN'S FIGHT WITH THE DE